this is perhaps the most striking image of a train ascending a mountain imaginable
and i assure you this image has not been altered you see cog railways also called rack railways
were built to climb mountains using a unique toothed rack rail the mount washington cog
railway in new hampshire was the first to use this technology in the united states
there are also currently about 50 rack railways throughout the world today we discover how these
mountain climbing trains came to be i'm your host ryan socash and you're watching it's history
the first rack railway and the world's oldest continuously running rack railway is the middleton
railway in hunslet england it was built in 1812 over the route of an existing horse-drawn wagon
way that delivered coal from middleton to leeds the culinary manager john blinkensov believed that
a locomotive that was light enough not to break the tracks would not provide sufficient traction
to pull the heavy coal wagons up the gradients on the line his solution was a track rail with rack
teeth on the outer side this would mesh with a cog wheel on the locomotive blinkenshop went on to
patent this idea essentially he thought that the friction would be too low from the metal wheels
on metal rails so he created installations that placed the rack rails halfway between the running
rails and mounted it on the same ties he built his trains for the middleton railway with a 20-tooth
three-foot diameter cog wheel on the left side that engaged the rack teeth two teeth per foot
on the outside of the rail the metal fish belly edge rail with its side rack being cast all in one
piece in three foot lengths his system remained in use for 25 years on the middleton railway
but it quickly became a global curiosity later in 1861 came sylvester marsh who grew up in compton
new hampshire marsh was born on september the 30th 1803 and when he was just 19 he walked the
150 mile distance to boston to seek a job in just three days from there he worked on a farm
then returned home for a short time and then again went to boston where he entered the
provision business after seven years he moved to chicago then a young town with a modest population
where he began shipping beef and pork to the east coast as he developed into a founder of
the meatpacking industry in the midwestern city at that time marsh became very wealthy but lost his
entire fortune in the business panic of 1850. the entrepreneur would ultimately gain back his wealth
in the grain business more specifically producing breakfast cereal well on a trip in 1852 he and
a friend went to mount washington to climb the peak his experience wasn't a good one he almost
failed to reach the summit and sheltered due to a storm even though his trip wasn't
the best he acknowledged its tourism potential in particular he was moved by the spectacular scenery
from the tallest slope this got marshall thinking when he returned to his hotel he conceived an idea
for a train service to bring tourists up the mountain and marsh followed through on his idea
creating the mount washington cog railway a feat so impressive that for the first time two national
engineering societies combined their conclusion to designate the train system as a national
historic mechanical and civil engineering landmark still initially his idea was thought of as insane
marsha's idea was different rollers would be set as rungs between two l-shaped rails gripped by a
cog in the center of the axle therefore marsh's idea consisted of a practical rack where the
teeth take the form of rollers arranged like the rungs of a ladder between two l-shaped iron rails
the pinion wheels or cog wheels on the locomotive have deep teeth that ensure that at least two
teeth are engaged with the rack at all times this measure helps reduce the possibilities opinions
riding up and out of the wreck needless to say marsh also put a patent to his technology the
first public trial of the marsh rack on mount washington was made on august the 29th 1866
when only one quarter of a mile of track had been completed but it was enough the theory
proved feasible and the mount washington railway opened to the public on august the 14th 1868.
the mount washington railway company also known as the cog railway or simply the cog was chartered
by the new hampshire state legislator in 1858 at the request of marsh the charter allowed him five
years to build his railroad and although marsh had the means to build this railroad himself
he knew that the success of his endeavor required the support of local railroads to bring the
passengers needed you see the site of his railway was 26 miles from the nearest railroad station
in littleton so marsh began lobbying the railroad men of new england to gain their financial
support and it would be a challenging conquest starting with john e liam president of the boston
concord and montreal railroad leon initially was uninterested and considered marsh a quote
crazy man with time and an agreement that marsh would demonstrate the practicality
and safety of his railway at his own expense leon and other railroad men agreed to consider
the idea building a mountain railway was no small task equipment and materials had to be hauled by
ox for 25 miles to brenton woods new hampshire and then another six miles through thick forest
to the base of mount washington building the extremely steep railroad and almost three miles
of sturdy wooden trestles was a fantastic accomplishment interestingly the railroad
does not scale the entire mountain but begins a quarter up with grades reaching incredible levels
peaking at 36.6 percent the mountain itself afforded views of up to 130 miles in any direction
one can even see new york state and canada on a very clear day by the spring of 1858 marsh
decided the railway was ready for testing and by 1867 one mile was prepared for service then once
finally completed the railway attracted admirers and tourists from far and wide on july the 3rd
1869 the first train reached the summit of mount washington and the cog railway became the first
mountain climbing railway in the world another interesting fact is that the mount washington
cog railway line reached jacob's ladder this point is significant for two reasons first is because it
roughly marked the timberline and second is that it is the railroad's most impressive segment both
