RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted May 25, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2011 It started as a nice day and then minutes after this photo was taken "the worst weather in the world" arrived! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 It started as a nice day and then minutes after this photo was taken "the worst weather in the world" arrived! That would be Mt. Washington, NH, then. I think that's an almost universal experience there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Boucher Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 It started as a nice day and then minutes after this photo was taken "the worst weather in the world" arrived! Did you ride, drive, or walk up? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted May 25, 2011 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 25, 2011 Did you ride, drive, or walk up? We drove up. I was pleased to see the trains, Kroflite was in steam and then a bio-diesel arrived. The little photo on my profile page (not my avatar!!) was taken at the summit. It then started to get cloudy, and then windy and poured with rain so we had lunch. It didn't stop so we returned to the car park, and drove down to an altitude where it wasn't raining. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted May 25, 2011 Share Posted May 25, 2011 We drove up. I was pleased to see the trains, Kroflite was in steam and then a bio-diesel arrived. The little photo on my profile page (not my avatar!!) was taken at the summit. It then started to get cloudy, and then windy and poured with rain so we had lunch. It didn't stop so we returned to the car park, and drove down to an altitude where it wasn't raining. Tony In that case you didn't get to experience the full impact of the "worst weather in the world"! I visited Mt. Washington over 20 years ago and rode the cog railway. It was a pleasant, cool, though slightly cloudy Autumnal day at the base station and the birch forests looked like something out of a Robert Frost poem - think, A railway emerged from a yellow wood. Climbing, cloudy turned to drizzly, and close to the top, horizonal, blinding, stinging snow with zero visibility. Thankfully the steam heat in the carriages was most effective. Once back down the sun came out and we were back in the land of Robert Frost. It truly is a unique place and the clanking groaning apparatus of the cog is a unique railway experience. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Boucher Posted May 26, 2011 Share Posted May 26, 2011 In that case you didn't get to experience the full impact of the "worst weather in the world"! I visited Mt. Washington over 20 years ago and rode the cog railway. It was a pleasant, cool, though slightly cloudy Autumnal day at the base station and the birch forests looked like something out of a Robert Frost poem - think, A railway emerged from a yellow wood. Climbing, cloudy turned to drizzly, and close to the top, horizonal, blinding, stinging snow with zero visibility. Thankfully the steam heat in the carriages was most effective. Once back down the sun came out and we were back in the land of Robert Frost. It truly is a unique place and the clanking groaning apparatus of the cog is a unique railway experience. It's pretty amazing for a mountain that's relatively small compared to even the western US (6288 ft at the summit) the weather is crazy. The highest temperature ever recorded at the summit is 72. People have died of hypothermia in JULY on that mountain. To see what the weather is right now, go to http://www.mountwash...rg/weather/cam/. Its actually pretty mild right now, 50 degrees with a 30 mph wind... Even crazier info: The record for driving up the auto road is 6 minutes, 20 seconds. The record for riding a bike up the auto road is 49 minutes, 24 seconds. And the record for going down the cog railway, on basically a plank of wood which straddled the rack in the center of the track, was 2 minutes, 45 seconds. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted May 26, 2011 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted May 26, 2011 The record for driving up the auto road is 6 minutes, 20 seconds. The record for riding a bike up the auto road is 49 minutes, 24 seconds. And the record for going down the cog railway, on basically a plank of wood which straddled the rack in the center of the track, was 2 minutes, 45 seconds. I must admit I did stick to the recommended (we got a safety talk as we paid) driving method for ascent and descent. It was quite an easy drive though compared to some of the mountain roads we've been on in Austria. When we were at the top returning to the car park the rain was so heavy you couldn't really see very far. When my wife asked the park ranger earlier about whether the claims of how far you could see on a clear day were true he was very amused! On the way back we saw a couple of F units on the Conway Scenic Railroad crossing the road not too far from where we parked in a picnic area. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium BR60103 Posted May 27, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 27, 2011 When the train is about halfway up, the crew open a locker and get their sweaters and put them on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Boucher Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I must admit I did stick to the recommended (we got a safety talk as we paid) driving method for ascent and descent. It was quite an easy drive though compared to some of the mountain roads we've been on in Austria. When we were at the top returning to the car park the rain was so heavy you couldn't really see very far. When my wife asked the park ranger earlier about whether the claims of how far you could see on a clear day were true he was very amused! Smart man. I know at least one person who destroyed their brakes because they didn't follow their advice. And the views can be great. Witness this morning: Looking to the North. The black line stretching across the bottom of the photo is the cog track. sometimes the webcam catches a train in the final stages of the ascent. And to the west. That white building you can see in the lower center of the photo is the Mt Washington Grand hotel On the way back we saw a couple of F units on the Conway Scenic Railroad crossing the road not too far from where we parked in a picnic area. I know that parking lot! Unfortunately, Conway Scenic traded them to Pan Am Railways for a GB-35 and a GP-38. Here's what they look like now: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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