over New Hampshire - Mount Washington Cog Railway

A new
moon
over New Hampshire
The Mount Washington Cog Railway, once known as the
‘Railway to the Moon,’ still climbs the mountain after 140
years. Here’s how the railroad beams in the 21st century
by Karl Zimmermann
© 2011 Kalmbach Publishing Co. This material may not be reproduced in any form
without permission from the publisher. www.TrainsMag.com
Mount Washington Cog Railway’s first
biodiesel, Wajo Nanatasis, descends
Jacob’s Ladder on June 7, 2009. Justin
Franz
Passengers board a “double,” powered by biodiesels Wajo Nanatasis (left) and red Abenaki, at Base Station.
M
ount Washington, New Hampshire’s iconic peak, unchanged for
eons, remains among the most
meteorologically fierce places in
the U.S. The Northeast’s highest mountain, it
often lurks in a cap of clouds, buffeted by
near-constant winds that are chilly in summer and life-threateningly cold in winter.
In contrast to the mountain’s immutability, the railroad that climbs to its 6,288foot summit transformed itself in 2010.
The Mount Washington Cog Railway began making its 3¼-mile trek from the base
to the summit in 1869. The world’s first
mountain-climbing rack-and-pinion, or
“cog,” railroad remained rooted in 19th century technology for 140 years. Now, practically overnight, the Cog, as the line is familiarly known, has climbed into the 21st
century with a vengeance.
As recently as 2007, seven slantboilered, coal-burning steam locomotives
powered the Cog. Manchester Locomotive
Works built the oldest of these in 1873;
however, the railroad renewed the entire
fleet’s boilers and frames in the 1970s. For
the 2008 season, the railroad debuted a
new locomotive: home-built biodiesel M1,
Wajo Nanatasis, which means “Mountain
Hummingbird” in the Native American
Abenaki tongue. The next year two nearidentical siblings appeared (M2 Algonquin
and M3 Abenaki) and for 2010, M4 Agiocochook joined the biodiesel quartet. That left
steam in a distinctly supporting role. Pow-
36 Trains MAY 2011
ering just a single train on most operating
days, steam’s current responsibility is more
ceremonial and historical than practical.
The Presby and Bedor families, the owners who accomplished this change, participate in the railroad’s well-being. Like Sylvester Marsh, who built the Cog, they have
roots in the White Mountains. They have
owned the historic railroad (originally with
two other partners) since 1983. At that time,
they purchased it from Ellen Teague, the
widow of Arthur Teague, who’d bought it in
1961 from Dartmouth College and ran it
until his death in 1967. For decades, the
Presbys and Bedors touted the Cog’s historical purity, though the search for a substitute
to coal-fired steam power goes back even
beyond their ownership, to 1976, when the
railroad built Spirit of ’76, an experimental
diesel, for use on work trains. The underpowered locomotive never entered service.
At the bottom, Marshfield Base Station
now welcomes visitors. The station, named
as earlier ones were for Sylvester Marsh
and Darby Field (reputedly the first white
man to climb Mount Washington), is much
larger than the original 1941 structure.
Opened in 1994 to help celebrate the Cog’s
125th anniversary, it offers a snack bar, gift
shop, and an extensive museum.
Sixteen years after the bigger and better
station arrived, the Cog began using the
biodiesels. “It’s the best of both worlds as I
see it,” marketing director Cathy Bedor says.
“It’s still possible to experience coal-fired
Karl Zimmermann
steam on at least one train almost every day.
And, surprisingly, many people don’t even
know the difference [between the diesel and
steam]. Founder Sylvester Marsh was innovative in his day,” she adds, “just as we are
today.” In fact, one New Hampshire legislator called the Cog the “Railway to the
Moon,” when Marsh applied for a charter in
1858 to build the railroad. And the Cog continues to unveil new ideas, like its biodiesels.
Biodiesel vs. steam
“A very small percentage of our passengers are disappointed not to be powered by
steam,” Cog manager Charlie Kenison says.
“The Cog has never been that popular with
enthusiasts. They can’t categorize it.” Bedor
and Kenison ticked off the advantages of
the conversion. The diesels are less polluting, which is a factor, even though the New
Hampshire Department of Environmental
Services doesn’t require the Cog to follow
air pollution laws because it is a recreational railroad. With “hospital-grade” mufflers,
the biodiesels are far quieter than steam.
