Some interesting History It all started in 1852 when New Hampshire native, Sylvester Marsh was lost near the summit of Mt. Washington. As the highest peak in the Northeast with a 6, 288 foot summit, Marsh believed that there should be a better way for people to navigate to the top of Mt. Washington. Following his experience on Mt. Washington Marsh decided to start building a mountain climbing cog railway up Mt. Washington. After making his fortune in the meatpacking industry in Chicago, Marsh came back to New Hampshire to start the railway. Almost twenty years after the original idea for the project the first cog-driven train, “Old Peppersass,” climbed Mt. Washington on July 3, 1869. Today the Mt. Washington Cog Railway is a National Historic Engineering Landmark and is a part of the American heritage. Wood-fired boilers powered the train for the first 40 years of the railway’s operation. Coal was introduced to the railway around 1910. With the advancement of technology the Mt. Washington Cog Railway started using biodiesel locomotives in 2008. The very first biodiesel locomotive was Wajo Nanatasis. The use of the biodiesel locomotives reduces emissions and conserves fossil fuels. The Mt. Washington Cog Railway is the second steepest mountain climbing train in the world, with a three-mile trestle with a maximum gradient of over 37 percent. It is also the only mountain climbing train in the world that is built completely on a trestle.
