National Park After Dark - The Cog Railway Disaster: White Mountain National Forest

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Mount Washington became the location of one of the deadliest accidents in American Railroad history in 1967. Home to the world's first Cog Railway, a routine descent turned catastrophic when the locomotive left the tracks, sending a passenger car full of tourists into a terrifying runaway ride down one of the steepest railroad grades in the world. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s partners! Ka'Chava: Go to https://kachava.com and use code NPAD for 15% off your first order. ButcherBox: As an exclusive offer, new listeners can get their choice of free ribeyes for a year, or ground beef or chicken breast for life, PLUS $20 off their first box. Visit http://ButcherBox.com/NPAD  to claim your offer. HelloFresh: Get 10 Free Meals + Free Breakfast for Life with HelloFresh! Go to http://HelloFresh.com/npad10fm. IQBAR: Get 20% off all IQBAR products plus FREE shipping by texting PARK to 64000. BetterHelp: Start therapy today and get 10% off your first month at http://BetterHelp.com/NPAD Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Riding the Cog Railway, the first mountain climbing train of its kind anywhere in the world, is one of the most iconic ways to experience Mount Washington, home to some of the most extreme weather ever recorded on the planet. The brightly covered rail cars painted in shades of red, blue and purple, with their polished wood interiors and matching benches, feel like stepping back in time. In many ways, they are. Officially completed in 1869, the railway has came.

generations of visitors up the western slopes of Mount Washington. As the train steadily climbs higher, the scenery transforms outside the windows. At the summit, passengers step out into a world unlike the one they left behind at the base of the mountain. They're greeted by a wind-swept landscape of bare granite, scattered boulders, and hardy alpine plants clinging to life in one of the harshest environments in North America. On a clear day, the views stretch for more than 100 miles across New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, and even into Canada. But just as often, thick clouds race over the summit, swallowing the landscape in seconds as fierce winds whip across the exposed peak, making it immediately clear why Mount Washington has earned its infamous reputation. After snapping the classic summit photo and exploring the Sherman Adams Visitor Center,

complete with exhibits, gift shops, and even a post office where visitors can mail letters from the top of New England, most travelers prepare for the trip back down the railway. But for many passengers, the most nerve-wracking part of the journey isn't the climb to the summit or even facing the mountain's legendary winds. It's stepping back aboard the train for the descent. From the summit, the Cog Railway begins its long descent back to the valley below. At first, it feels impossible that a train is. can travel down a mountainside this steep. The track averages a 25% grade, already steeper than most

expert ski runs, and at one infamous section known as Jacob's Ladder, it reaches an astonishing 37.4% rivaling the steepest double black diamond ski slopes. As the train tips forward and gravity takes over, every instinct tells you that this is too steep for a locomotive. Even though, even the calmest passengers find their minds drifting to the same unsettling thought. What if the brakes fail? What if the engineer can't stop the train? What will I do if something goes wrong? For most passengers, those fears are only passing thoughts. But in 1967, they became a reality. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park After Dark. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to National Park

After Dark, I'm Danielle. And I'm Cassie. And if you are new here, we should let you know that we are from New Hampshire. And this is a home park for us that we're going to be telling a story from today. Is this a safe space? Is it? It's not a safe story. I have to tell you something. I have to tell you something. You've never ridden the cog. Not only have I never ridden the cog. You've never been to the summit of Mount Washington. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No. Daniel, that can't be true. It is. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I've been waiting to tell you for like eight years. No. No, we've done so many episodes here. I know. Shut the.

I'm like, is it too far gone? Should I just like keep this lie going? You should have. I don't know how to react. Oh my gosh. Unless I was an infant or a small child and not. Which does not count. Which does not count.

Just like I've. never been to the Grand Canyon because I was five when I went to the Grand Canyon and I don't count that. But I knew about that. I know. I want to listen back to... Is this the end of us? I don't know, but I want to listen back to our old episodes to hear you pretending that you knew what I was talking about when I talked about the top of Mount Washington. I feel like I get it, you know, like I've been around Mount Washington. I've seen Mount Washington a bunch of times from surrounding summits. I don't know how to feel that. this. I'm so sorry. All I can think is that we're going. We're riding. You know what? You know what we're

doing? We're hiking. We're hiking up there. And then we're going to take the cog down to save our knees. And also because this story won't traumatize you unless you take the cog. So I feel like we should be on the same part because same wavelength because now I feel like I'm traumatized from knowing this story about the cog railway disaster as I have ridden it several times. And I have. I've been up there several times, and now I feel like you have to experience it with me. Okay. That's fair enough. We're going.

This summer. This summer. This is an emergency if I've ever heard one in my entire life. Okay. I'm here. I'm coming back. I can't be in this cold weather. If anyone is listening in there in Wyoming and Idaho and this area, oh, my God.

How do you do it? It is unseasonably cold for this time of year. I'm not sure. But I was in snow this morning. I drove through a snowstorm this morning, and it is currently June 29th as we are recording this. We got on a Zoom this morning, and Cassie and I have been on like separate vacations over the last week. So we haven't really like had any meetings or whatever. We get on our first meeting in days without seeing each other.

