Mount Washington Cog Railway Track Cam

An Engineering Marvel Since 1869

The Mount Washington Cog Railway was the world's first mountain-climbing rack railway, carrying passengers up grades as steep as 37.4 percent to the summit of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern United States. This camera looks up the double set of rails as they climb through rugged, forested terrain toward the open alpine zone above.

Home of the World's Worst Weather

The summit is watched around the clock by the Mount Washington Observatory, a nonprofit research station studying some of the most extreme conditions on the planet. Its scientists have recorded hurricane-force winds and brutal cold at the top of the very tracks visible in this view.

A Journey Through the White Mountains

Modern biodiesel locomotives haul railcars past small maintenance sheds and switchbacks carved into the mountainside, offering riders a dramatic transition from spruce-fir forest to the treeless summit cone. The line remains a beloved piece of New Hampshire heritage and a working monument to nineteenth-century ingenuity.