Watch How Crews Clear the Snow From the Cog Railway’s Tracks on Mt. Washington

Mt. Washington gets a lot of snow. When you look at the numbers from the Mt. Washington Observatory, your jaw might drop. Mt. Washington averages over 23 feet of snow each season. The highest amount ever recorded for a season is 47 feet! That creates a lot of work for The Cog Railway crews.

Mt. Washington Cog Railway History

The Mt. Washington Cog Railway was built over three years, from 1866 to 1869. For most of its existence had used steam locomotives to push passenger cars up the mountain over the three miles of tracks to the summit. With the steam locomotive, the trip took a little over an hour.

In 2008, the Cog Railway introduced its first bio-diesel locomotive and today has seven of these locomotives. All of them are custom-designed and built on-site.

READ MORE: Rent This Cozy Train Car for a Unique Weekend Getaway in Lincoln, New Hampshire

Snowblowing The Cog

The Cog Railway still takes trips up the mountain through the winter, weather permitting. You can buy tickets to take a ride on the Cog Railway. Just grab them at thecog.com.

For the train to get to the summit after snowfall, the tracks have to be cleared. Unlike the large locomotives you'll see on freight trains, they don't have that kind of power where you can push snow out of the way just by blowing through snow drifts.

The Cog Railway crews take a locomotive up the mountain pushing a powerful snowblower. It looks like hard work as you can see in this interesting video taken on the snowplow train.

If you've never taken a ride on the Mt. Washington Cog Railway, you need to experience it. It's a trip you'll never forget.