We all pop on at the same time. I'm legitimately like sweating. I'm in a tank top. I'm like sun kissed glowing. It's dewy. It's nice. I look over at Cassie's little square. she has a sweatshirt on with a puffy over it.

And my wood stove was on because it's so cold here. So I'm dreaming of Mount Washington weather. Okay, well, now that we've cleared the air, I would like to just let the record show. I have been on a cog before to Pike's Peak. It does not count. I'm sorry. That's like being like, I haven't been on Mount Washington, but I did go hiking. in Washington State.

That it's not the same thing. Hold on. Let's do a couple fast facts here. About cogs? Because the New Hampshire Cog Railway is the first one in the whole world. Yes. However, the Cog in Pikes Peak is the highest Cog Railway in the world. Nine Mile Scenic Journey up the 14, 115 foot summit of Pikes Peak.

Okay, yada, yada. I just wanted to say like I, okay, I don't need to defend myself anymore. You've been on a cog, but not the Mount Washington one. No, certainly not. Okay, so this one was founded in 1889 and successfully reached the summit for the first time on June 30th, 1891. And that's that on Pike's Peak, cog. Which is not where we're going today. And we're planning a trip.

I'm planning a trip for us. You guess that pretty quick. I knew it immediately. As soon as you were like, I have a confession to make, I was like, oh, no. I could just see it. I could see it in your face. I'm just trying to be honest. I literally have in here.

So, of course, we have both been to Washington. Think again. Oh, my God. I have to rewrite this entire script. I'll be right back. All right. Well, this is new to me. Breaking news.

breaking news i'm i'm thrown off completely but i guess i will change my intro that i started here i was like i was like so of course we have both bent about washington um and of course it's a staple in our experience of course it's one of the cornerstones of my entire personality yeah Wow. Everyone knows that about me. I love submitting Mount Washington. Yeah, and you've done it a lot. That's so crazy. All right, we're going to get into the story because the Cog Railway, as I mentioned, is the first of its kind in the entire world. And it's in New Hampshire, which is exciting. And what makes it extra special is because Mount Washington, if you have not listened to some of our past episodes, or if you're not aware, is known for the. the worst weather on the entire planet, and it recorded 231 mile per hour wind speeds, which is the highest wind speeds ever recorded on Earth, which is really cool. And that happened in 1934, and it's yet to have been broken. So them building this cog railway was a big deal because it was

known for the worst weather in the world. And of course, because I love New Hampshire and I love the White Mountains, it's one of my favorite places to visit. I, and I know. there's a ton of people who visit when I've researched it in the past. There's over three million people who visit every single year. I figured since I love it so much and we love the White Mountain so much I want to traumatize you all today by a really horrific story of the Cog Railway, which is a staple in your experience when you go visit Mount Washington and we'll be a staple in Danielle's experience when we go and she gets to ride the Cog. So we'll dive into this story.

And hopefully you'll still want to ride the cog railway after this story because it is really cool. And I will just preface that the technology that exists at the cog is much different today than in this story. So if you are heading to Mount Washington and you are planning to ride the cog, please don't let this story deter you. So let's start kind of at the beginning. For nearly 100 years from its opening in 1869 until 1967, the Mount, Washington Cog Railway carried passengers safely up and down one of the most dangerous mountains in North America. Families boarded the small train expecting breathtaking views, fresh mounted air, and the unforgettable thrill of climbing nearly straight into the clouds aboard the world's

first mountain climbing Cog Railway to the summit of Mount Washington at 6,288 feet, which reminds me we're going to have to get a summit photo together because you don't have a summit photo and we need a summit photo. Okay, well, I've never been to the top, so I'm ashamed. I'm sorry. You don't have to be ashamed. I'm actually a little excited the more I think about it. Okay.

This was operating safely for 100 years, so few people realized the dangers that could happen there. But on September 17, 1967, the side of Mount Washington became one of the deadliest trained disasters in New England's history. Despite the disaster, we are going to dive. into during this episode today, the Cog Railway is still one of the most iconic attractions in New Hampshire with upwards of 150,000 people, mine, not Danielle, riding it every single year. I'm never going to live this down. I'm sorry, I'm dead. So a little bit of backstory on

this train. This historic train climbs three steep miles to the summit of Mount Washington, which of course is known for some of the worst weather of the world, where they actually have hurricane force winds batter the summit for more than 100 days per year, which is pretty crazy. I do want to just talk about the railway and its history a little bit and why it's even on Mount Washington and how that started. So the railway was originally built in the 1860s after a businessman named Sylvester Marsh nearly died while hiking Mount Washington with his pastor during a recreational trip

through the White Mountains. At the time, the White Mountains were exploding in popularity as one of America's first major tourism destinations. Wealthy travelers from Boston and New York flock to New Hampshire by train each summer to escape crowded industrial cities and experience the region's dramatic scenery, cool mountain air, and luxurious grand hotels that were rapidly appearing throughout the region. And of course, now if you go up to New Hampshire, there are a ton of historic hotels. And of course, one of those main ones is the Mount Washington Hotel, which I think is kind

of the prime example of luxury hotels that were popping up. up in northern New Hampshire at this time. So as tourism was booming in the mid-1800s, reaching the summit of Mount Washington became one of the ultimate travel accomplishments in the northeast. It was like, this is the largest mountain. It has the worst weather in the world. If you get up here, that is an achievement and it kind of became something that the rich and wealthy were like, yeah, let's go up there. It's like a badge of honor type of thing. Truly, now you get a sticker, but back then you got like, you're like, I'm rich, I got to the summit of Mount Washington. Now you get to put a sticker on your car that says this car climbed to Mount Washington.

