C O A C H E S

The passenger cars of the Cog Railway are perhaps the most classic-looking coaches of any mountain railway in the world. The rustic wooden enclosures add a 19th-century-like atmosphere to a visitor's ride up Mount Washington. The hand-crafted, colorfully-painted cars look much like they did over 100 years ago. In recent times, a few lightweight aluminum coaches were added, too. Today's fleet of wooden coaches were built primarily by Rob Maclay and hand-painted by Pete Oechsle. They all have their own numbers, and in some cases, nicknames.

One coach is pushed up per engine (uncoupled) for the 90-minute climb to the summit. Below the floor are two cogs which mesh into the central rail and a pair of ratchets which prevent the coach from moving backwards. You can easily hear their reassuring "clinking" sound as your train pitches up the steep hill. On Jacob's Ladder, the steepest part of the ascent, you can seemingly stand nearly sideways in the coach, whose front end is 14' higher than the back!

For the return trip, the seats are flipped around so that passengers can again face forward (downhill) for the descent. A coach's speed is controlled entirely by two large brake wheels on its downhill end. (The engine's speed is controlled by steam compression, not with the brake wheel.) In fact, the engine and coach are never coupled, and, on steeper grades, they actually separate (see photo at right) to lessen the push on the locomotive. The brakeman is always adjusting one brake wheel on the descent, while the other wheel is set to provide a fixed amount of friction.