from a visual and engineering standpoint jacob's ladder is the steepest component with a gradient
of 36.6 the train climbs one foot for about every three feet of distance to put this into
perspective in railroad terms this is entirely impractical a three percent grade along with a
traditional right-of-way is considered quite steep something that no traditional train could scale
jacob's ladder was about 200 feet long with a wooden trestle that rose nearly 30 feet above
the mountain once initially completed however the 1938 new england hurricane
devastated the region and dealt considerable damage to the railroad including the destruction
of jacob's ladder once rebuilt this section came out to be 325 feet long with the trestle
rising 20 feet above the mountain the unique mount washington cog railway has not only been
a popular tourist attraction since the late 1860s but has also been extensively covered in the media
at the time of its construction no one believed such technology was conceivable and many newspaper
reports verified that notion for example in the trains magazine article entitled geared to the
mountains authors lincoln warren and hs walker noted the summit contained 126 different species
of sub-arctic plants and 63 arctic plants making this area too cold to construct some particular
machine that could travel up the mountains nay saying that marsh ultimately proved wrong at the
top of mount washington a museum features lovely old photographs of the construction in the early
years a full sized mock-up of a locomotive cab and boiler an actual locomotive frame complete
with a driving mechanism and a section from the railway coach one of the most popular exhibits
is the reproduction of a devil's shingle a homemade slide board that workers used to
descend the mountain after work rapidly made of wood and hand forged iron the slide board
fits over the cog rack and has enough room for a worker and his tools and although we know this
to be a pragmatic solution also used in minds to arrive to work faster you have to wonder if there
was any element of fun in its execution with what some engineering circles consider to be
the greatest engineering feat of the century it's no wonder why they wanted to create a second cog
train in the united states the broadmoor manitou and pikes peak cog railway climbs the 8.9 miles
to the 14 110 foot summit of pikes peak colorado the railway is the highest in north america and
was built as a tourist attraction in the late 19th century zelman g simmons a new york-born
inventor and founder of the simmons beautyrest mattress company started the railway in 1888
simmons traveled to colorado springs to inspect telegraph insulators on the side of pike's peak
when it took two miserable days to scale the peak by mule he decided to finance the construction of
the cog railway well at the top of the mountain simmons was in awe of the scenery but determined
that the view should be experienced by more civilized and comfortable means
luckily the pikes peak railway company began track construction right away pushing a passenger train
up a 14 000 foot mountain is no easy task the first trains used were steam locomotives designed
by baldwin locomotive works in philadelphia these trains had heavily tilted boilers to keep them
level on the average 16 grade up the mountain the railway had three steam locomotives named
john halbert manitou and pikes peak which were later changed to engines one two and three
these engines were not coupled to the coach they simply pushed the train car up the mountain and
slowed it during the descent each steam engine had to be filled with water three times during
the ascent once at the beginning halfway up and then finally before the 25 grade point called big
hill finally the trains were ready to go and on the afternoon of june the 30th 1891 a church choir
from denver boarded the first passenger train to the summit of pike's peak ironically this was the
second attempt a previously scheduled group of dignitaries had to turn back earlier because of
a rock slide at around 12 000 feet surprisingly tourism didn't begin to increase until the early
1960s obviously raising business concerns from day one supposedly after losing money for years
simmons sold the railway to a local hotel owner named spencer penrose for a reported 50 thousand
dollars all the way back in 1925 and it seems they were not hesitant to experiment for example a
gasoline train car believed to be the first of its kind globally was installed in 1938 and by
1958 the only steam locomotives still in use on these tracks served to plow snow at the summit
by 1964 the railway needed more locomotives and for the first time in its 66 year history the
owners went abroad for new rail cars so in late 1964 swiss locomotive and machine works delivered
two red rail cars to colorado these locomotives were so successful that the works produced two
more in 1968 as visitors grew during the 1970s the railway added two semi-permanently connected rail
cars built by swiss locomotive and machine works this type of rail car was split in the middle
allowing it to make tighter turns on its track the railway also constructed passing routes in several
places along the mountainside initially trains could only pass at the mountain view siding which
allowed just three trains per day to travel up the mountain with more passing areas the railway
can now send up eight trains per day since its inception the manitou and pike's peak cog railway
has taken thousands of tourists from the base station at 7 400 feet up to the summit house at 14
110 feet as of 2014 all four swiss locomotives and machine works original rail cars were still
in operation although maintenance is an ongoing battle for example in the spring season of 2018
they decided not to reopen following a significant infrastructure and equipment evaluation
in a way the lack of practicality in these trains is part of their charm overall they have always
been limited to two and a half miles per hour with trips lasting somewhere around 75 minutes
for the payoff of an epic view in my opinion they're worthy of their national landmark status
for the sheer audacity alone in audacity i'm sure you noticed at the beginning of
this video when we examined a picture of a steam train charging directly up a mountain
thanks for watching everyone until next time this is ryan socas