Yeah, they sell those stickers, yeah. You don't get a sticker if you hike it. No, which is kind of messed up when you think about it because hiking it is way harder than driving up the road. Yeah. Although the road is kind of sketchy. So to capitalize on this growing tourism craze, entrepreneurs somehow managed to construct entire hotels directly on top of the summit of Mount Washington decades before modern roads or machinery

existed there. In 1852, the summit house was built near the top of the mountain to shelter exhausted travelers who made the difficult climb by foot, horseback, or carriage. Just one year later, in 1853, the tip-top house was completed nearby using massive granite stones hauled up the mountain by hand and stacked into thick walls capable of surviving the same. summits, brutal winds and freezing temperatures. And the tipped-top house is actually still up there. I've never been in it, but it's just, it's very close to the summit sign. And I think it might be like a gift shop. It's always been closed every single time I've been there. But there's remnants of here. And you kind of see and you're like, whoa, that was a hotel at one point. Because it does not

look like it could have been. It literally looks like. It is. And it looks like a rock shelter. It doesn't look like a hotel at all. Yeah, hotel is probably a generous term. Yeah. So these were, these hotels were built both out of necessity and opportunity. There were tourists who needed food, warmth, and shelter after enduring the dangerous ascent. And businessmen recognized that people were willing to pay for this once-in-a-lifetime experience. And they also realized that eating and sleeping above the clouds on the highest peak in New England could make them some serious money. As tourism continued to grow, developers searched for even easier ways to bring visitors to the summit. In 1861, the Mount Washington Auto Road first opened as a carriage road

climbing 7.6 miles to the top of the mountain, making it one of the oldest man-made tourist attractions in the entire United States. Long before modern guardrails or paved highway was put onto the auto road that we know today, travelers braved the steep mountain route by horse-drawn carriage, to reach the summit hotels and experience Mount Washington's famous views and dangerous weather firsthand. When Sylvester Marsh hiked and reached the peak of Mount Washington, the weather quickly turned to life-threatening conditions. Thick clouds, freezing wind, and blinding weather forced Marsh and his pastor to seek emergency shelter at the tip-top house during the storm. And he was pretty shaken by how quickly this weather turn. He's like, it was a beautiful day. It was great. Like we made it to the summit. It was hard.

exhausting but great day, and then suddenly it completely shifted to something that could have turned fatal. He came up with this idea that he wanted to have some other way of transportation to get to the top. So everyday people could experience Mount Washington without maybe possibly having to risk their lives or hike it. So his idea was that he wanted to put a train on Mount Washington. At the time, most people thought that this idea was absurd. Building and a steam-powered train capable of climbing one of the steepest mountains in the northeast sounded impossible. And critics actually mocked Marsh relentlessly nicknaming him crazy Marsh and joking that he might as well build a railway to the moon. Okay.

I think this is Moswell. You know, everything started with a crazy idea. That's right. And now there's one in Pike's Peak. And Mount Washington. So anyway, Marsh is coming up with this idea. He wants to build this train on Mount Washington. but everyone's calling him crazy.

But Marsh pushed forward anyway, designing a revolutionary system that allowed trains to grip the mountain as they climb grades far too steep for traditional railroads. Some sections of Mount Washington, as I mentioned earlier, reach grades as steep as 37%. That's so steep that passengers looking out the window could feel as though the train was climbing straight into the sky. So you're literally just like chugging along straight uphill. construction crews battled brutal terrain while building elevated tracks directly onto the mountainside, including the infamous Jacob's Ladder, a trestle suspended high above the rocky slope that became the

steepest railroad trestle in the world at the time. After delay is caused by the Civil War, the Mount Washington Cog Railway officially opened in 1869 as the world's first mountain climbing Cog Railway. Today, riding the cog is considered a classic white mountain experience, but while riding down the steep mountainside, it's easy to imagine, as I mentioned earlier, the nightmare scenario every passenger tries not to think about. The derailment or the train losing its grip on the mountain, only to plummet uncontrollably towards the valley below. And I don't know, I wrote that because that's things that I think about, but maybe other people don't have anxiety like that. But whenever I've said on it, I've been like looking out.