Bedor and Kenison acknowledge that patrons objected to the soot, smoke, and
noise of the steam-powered ascent. The
Cog is, after all, a “tourist line” in the
broadest sense, and none of its owners intended it to become a museum.
With the diesels, the cost of operation
(they require only a one-man crew) and
maintenance is much lower. While the
steam locomotives for a round trip burned
a ton of soft-grade bituminous coal (now
reduced to about half of that by heat exchangers and mechanically driven water
pumps), diesels use only 18 gallons of biofuel, which costs $60 as opposed to about
$250 for a ton of coal. Reliability and consistency are also major factors when comparing diesels to steam engines.
“The biodiesel locomotives are more efficient on the mountain,” Bedor says, “though
with good quality coal and a good fireman,
we can get up the hill just fine with steam.”
Kenison, the Cog’s manager since 1996,
also worked for the railroad from 1966 to
1975 before a career in electrical engineering and iron founding. He knows well what
the steam experience is like. “Coal is always
an issue,” Kenison adds. “It seemed the suppliers always slipped in the bad stuff when
we were busiest.” Biodiesel fuel, on the other hand, is consistent.
“Cold Spring Hill, just above Base Station, is steep,” Bedor explains. “Starting
out from a dead stop, the fireman has to
shovel like crazy.”
“The firebox door is hinged on the right,
which means it has to be opened with the
right hand,” Kenison says, “which requires
shoveling with the left. I never understood
why they built them that way.”
The diesels make the upgrade trip much
faster in 36 minutes as opposed to roughly
one hour for steam, which generally gives
riders a full hour layover (formerly only 20
minutes) at the summit.
“Some of the steam locomotives on our
roster are virtually twins,” Kenison says,
“yet they don’t operate the same. Each has
its own personality.” Cog employee Joe
Eggleston began working for the railroad in
1993 as a track welder, but immediately
loved that personal sense of the steam locomotives and wanted to run them. There
was, however, a problem: Though a fluent
lip-reader, Eggleston is deaf.
“So we went to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation,” Kenison recalls, “and asked what we’d have to do so he
could be an engineer.” The transportation
department wasn’t concerned as long as
there was a second person in the cab. On
the steam locomotives, there would always
be the fireman, but Eggleston couldn’t hear
the brakeman’s bell signal, so the Cog installed a flap that would drop down in front
of him when the cord was pulled aboard
the coach. Since the diesel locomotives operate with one-man crews, Eggleston can
run only steam, which is just fine with him.
My wife, Laurel, and I boarded the
9 a.m. train, the one most often under
steam. Our locomotive, Waumbek, No. 9,
came in 1908 from Manchester Locomotive
Works, the builder of all its Cog steam predecessors from 1874 onward but by 1908
under the Alco umbrella. More than a cen-
A Cog 0-2-2-0 climbs a 37-percent grade, the steepest part of the railroad.
tury old, No. 9 is the second-youngest locomotive on the Cog’s active steam roster of
six. (No. 10, now named Kroflite, was built at
the Cog shops in 1972. The youngest, No. 8,
Moosilauke, was home-built in 1983 but is in
storage. Cog workers were rebuilding No. 8’s
boiler, but the railroad suspended the job
when it decided to dieselize. Waumbek was
the first Cog locomotive with the cab and
boiler on the same plane, both equally canted. The earlier horizontal-boilered steamers
Justin Franz
(the oldest, Hercules, dated to 1869) had cab
and boiler describing a reflex angle. (Five of
these engines still survive.) After many years
dressed in green and red, Waumbek now
wears its original all-black livery.
“I thought that color scheme a little
clownish,” Kenison says, but it will not be
completely phased out. Also in basic black
is No. 6, Kancamagus. Built in 1874 and
thus the oldest of the surviving fleet, No. 6
was the backup locomotive in 2010 and
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37
Waumbek rests with its passenger car near Marshfield Base Station, which has a cafe, museum, and gift shop.
