Where is Mount Washington Cog Railway located?

Mount Washington Cog Railway is located in Mount Washington, NH.

How do I get tickets to Mount Washington Cog Railway?

Tickets and current schedules are available on the operator's official website at https://www.thecog.com.

When is the next event at Mount Washington Cog Railway?

The next scheduled event is "Biodiesel Trips to the Summit" on Thursday, June 25, 2026. See the full upcoming-events list on this page.

Photo by David Brossard, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Mount Washington Cog Railway

Name: Biodiesel Trips to the Summit
Start: 2026-06-25T00:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-06-25T00:00:00+00:00
Location: Mount Washington Cog Railway

Mount Washington, NH

4.7· 6,940 Google reviews

View 1 upcoming event

Share:🔗f 𝕏 💬

Upcoming Events

Mount Washington Cog Railway

Biodiesel Trips to the Summit

Climb toward the summit of Mount Washington on biodiesel-powered trains with the Mount Washington Cog Railway in New

📅 137 dates · Jun 4 – Oct 18, 2026💰 from $61–$111

View event →

About Mount Washington Cog Railway

The Mount Washington Cog Railway departs Marshfield Base Station and climbs 4.8 kilometres of 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) rack track up the western slope of Mount Washington in Coös County, New Hampshire. Ascending from roughly 2,700 feet to just below the 6,288‑foot summit, the train averages a 25 % grade with a maximum of 37 %, traveling at 2.8 mph uphill and 4.6 mph downhill.

🌐 Visit Website

History

The Mount Washington Cog Railway is founded in 1869 after Sylvester Marsh secured a charter on June 25 1858, built a prototype locomotive in 1866, ran its first paying passengers on August 14 1868 and reached the summit in July 1869, establishing the world’s first mountain‑climbing cog railway. After Marsh’s death in 1884 the line passes to the Concord & Montreal Railroad until 1889, when the Boston & Maine Railroad assumes control; the locomotives switch from wood to coal in 1910. Henry N. Teague purchases the railway in 1931, ownership transfers to Dartmouth College upon his death in October 1951, and Arthur S. Teague buys it from Dartmouth in 1962; after his death in 1967 his wife Ellen Crawford Teague becomes the first woman president of a railway and sells the line to a group of New Hampshire businessmen in 1983. From 1986 to 2017 Wayne Presby and Joel Bedor co‑own the railway, appoint Charles Kenison as general manager in 1995, introduce the first diesel locomotive in 2008, and after the Bedor family sells its interest to Presby in April 2017, Presby assumes direct management in December 2017. Major upgrades in 2020–2021 replace the original 25 lb/yd rail with 100 lb/yd rail and add a 34,000 sq ft maintenance facility, enabling year‑round operations and cementing the railway’s status as the world’s oldest continuously operating mountain‑climbing cog line.

The Trains

The Mount Washington Cog Railway runs on a 4 ft 8 in (1,422 mm) gauge track that stretches about 4.8 kilometres (approximately 3 miles) from Marshfield Base Station up the western slope of Mount Washington to the summit area just below the peak. Its roster includes the historic vertical‑boiler locomotive #1 “Old Peppersass,” restored for display, alongside modern steam locomotives and biodiesel‑powered units that pull open‑air coaches and enclosed passenger cars. During winter months the line operates to Waumbek Station at roughly 3,800 feet elevation before turning back toward the base.

Nearby

New Hampshire rail trips pair well with the Mount Washington Cog Railway. The Conway Scenic Railroad runs about 18 mi off, the J.E. Henry Railway at Loon Mountain roughly 21 mi away, and The Flying Yankee about 23 mi out.