I'm like, all right, just work, please. But in 1967, passengers on the Mount Washington Cog Railway didn't have to imagine it because they lived it. On the afternoon of September 17th, 1967, families crowded aboard the final passenger train of the day descending from the summit of Mount Washington. The day had been filled with unusually beautiful weather and many very very very. visitors had lingered at the summit longer than planned, enjoying the clear skies and sweeping views of New England's highest peak. As a result, the last train down the mountain was packed well beyond its seating capacity. A passenger car built for 56 people on this day carried somewhere between 85 and 90 passengers. Tourists stood shoulder to shoulder in the center aisle,

gripping seatbacks and overhead supports as the train prepared for the descent. Some leaned towards the window to photograph the endless layers of red, orange, and gold beginning to spread across the white mountains for the sunset. Children pressed their face against the glass, while passengers laughed, chatted, and pointed towards distant peaks fading into the afternoon haze. Newlyweds, families on vacations, retired couples, and sightseers from across New England and beyond, were all crammed together for the ride down the mountain. Among those passengers were George and Mary Buxton, a middle-aged couple from New Jersey who had saved for years to finally visit the White Mountains and ride the legendary Cog Railway together. Nearby sat Army Private Harry Romitch. He was a 23-year-old from Hankley, Ohio, vacationing in New Hampshire with his 19-year-old wife, Paula, before reporting to Fort Lewis, Washington to ship out for the military duty in Korea. 7-year-old Eric Davies from Hampton, New Hampshire, rode the train alongside his family,

while 15-year-old Beverly Richmond traveled to Mount Washington from Putnam, Connecticut. 22-year-old Shirley Zorze had made the trip from Lynn, Massachusetts, while Charles Usher, a 55-year-old from Dover, New Hampshire, boarded alongside dozens of tourists, excited to experience the famous railway at sunset. The passengers packed into the overcrowded railcar had no idea that they were about to become part of one of the most deadly disasters in the mountains history. At 5.10 p.m., the train began descending the steep western face of Mount Washington. Inside the locomotive cab sat an engineer in training supervised by a more experienced engineer

named Gordy Chase. While most passengers were enjoying the ride, Harry Rosemich found himself growing increasingly uncomfortable. Looking around at the packed aisles and crowded seats, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was simply too much weight aboard the train. As the train car headed down the steep grade, something about the descent just didn't feel right to him. Unlike traditional railroads, at the time, the Cog Railway relied on a specialized cog and rack system to safely travel the mountains in possibly steep grades. And this system was a large tooth gear beneath the train, locked directly into a center rack rail

running between the tracks, allowing the locomotive to carefully control both the ascent and descent. Without that grip on the mountain, the train could easily become a runaway sled on the steep mountain side. In the 1960s, the railway also depended on a complicated series of manual operating switches carved into the mountain, so ascending and descending trains could safely pass each other on a single track. So I think that's really important to note that the train going up and the train going down is both on the same track here because the center rack rail made standard railroad switches impossible breakman had to physically reposition heavy steel rail sections by hand each time a train needed to move onto a siding so it basically just like moved to the side

allowed the other one up and down and it was all very manually done one of the most important of these passing points was the skyline switch which was located on the mountain nearer Jacob's ladder the steepest section of track on the entire railway. Just over an hour earlier on that same day, the same train had safely climbed through the skyline switch on its way to the summit so crew members had no reason to suspect anything was wrong. What they didn't know was that somewhere ahead of them, one improperly aligned switch waited on the tracks. As the train descended towards the skyline switch, it slowed slightly but never came to a complete stop. following standard operating procedures at the time. Inside the crowded passenger car,

people continued chatting, pointing out the sweeping views of the White Mountains glowing in the late afternoon light. Then, without warning, the locomotive slammed into a misaligned switch. Inside the crowded passenger car, a violent jolt rippled through the train, throwing passengers against seats and into one another. Harry Romish looked towards the front of the train just in time to see the locomotive suddenly lurch off the tracks. In an instant, the engine that had been guiding them down the mountain disappeared from view, tumbling down the rocky slope below. For a split second, confusion filled the passenger car. The coach continued rolling downhill, and many passengers had no idea what had just happened. Then, the horrifying realization spread.

The locomotive that had been attached to them was gone. The only thing carrying them down one of the steepest railroad grades in the world was a passenger car with no engine in front of it. And when they realized this, panic erupted almost immediately. Passengers screamed and grabbed onto seats, windows, and each other as the rail car continued accelerating downhill. Parents pulled children close. Torres, who moments earlier had been admiring the view, now stared out the windows in horror. Some shouted while others sat frozen. and disbelief. Farther down the mountain, another cog train was slowly climbing towards them. Passengers aboard the ascending train suddenly saw a burst of smoke erupt near the skyline switch

before realizing that the descending passenger car was no longer attached to its engine. For a terrifying moment, it appeared that the runaway rail car might slam directly into them head on. That railway car was gaining speed. Passengers screamed and grabbed onto seats, windows and each other, as the train violently shook beneath them. The sound of grinding metal echoed through the mountainside while the terrified people were thrown against the walls and into the aisles. Riding inside the passenger car alongside the nearly 90 passengers

was brakeman Charlie Kenneson. As panic spread through the crowded railway car and the train began accelerating downhill, Kenneson rushed to the emergency braking system desperately trying to stop the runaway car before it picked up even more speed. but it was no use. Some passengers desperately tried to brace themselves