Kevin Madore
We passed the current version of Halfway
House, which appeared to list, but of course
it was the train that was listing. We crossed
the railway’s most iconic spot, Jacob’s Ladder: a 300-foot-long curved trestle as high
as 30 feet from the ground. (In fact, the
whole railroad is built on wood trestling
rather than ballast.) With its 37.41-percent
grade, Jacob’s Ladder is the steepest part of
the Cog, where the average grade is 25 percent. The brakeman invited us to stand to
experience the severity of the tilt.
Switching it up
The Cog installed this electrical-hydraulic base switch in 2002.
scheduled for upgrades similar to Waumbek’s in winter 2011-12. Cog mechanics upgraded No. 2, Ammonoosuc, built in 1875,
last winter. Since the steam fleet is now larger than required, No. 3 was offered for sale
on eBay and Rail Swap, but not purchased.
The Cog donated a coach and locomotive
No. 4 to nearby Twin Mountain for display.
The railroad’s earliest locomotives had
vertical boilers. The Cog used progenitor,
Old Peppersass, so nicknamed for its resemblance to a pepper-sauce bottle, to build the
railroad. Old Peppersass served until 1878
and has stood stuffed and mounted at the
base for many years, pieced together after
being wrecked in a ceremonial resteaming
38 Trains MAY 2011
Two photos, Karl Zimmermann
in 1929. Old Peppersass was right beside
our train as it began its clamorous ascent to
the summit. As Kenison had pointed out,
from base to summit, with an elevation
gain of 3,588 feet, the ride offers no let-up
for the engine or crew. “The train always
operates at full load,” he says, “unlike mainline trains of the steam era.”
Our climb was much what I had experienced in 1980 — and, for that matter, what
travelers would have seen and felt a century
before that, though until about 1910 the locomotives burned wood. That ride was unrelentingly loud and consistently smoky.
We stopped at Waumbek Tank, not far
above Base Station, to top off the tender.
Next, the train reached Skyline Switch,
where a colorful pair (blue coach No. 8 and
red diesel M3) waited on the siding. This last
traditional switch on the Cog takes nine
moves to throw, and is a brakeman’s physical
challenge. Plans are to modernize the switch
or eliminate it due to the diesels’ faster travel
times. At the summit the weather was cold,
blustery, and dynamic, sun-splashed and
washed by low clouds in alternation. The
railroad boasts the potential view of four
states, Quebec, and the Atlantic Ocean, but
we were not fortunate on this day.
The change in flora and topography
from base to summit was astonishing, as
birch gave way to black spruce and balsam
fir, then wind-ravaged, stunted krummholz
(“twisted wood” in German), and finally,
above the timberline, just a jumble of rock.
There was plenty to do at the top, including
a summit museum, which was why patrons
>> Some like it hot
Learn more about Old Peppersass and the
Cog in Trains Express PDF, free to subscribers,
at www.TrainsMag.com
found the 20-minute stay inadequate. We
paid particular attention to the stone Tip
Top House, a hotel built in 1853 for hikers
(thus substantially predating the railway)
and now restored as a museum.
We made the trip off the mountain and
watched the topographic progression in reverse, against a stunning yellow and red autumn palette, from a privileged spot, the
immaculate cab of the Agiocochook. Cogger
Club membership costs $149 for two years
of unlimited rides, discounts for family and
guests, and a cab ride in one of the diesels.
Ryan Mooney, a seven-year Cog veteran,
who occasionally runs steam and spends
the winters welding rack segments in the
Base Station shops, was at the throttle.
Well, actually, not at the throttle, but at
the joystick. Push it to one side and go forward. Push it to the other and go in reverse.
On this joystick are just four buttons: go
faster, go slower, horn, and “dead man’s”
response, confirming that the engineer is
alive, awake, and attentive. That’s it. Just
above eye level is a computer screen showing an astonishing amount of information
about the engine’s functioning: revolutions
per minute, fuel consumption (calibrated
instantaneously), speed, oil pressure, fuel
pressure, water-jacket temperature, and
more, using IQAN software. Able to count
the number of teeth on the cog it has traversed, the locomotive knows where it is on
the line within 4 inches.
“The mixture is 20 percent biofuel and
80 percent petroleum,” which is called B20
biodiesel, Mooney says. “At the temperatures we experience, a higher percentage of
biofuel would make the mix prone to gel.”
Biofuel is made from vegetable fat or oil.
