The Cog Railway: Adventures on Mt. Washington with Tweens

Welcome to my final in a series about traveling with tweens, covers our adventures on The Cog Railway up Mt. Washington. 

As I have shared earlier, we wanted to add a bit more adventure and out-of-the-box activity into this year’s trip. Part of this included, not driving, but taking the world’s first mountain climbing train up the highest peak in New England: The Cog Railway. You can take either the Biodiesel or Steam train, depending on what fits your schedule and interests. 

As you can see, our daughter was a bit trepidatious when we boarded the train and she could see how slanted the seat are – trust me, it makes sense and makes the angled trip that much more enjoyable. 

There is glorious scenery along the way up so be sure to look out both sides of the train. The conductor will educate you on the history of the train, the railway and many other details such as  “We’re the only railroad built entirely on wooden trestle.”, details about the Halfway House, a small shelter that marks the midpoint of the trip, and  Jacob’s Ladder, the steepest, highest, windiest railroad trestle in the world. 

Once you arrive at the top of the mountain, you will want to explore both the amazing views from the top of Mt. Washington as well as the fascinating Mt. Washington Observatory Weather Museum. We each took our turn trying to imitate the sculpture and decided that our daughter nailed it.

While at the top of the mountain, you may also the quick change in the weather but it doesn’t matter, there is plenty to do to entertain yourself. We then hoped back on the Cog for the ride down which offer a completely different view and experience. The top of the seats flip to form the proper angle for the steep decline. After the ride, we explored the Marshfield base station (where you buy your tickets) and realized we became fascinated with cogs.

We also discovered, and it made my son squeal with delight, is that they are trying to gain support to make Mount Washington Cog Railway LEGO Set – Yes, you read that correctly! With support, The Cog could become an official LEGO set! A design has been submitted, and now it is up to the public to let LEGO know that they like the idea. Please come over to see all the proto type images and consider making a donation to make this come to fruition.

You simply must experience the Cog Railway yourself, so here are the giveaway details: A family fun pack to be used throughout the 2015 season based on availability. Not valid on the following 2015 Holiday weekend dates: 9/5-9/7. They need to call ahead to book in advance.

Here is all you need to do to enter and it only requires a bit of simple math: Guess how many 8 pegs Lego bricks aka ‘classic’ bricks, it would take lying end-to-end to cover the 3-cog track that runs up Mt. Washington?

CLOSED: The contest will run until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, August11th. Random.org will be used to choose the winner from the pool of correct answers.