while others began kicking at the windows, hoping to escape before the train crashed. A handful made the desperate decision to jump from the moving rail car onto the jagged rocks below. Amid the chaos, Harry searched frantically for his wife Paula, but he could no longer find her

among the screaming passengers packed inside the car. And that, like, just, if you've seen photos of Mount Washington, or you've been up there. If you look at it and I encourage people, if you haven't looked up photos of it, the top of Mount Washington is just straight up granite rock. Yeah. So to make that decision while you are careening down this mountain side on this railway car to jump out of it,

that's a hard choice because you're not, you're definitely getting injured. There's not like maybe I'll land on a soft patch patch of moss or grass. Like you are getting injured, especially when you're starting to move at fast speeds. So the fact that people were actively jumping out of this train just shows like how serious this scenario just got. Then just 500 feet farther down the mountain, the passenger car finally derailed completely. From the ascending train below, horrified passengers watched as a runaway railway car tore free from the tracks and appeared to launch into the air before slamming violently

into the jagged rocks lining the mountain side. Inside the rail car, bodies were hurled against seats, walls, and one another as sections of the car crumpled and tore open. The force of the crash through some passengers clear of the wreckage, while others became trapped beneath collapsed sections of the rail car. As dust, colesuit, and debris settled across the mountainside, survivors began crawling from shattered windows and torn aluminum into a scene of devastation. Harry Romish regained consciousness lying on his back with other passengers piled on top of him.

Dazed and injured, he had no idea how he had escaped the train and where he was when he awoke to these people just on top of him. Around him, injured passengers stumbled across the rocks in shock while others screamed for missing family members and friends. Nearby, survivors picked through the wreckage searching for coats and sweaters to drape over the injured as the last daylight began slipping behind the mountains. The wind was starting to pick up across Mount Washington and many of the wounded lay exposed on the rocky slope, bleeding and unable to move. Some wandered through the debris and shock while others searched desperately for their missing loved ones. The ascending train that had watched the runaway rail car launch from the tracks and crash into the mountainside came to an immediate stop.

Crew members and passengers alike rushed towards the wreckage. Among those to first respond to the scene was a passenger named Ralph Shackett. When he reached the wreckage, he found bodies and injured passengers scattered across the mountainside. Among the chaos, Ralph witnessed a young couple trying to help a severely injured passenger despite the fact that their own child was dead beside them. Oh my God. It wasn't long before the news of the disaster reached nearby towns throughout the Mount Washington Valley.

As reports of the derailment spread, rescue squads, ambulances, hospital staff, police officers, and volunteers began mobilized. for what quickly would become one of the largest emergency responses the region had ever seen. On the mountain side, passengers from the ascending train joined railway employees in helping the injured. Those able to walk were guided away from the wreckage, while rescuers worked to stabilize the most seriously wounded. The Cog Railway quickly transformed from a tourist attraction into a rescue operation, with trains carrying survivors and injured passengers down the mountain, while others were taken towards the summit and transported by the way of the Mount Washington Auto Road. As the first trainloads of

injured passengers began arriving at the base of the railway, rescuers were waiting. Among them was Dan Noel of the North Conway Rescue Squad, who had been dispatched to assist with a growing emergency. Dan was tasked with photographing victims, documenting their injuries and helping coordinate information between rescuers, still working on the mountainside and emergency personnel waiting below. The first train to arrive was packed with injured but living passengers, many suffering from broken bones, severe cuts, and crushing injuries sustained in the crash. As Dan worked among the arriving survivors, one father repeatedly tried to get his attention. Assuming the man was worried about an injured family member still on the mountain, Dan reassured him that rescue crews were bringing victims

down as quickly as possible, and that those with the most serious injuries were being evacuated first. The man stopped him. and explained that there had been a misunderstanding. His daughter wasn't among the injured passengers still waiting to be rescued. She had actually died in the crash. This father had been trying to get his attention because he couldn't stand the thought of her being left on the mountain overnight and was begging for his help. It's just heart wrenching. It's horrible.

And I'm just like just reading this, a lot of this information I was reading, there's a lot of old news articles about it. I mean, this was in headlines everywhere. And it just really details a lot of the chaos that was going on and a lot of the firsthand accounts. And these are just, I wanted to include some of the firsthand accounts of people. Because I think a lot of their stories got a little bit lost to history. But in these articles, there's like these small snippets of these people saying like, this is what happened to me. This is what I saw. And his was, this rescuer was one of the people who came forward and was like, I was so busy.

and then this horrible thing happened where this dad wanted this for his daughter. Another one of those accounts came from another person. So on the mountainside, survivors continued helping one another while they waited for rescue crews to evacuate the wounded. Among the passengers was a doctor traveling with his two young children. The crash left him with a broken back,

but when he saw his daughter trap beneath the overturned rail car and not breathing, he dragged him. himself across the rocks on his stomach to reach her. Despite his injuries, he began performing CPR. And miraculously, both him and his daughter survived. Wow. Just a broken back crawling across like you see your kid. And that's pure adrenaline. I'm sure as soon as she was breathing again, he just like collapsed. Oh yeah. For sure. But like power of love, you know, like truly makes you a super human. Yeah. It's like those stories that you hear of people and they lift cars off their loved ones. It's like, how could a person? I was like, don't tell me he lifted that to train off of her.

