The Mount Washington Railway is one of the wonders of modern engineering skill. It was chartered by the Legislature of New Hampshire, in 1858, the passage of the bill being regarded as the huge joke of the session, one member offering to amend it by “extending it to the moon,” either terminal being regarded as equally liable to become a fact. In spite of obstacles, however, its construction was successfully accomplished, by the combined ingenuity of the projector and inventor, Sylvester Marsh, the mechanical skill of Walter Aiken, who built the engine and cars, and the financial aid and “push” of friendly
individuals and interested railway companies. It was completed in 1869, and has carried thousands up and down the mountain without the slightest injury to any, so complete is the system of safety appliances in use, each independent of the other, and any one sufficient in itself to insure complete safety. The writer was once an eye-witness to the severest test to which it has ever yet been subjected, caused by the breakage of one of the gear driving wheels of the locomotive. The resultant disarrangement of the machinery set in operation the automatic safeguards, producing the effect of instantly holding the train to the track as firmly as though it had been bolted to the solid rock. Indeed, it was with no little difficulty that it was liberated, and enabled to proceed.
MT. WASHINGTON RAILWAY.
The accompanying [illustration] gives a good idea of the operation of the road. In addition to the ordinary rails of the common railroad, there is a toothed rail midway between, in which there “meshes” the geared wheel attached to the axle of the locomotive, which thus steadily climbs up the mountain by the revolution of the machinery. All the axles, both of the engine and passenger coach, are provided with geared wheels, by means of which the train could be instantly anchored to the track, as in the case above cited. Each car has its own locomotive, and will carry about fifty passengers. The seats are inclined backward, so as to be in a good position on ascending the mountain. The car is always above the engine, both in the ascent and descent. The latter is accomplished by gravitation alone, the brakes being kept in requisition to hold the train in check.
The ride up the mountain constitutes an experience never to be forgotten. Leaving Ammonoosuc Station, as the starting point at the base is called, the train immediately surmounts a considerable elevation before emerging from the forest, which is soon left behind as we rise above the “tree-line,” and reach the region of stunted shrubs, which in turn give place to moss and lichens, and finally to rocks, bare of vegetation, and as cheerless as it is possible to imagine. Above the trees, the prospect broadens, as the landscape spreads out in a grand panorama, almost illimitable, and of wonderful grandeur and beauty. Several stops are made for water, which is taken from large tanks fed by mountain springs, far above, and conducted down in pipes. These stopping places have been appropriately named, according to their location, such as Waumbek Station, Gulf Station, etc., the latter being near the yawning chasm in the mountain-side, named the Gulf of Mexico. Banks of snow may frequently be seen in its recesses, even in midsummer, and a game of snowballing is not an uncommon August recreation.