The biodiesels are the most dramatic
transformation, but the Bedors and Presbys
began extensive rebuilding of the track and
locomotives immediately after buying the
railroad. In 1984 electricity was brought in
on Base Road so work in the shops could
continue through the winter. (Previously, a
Pelton water wheel on fast-flowing Franklin Brook generated electricity to pump water to the summit, as well as to light and
power all the Base Station facilities.)
The fleet of cars turned over completely
by the 1990s. The Cog replaced Nos. 3 and
4, wooden coaches built by Laconia Car
Co. in the 1870s, and the two home-built,
unloved “tin cans,” the 57-passenger aluminum-and-steel Chumley (built in 1958) and
Thelma (1963). The first 56-passenger
coach No. 5 debuted. Then, in 1997, the
railroad built No. 6, the first of the 70-passenger coaches in use today. The next year,
the Cog added two more. Now the Cog
rosters six, the number needed when the
railroad was fully steam-powered. The Cog
workers built the brightly painted,
wooden,Victorian-styled coaches. Front
No. 9 fills its tender at Waumbek Tank, while another train continues to climb.
Kevin Madore
Keepin’ the Cog climbin’, is this team with a biodiesel, from left: Ron Ruel of Parker
Hannifin, a motion and control technology company; Engineer Ryan Mooney; Chief
Engineer Al LaPrade; Manager Charlie Kenison; and Trainmaster Bobby Trask.
and back they have walls of glass, and the
side windows open for air and photography. They appear quite large when operated
with steam, but the additional capacity
means more travelers to the summit.
Another major change on the Cog is the
switches. In 2002, the Base Station switch
was replaced by an electrical-hydraulicpowered transfer table with running rails
and cog rail mounted on a platform that
moves laterally. The following year, Waumbek switch was similarly replaced. Now instead of the stub siding, there’s a long passing track, which enables two trains in each
direction to meet. Though a single engine
pushing a single coach has always been the
invariable consist, “doubles” — two trains
operating on the same schedule and short
headway — are the norm at busy times.
The Waumbek switches are solar powered.
“Over time the decision will have to do
with reliability,” says Wayne Presby, president and secretary of the Cog, regarding
the use of diesels and the future of steam.
“Steam locomotives breaking down on the
mountain are not the best thing for your
reputation.” The railroad had made several
attempts to convert the boilers to oil
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39
firing but it never matched the fire generated by coal. “We may build another diesel,” he says, pointing out that they can
climb at 4.76 mph as opposed to 2.8 mph
for steam. Both make the trip down at the
same speed. Presby estimates the cost of
the 600-hp diesels at $600,000, far less
than the off-the-shelf alternatives.
Will steam trips continue, given their
higher fuel use, maintenance and labor
costs, and lesser efficiency? “It depends on
the patrons, not on me,” Presby says. “Some
may have a preference for steam indefinitely, or maybe not. Obviously there’s some
nostalgia for steam, but most of our patrons
don’t care, and our ridership is up this year.”
“With diesels we can run earlier and later in the season,” Presby continues, checking off more pluses for dieselization and
showing the Bedors’ and Presbys’ love for
the Cog and its history, as well as business
savvy. (Wayne’s wife, Susan, manages group
sales. Joel Bedor, Cathy’s husband, is vicepresident and secretary.)
Mount Washington
Cog Railway
Bretton
Woods
Madison (5,380’)
Adams (5,805’)
NEW
HAMPSHIRE
Jefferson (5,725’)
e Statio n Rd.
Bas
Mt
.W
a
t on
h
Au i n g
to R d.
s
Clay (5,553’)
Washington (6,288’)
Monroe (5,390’)
Bretton Woods Franklin (5,028’)
16
302 Eisenhower (4,775’)
Jackson (4,012’)
Crawford Notch
Webster (3,875’)
0
Scale
5 miles
Ammonoosuc River
0
Scale
1 mile
© 2011 Kalmbach Publishing Co.,
TRAINS: Rick Johnson
N
W
HI
TE
Marshfield Base
Station (2,700’)
Waumbek Tank
MO
UN
TA
INS
Mt. Washington
Observatory Museum
(6,288’)
Tip Top House
Halfway House
Jacob’s Ladder
Skyline Switch
Sherman Adams
Summit Building
One of the Cog’s steam trains grinds uphill
toward Halfway House. From the
photographer’s perspective, you can see
much of the lower half of the railroad, as
well as the hydraulic switches (center)
above Waumbek Tank. Just above the
smoke plume is the coaling pit at
Marshfield Base Station, where all trips
originate. Kevin Madore
Moving mountains
In 1991, the families purchased the
grand but needy Mount Washington Hotel,
opened in 1902 and in 1986 designated a
National Historic Landmark. The hotel is
in Bretton Woods, six miles from the Base
Station, a route once served by the Boston
& Maine (originally Concord & Montreal)
branch, which shared a station at the base
with the Cog. Then the families acquired
the local ski area and golf course.