That'd be crazy. Nobody did get her out. By the time rescuers finished accounting for the passengers, eight people had been killed in the crash, including three children with more than 70 others injured. Many victims had suffered catastrophic crushing injuries and some bodies were so badly damaged that experienced first responders struggled to process with what they were seeing. At first glance, many of the victims appeared severely burned, but the dark coating covering their skin was actually a mixture of coal dust, grease, and debris thrown across them during the crash. As survivors continued to be brought off the mountain, ambulances carried the wounded to Littleton Hospital, a small rural facility more than 30 miles away. The hospital had never faced a disaster

on the scale. Yet thanks in part to a recently developed mass casualty response plan, doctors, nurses, and support staff quickly transformed the facility into an emergency treatment center. More than 70 patients poured through the doors that evening, many suffering broken bones, head injuries, deep lacerations, and crushed trauma. Among them were George and Mary Buxton, the New Jersey couple who had spent years saving for their dream trip to the White Mountains. Mary, 47, required back surgery but ultimately recovered. George, who was 49, suffered injuries to his head and shoulder, but despite the horrific crash, both survived and eventually returned home. Among of the survivors were also the lead engineer Gordy Chase and brakeman Charlie Kennenson,

two of the crew members aboard the train that afternoon. Both men had been seriously injured. Chase suffered horrific burns to his hands with rescuers describing those injuries as long strips of skin hanging from his fingers and palms, which they believe to have occurred as he desperately attempted to stop the train during its runway descent. So he was just, that's brutal. I mean, to just not. So what was he grabbing onto? It seems like from when I was researching it, it kind of like, you know, the e-break in

your car? Yeah. It kind of feels like that was the, it's not exactly that, but that's like the best way I can describe it is it's just like this big lever that he was. pulling to try and break, but because there was no engine and had nothing else and it was already on this steep like 37% grade or whatever, it was, there was just too much gravity and force, but he like wouldn't let go. And it was just ripping his hands apart trying to stop it. Holy moly. And then Kenneson was also badly burned and found in a state of shock

after the crash. So those were the two employees that were on the railway car and they were both horrifically injured. Harry and Paula ultimately survived the disaster with relatively minor injuries compared to many of the passengers around them. But the experience stayed with Harry for the rest of his life. After surviving the runaway railway car on Mount Washington, he refused to ride another train down a mountain. He's like, no, I'm good. And I feel like that is so fair. Yeah. Like, I survived it once. I'm not doing it again. Not testing fate again. Yeah, truly.

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As rescue crews worked through the night and hospitals treated the wounded, attention slowly began turning towards a question that haunted the survivors. How had this happened? As investigators began examining the sequence of events, they focused on the skyline switch where the disaster had started. As the train's lead engineer, Chase was responsible for checking the position of the switch as the train approached. He was also responsible. He was also responsible for controlling the train's speed during the descent. Yet determining exactly what the crew should have seen prove more complicated than it first appeared. Other crew members, including Kenneson, maintained that the switch appeared to be properly aligned.

The center rack rail was often coated in dark grease, making subtle misalignments difficult to spot from a moving train, particularly in the fading light of late afternoon. So the fact that he thought it looked good didn't necessarily mean. something could have been wrong. As investigators pieced together the events of September 17th, one question continued to haunt everyone involved. How had a switch that appeared to be correctly aligned just 75 minutes earlier suddenly caused one of the deadliest accidents in New Hampshire's history. In their investigation, they had realized that the train had safely passed through the skyline switch on its way to the summit earlier that afternoon. So it was some time between that time that they had

passed through the switch, 75 minutes had passed, before they had been back down, something had happened. Investigators considered several possibilities. Had someone accidentally misaligned the switch? Had it been tampered with? Or had the crew simply been unable to detect a subtle problem while descending the mountain? But all of those questions proved pretty difficult to answer. Contrary to what many people imagine, operating a switch on the cog railway was not a simple matter of pulling a lever. Former employees described the process as a complicated multi-step operation requiring a precise sequence of actions. Some speculated that a hiker could have tampered with the switch, something railway employees claimed had happened before, but many doubted that explanation.

Not only would a person have needed to access the switch, they would have needed to understand exactly how to operate it. So they're like, no, this is pretty difficult to do. Hikers not just going to walk by and like, it's not a light switch where it's like, you know. Yeah. Investigators also examined whether the crowded passenger car contributed to the disaster. Because if you remember earlier, I mentioned it was a 56 person car, but there was close

to 90 people that were there. But surprisingly, medical personnel and railway experts concluded that the extra passengers likely had little impact on the descent itself. so they're like, no, that's not what happened. The train's braking system had been designed to control a locomotive weighing tens of thousands of pounds, meaning that the additional passengers wouldn't have really made a difference at all. In fact, some rescuers actually believed that the overcrowding may have unintentionally saved their lives. While the pack conditions created a dangerous situation inside the rail car,

