Cognisant of daunting task
After becoming lost and almost dying while hiking near the summit of Mt Washington in 1852, New Hampshire native Sylvester Marsh became convinced there had to be a better way for people to reach the highest mountain peak in the north-east of the State of New England.
On his return home, Marsh - who had made his fortune in Chicago's meat-packing industry - started working on a plan to build the world's first mountain- climbing cog railway. Local politicians ridiculed his plan, saying he "might as well build a railway to the Moon".
Undaunted, Marsh began the task of building his mountain- climbing railway.
The undertaking was not an easy one. Equipment and materials had to be hauled by oxen 50km through thick forest to the base of Mt Washington.
But on July 3, 1869, the cog railway's original steam locomotive Old Peppersass became the first cog-driven train to climb the 1900m mountain. It was the first such railway in the world.
It is now a national historic engineering landmark and part of American heritage, complete with vintage steam engines and replica coaches as well as biodiesel locomotives. And, more than 140 years after the railway was built, it is the turn of my wife Lyn and me to take advantage of Marsh's vision and enjoy an easy ride to the summit.
We are here in the beautiful White Mountains region of northern New Hampshire on a trip to the east coast of the United States.
Our visit started in New York, where we stayed at the Hotel Metro on West 35th Street, a convenient 10-minute walk from Times Square.
Six days later, our senses overloaded by everything the Big Apple has to offer, we boarded a train for the four-and-a-half hour journey north to Boston.
Although it took longer than flying, it was the perfect way to witness the magnificent colours of the northern hemisphere autumn.
After the frantic pace of New York, we were unsure of what to expect in Boston. We need not have worried. We fell in love with its charm, its many historic features and its wonderful restaurants.
Five short days later, we collected our hire car, set up the GPS borrowed from a friend, who had visited the US the previous year, and headed north.
Our meandering route along the Kancamagus Highway took us through the White Mountain National Forest, a magnificent wilderness of lakes, mountains and rivers to Hampton Inn in Littleton, our home and base for the next few days.
With so much to see in only a few days, the Mt Washington Cog Railway was first on our long list.
It proved to be an exhilarating ride, made even better by the spectacular views of the snow-covered mountains. Although the mountains were shrouded in cloud and it was snowing during our visit, on a clear day, visibility can be an incredible 160km, providing views across the mountains and valleys of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, north into Canada, and east to the Atlantic Ocean.
Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the summit. The snow forced the train to stop halfway up the mountain but it was enough for us and the other passengers to marvel at Sylvester Marsh's creative thinking and drive.
We were able to disembark and get an idea of how steep the track is - not to mention how cold it was outside the carriage in the -10C air.
Passengers buying their tickets online can choose to take the 5km ride to the summit either with the classic steam engine or the biodiesel engine.
On the days passengers do make it to the summit, the train stops for about an hour, giving them time to explore the mountain top and its observatory, where the fastest wind speed on land was recorded during an April storm in 1934, when a gust of 372km/h blew across the summit.