“We got the hotel up and running in
winter,” Presby said, and that was the key to
profitability. In its first full year of operation, a $3 million loss turned into a
$300,000 profit. The Presbys and Bedors
made other substantial improvements and
enhancements, and restoration continued
after they sold the hotel in 2006 to CNL
Lifestyle Properties. Today Omni manages
the hotel. Approached from the front, this
white, porch-girt wedding cake of a hotel,
impeccably restored, looks much as it must
have a century ago.
The visible change on the Cog is greater.
Recently the railroad built a bridge over the
Ammonoosuc River (“fishing place” to the
native Abenaki) at the base, enabling the
Cog to create a crude road along the tracks
to haul away decades worth of debris.
“Many passengers arrive with no idea of
the significance, background, and history
of the railroad,” Cathy Bedor says. Beginning in 2011, the Cog will have installed an
on-board device with recorded commentary, which will play at just the right moments along the route.
The guru of all the mechanical innovations, switches, diesel locomotives, and
more is Chief Engineer Al LaPrade, who
oversaw the construction of the diesels
from the ground up, in a tradition of selfsufficiency well established at the Cog. In
1993, LaPrade took early retirement after
25 years as a mechanical engineer at the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Four years later, he applied for a brakeman position on
the Cog. “I was perfectly happy just to be
on the crew,” he says.
“One day an axle broke on one of the
coaches,” he says. “‘You know,’ [I said] ‘I
think I could design something to fix that.’”
He could and did. “Pretty soon little things
led to big things,” LaPrade recalls.
So, how does one go about building a
locomotive? “It’s actually just a mechanical
engineering exercise,” LaPrade says. “You
identify the requirements. As the project
grows you start building a team.”
One member of the team was Ron Ruel
of Parker Hannifin, the firm that supplied
the hydraulics, electronics, and IQAN computer software.
“If we hadn’t listened to Ron,” LaPrade
says, “the locomotives would have been
much more complicated to run.” John
Deere supplied the engine. Why dieselhydraulic drive rather that diesel-electric?
“There’s a weight penalty with dieselelectric,” LaPrade explains. “Because we’re
running on a wooden trestle, the locomotives have to be light.” In fact, the three newer locomotives weigh 5,000 pounds less than
the M1, by using lighter steel for the frame.
The Cog plans to build a fifth locomotive. “Nothing [will be different]. We don’t
want five stepsisters here,” he says.
“If Sylvester Marsh were here today, he
would approve,” LaPrade asserts. Marsh’s
cog railway and its vertical-boilered steam
locomotives were cutting-edge technology
in his era, just as the biodiesel locomotives
are today. “We have steam buffs, and they
hate the diesels, but others are interested.
At the moment the sheet-metal siding is off
two units just because we ran out of time in
the shop to put it on, and many customers
seem to enjoy seeing the machinery. My
hope is that the diesels can subsidize the
steam,” he says.
So how long do the Bedors and Presbys
expect steam locomotives to be running on
the mountain? “Forever,” Cathy Bedor says.
“We inherited the steam, and it has never
been our intention to eliminate it. It’s gone
past being old to being antique, and valued
for that.” Wayne Presby has a more practical answer to the same question.
“At least long enough to use up all the
coal I’ve got stockpiled,” he says with a
chuckle. “That will take two, three, maybe
four years.” 2
KARL ZIMMERMANN, a frequent Trains
and Classic Trains contributor, is the author of numerous books, including his latest,
“Little Trains to Faraway Places.”
>> See the Cog’s roster and how it got its
start at www.TrainsMag.com