the tightly packed passengers may have acted as like kind of a cushion for each other in the actual impact, which is really morbid. But that was there. They're like, you know, they kind of. Yeah. And when you think about it, Harry woke up, like, covered in people and around people and they're like kind of acted as a cushion to help for other people. Yeah. Despite the violence of the crash, damage to the railway was remarkably limited. Repairs were completed quickly, though the cog remained closed while investigators completed their work. While the railway reopened on October 5th, which was like last, it was like three weeks later, new safety procedures. had already been implemented. Trains were now required to come to a complete stop at every switch so crews could visually confirm track alignment before proceeding. Additional crew members were assigned to monitor the track ahead, and over the following

decades, the railway gradually modernized and replaced many of the systems that existed on the mountain in 1967. Among those most affected by the disaster was former Cog Railway Engineer and Operations Manager Norm Jitney Lewis. nickname for his talent, which his nickname was Jitney, nicknamed for his talent on the dance floor, Jitney had spent 18 summers working on the railway while teaching in Vermont during the rest of the year.

Cogging had become a family tradition and few people understood the operation of the railway better than he did. Over the years, he helped develop training materials, operating procedures, and safety manuals intended to ensure every crew member understood the unique challenges of operating trains on Mount Washington. In a strange twist of fate, 1967 had actually been Jitney's final summer on the railway. He had left this job after his daughter had been injured in an automobile crash, but before

departing, he completed one final inspection of the entire three-mile line, walking the tracks and documenting their condition. In his report, written only weeks before the disaster, Jitney concluded that the track, locomotives, rail cars, and operating procedures were all sound, if properly maintained and followed. In his opinion, the only likely cause of a future catastrophe would be human error. When news of the crash reached him, Jitney was devastated. He was particularly troubled by reports that an engineer in training had been operating the locomotive under the supervision of Gordy Chase. A man Jitney later claimed he never approved to serve as an engineer. Whether or not Jitney's concerns were justified remains a matter of

debate. But the tragedy reinforced a lesson he had spent his entire career teaching on a railway built into the side of one of the most dangerous mountains in North America, even the smallest mistake could have devastating consequences. So he was like, hey, I don't approve of this guy he was training with. And I still conclude that this is human error. There was nothing wrong with the train, was basically what he was saying. Five days after the crash, investigators reached their official conclusion. The derailment had been caused by a misalignment skyline switch

and was ultimately attributed to human error rather than the mechanical failure of the locomotive, passenger car, or the railway. Yet exactly how the switch came to be improperly aligned remained a question that continued to fuel debate for years afterwards. Decades later, Jitney, completed the operation manuals he had spent years refining. Published as part of a three-volume series

set Mount Washington Cog Railway 1950 to 1967, the Jitney Years, the work preserved the knowledge, procedures, and stories of generation of Cog Railway employees. More than a century and a half after the railway first opened, thousands of men and women have worked on the mountain. Today, nearly 160 years after Sylvester Marsh was mocked for proposing a railroad up the side of Mount Washington, the cog is still carrying passengers to the summit every day during the summer. During the summer months, trains climb all the way to the top of New England's highest peak, while winter trips travel to the Waback station at 4,000 feet. Visitors can explore the Sherman Adams Visitor Center, stand on the rooftop observation deck, tour the historic Tip Top House Museum, learn about the mountains,

weather or even mail a postcard from the summit post office bearing a special Mount Washington postmark. The railway has evolved dramatically since the days of the coal fire steam engines and manually operated switches. In 2008, the Cog introduced biodiesel locomotives that reduce emissions while maintaining the character of the historic railway. Yet tradition remains alive on the mountain, with century-old steam engines still making occasional trips up the tracks. Modern hydraulic switches controlled remotely from the locomotive and powered by solar energy have replaced the manually operated system that contributed to the 1967 disaster. Additional track improvements, including a passing loop at the Waback station, have further reduced the need for trains to use switches during daily operations. Perhaps Sylvester Marsh's greatest legacy is that his once ridiculed invention changed railroading around the world.

When the Mount Washington Cog Railway opened in 1869, it became the first mountain climbing cog railway ever built. Engineers from around the globe traveled to New Hampshire to study marsh's revolutionary rack and pinion design. And within a few decades, similar railways began appearing in the Swiss Alps, Germany, Austria, Colorado, and beyond. Today, mountain railways carrying millions of passengers each year, can trace their roots back. to the steep slopes of Mount Washington and the determination of a man once nicknamed Crazy Marsh. The crash of 1967 remains the deadliest accident in the railway's history and a tragedy that forever changed how the cog operates. Yet every train that climbs the mountain today is also a

reminder of the generations of workers, engineers, rescuers, and passengers whose experiences shaped the railway into what it is now. More than a century and a half after the first locomotive chug towards the clouds, the Cog Railway continued its journey of Mount Washington, carrying with it both an extraordinary engineering legacy and the lessons learned from one of the darkest days in its history. And that is my story of the Cog Railway disaster on Mount Washington. Wow. I'm, you know, it's a tragedy through and through, but based on your description and what happened, I'm surprised it's actually not more. Yeah. I mean, the fact that 70 were pretty horribly injured is a lot, but the fact that not more people died. Yeah, I'm just thinking of like

the boulder fields up there and just this train car off the tracks and flying through the air and crashing and twisted metal. And I don't know. I just feel like it had the potential to be, to have to garner a higher death toll and it did not, which is a small miracle. And it's a tragedy that people died and so many people were injured. But man, it just felt like it had the potential to be so much worse. For sure. Oh, my goodness. Well, and I do want to redeem myself a little bit. I'll take this moment to say, I have been proven wrong. Okay. Because while you were, I was paying attention wholeheartedly, but I did text my mom, as one does. Just to make sure. You know, my memory we all know is bad.

And so I texted her and I said, hey, have we ever been to Mount Washington together even if I was a kid? And she said, yeah, we took the Cog Railway. And I said, oh, how old was I? And she sent me a picture. She is the scrapbook queen. Okay. We have scrapbooks for so many different things. I think we have like maybe 20 scrapbooks.

Mom's coming in with evidence right now. Yep. And I'm sending it to you. She has receipts. This is, all right, they're embarrassing receipts, but their receipts nonetheless. I, so she said I was 11. So this must have been, if I was 11, turning 12. So this was probably 2012 because I would have turned 12 in December.

And here we go. I'm sending you the scrapbook page. Because not only does a 12th you were in college, but. Oh, sorry, 2002. 2002. Not only are there pictures of me. Oh, you're so little. In a limited two, camo tea, and a double choker black plastic necklaces.

I'm also, there's pictures of the cog, a cog brochure as any good scrapbooker would do. You're at the summit? Touching the summit sign. Wow. Wow. Oh. The highest wind ever recorded by man was recorded here. There it is.

There you are. There you have it. Also, your mom looks exactly the same. She hasn't aged a day. That's good news for me. That is good news for you. You should thank your mom. She has good jeans.

Yeah. You hear that, ma'am? Yeah, so I do agree that we should go back because clearly I don't have a memory of this. And I... It's nice to know you have physical. physically been there. It takes the shock value a little out. Yeah. Yeah. We went through it a little bit in the beginning there. I'm sorry. I'm glad we were covered. Yeah. We regained a little ground. We're still doing a trip for sure. Okay. I'm glad you covered the story though because I feel like

when you originally did the two episodes a few years ago on the White Mountain National Forest area, Were they both on Mount Washington? I know one of them was out in Mount Washington because I told the story of the rescuer who was killed in an avalanche. Yeah. Rescuing the two climbers who. Okay. So I'm trying to think of the other one I did. Well, it was about the weather, right?

So it must have been. Or was that the same one? That might have been the same one. We have to go back in our catalog and look, yeah. Regardless, we, I think that's like when people started recommending this one, too. they're like, hey, there was a pretty big disaster on Mount Washington. You guys should look into it. So I'm glad we got around to it because for as many people who continue to ride the cog and are probably blissfully unaware that that happened.

I was every time I wrote it. You just rock their world. Yep. Welcome to being traumatized. The more you know, the more you suffer. This is why I don't like planes. And now I won't like trains either. Nothing is safe.

No, nothing's safe. Yeah. Do you remember, you took the cog, right, at some point? Yeah. I'm sure. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

You already told me that. Do you remember if they do any sort of, like, because on the Pikes Peak one, they do like a little bit of, it's like a narrated type of tour up? Yeah. Yeah. Each car has a person in it that will, like, chat with you and talk to you and, like, tell you about the history. And I remember. one time I was sitting on the cog and we were going down. So we had hiked all the way up and we were,

our knees and just legs were so tired. We're like, let's just take the cog down. Our cars in the parking lot at the bottom. I'll take 45 minutes an hour. So we did that and I remember we and the weather conditions were crazy. The wind was insane. And we were sitting in the car just had started going. We're on one of the steeper sections going down. And he says over it, he's like, yeah, so. And I don't remember the exact so don't quote me on the exact speed here but he's like yeah today the winds are 72 miles per hour and I was like oh wow he's like yep we don't run if it's 73 miles per hour and I was like what? Like that's really close like what is the what what it's the tipping point here like what has to how do we know we're not going to get to 73 miles per hour if it's 72 miles per hour. Was he

kidding with you he must be kidding with you. No no that was really the weather condition feel like a joke. No, it didn't feel like a joke. And I'm guessing they don't tell this on the tour. This is the first time I heard the story was researching it for this podcast. I feel like it would be maybe a story to share after people are off the cog. I don't think you'd want to share that. Yeah, like right as you're approaching the bottom when it's like, by the way.

Yeah. Yeah, you want everyone to have anxiety and start trying to jump out of the cog. probably not the best story. Because you don't know what that's going to do to somebody like in the moment. Yeah. And they don't have an opportunity to go somewhere else or get away from that situation. I feel like that would be really bad actually if you told that story. Yeah. Well, I'm not like I don't want people to be like, oh yeah, that's an opportunity. They should do that. I don't think. Yeah. But now everyone listening, you can go in informed. And you can decide. Yeah. All right. Well, thanks so much for sharing. And we'll see everyone next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch your back. Bye.

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