Welcome to the Base Station of the World’s First Employee Database of the World’s First Mountain Climbing Railroad


A railroad 155 years old with perhaps as many as 10,000 employees in those years. This basic academic research website is designed to collect and collate names of the women and men who worked on the Mt. Washington Railway and its companion organizations (Summit house, Base Station, Marshfield) from 1866 forward.

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The "Sunset Special" was the last train up the mountain. The Jitney Years project continues to prepare a last train up the mountain before a final print-out of the manuscripts. This is a "last boarding call" for any information that should be included. Roster Updates are in the Pipeline! Contact Jitney Jr directly [timothy(dot)lewis(at)vermontstate(dot)edu] (preferred) with any additions or corrections ASAP OR use the…

Interactive Online Database

Online Database

Over 3,100 names of Coggers from 1866 forward – pictures and profiles where possible. Help us identify Cog workers missing from the list. Just like Sylvester Marsh, we’ve invested enough in the database to demonstrate the “proof of concept” – Seats on this first data-train are limited – If you have to wait a bit to ride, check out the PDF versions of the Jitney Years manuscript below…

Coggers of Mt. Washington, NH Interactive Online Database Tool

Mt. Washington Cog Railways
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Jitney Years Project Manuscripts

Descriptions of Manuscripts

Jitney's Operating Manual

Learn how to safely operate a Cog Railway train in the 1950-1967 era. Check out the Cogger profile updates from the Cog Clatter newspaper (1966-1967). Get the history of Cog Railway worksite locations AND find notes from the Shop Repair Logs. Cog Documents from NH state archives & Maps of Various railway building configurations are now contained in a stand-alone Vol. 5 Documents & Maps download. Manuscripts as of Jan 2024.

Vol. 1 Ops Manual v3 - 733 pgs / 307 mb / Jan 2024
Vol. 5 Documents & Maps v1 - 714 pgs / 154 MB / Jan 2024

Mt. Washington Cog Railways
Mt. Washington Cog Railways

Employee Roster

A reorganized & updated alphabetical listing of Cog employees from 1866 forward in two volumes with profiles & images when possible. More names and stories being added as they are discovered/submitted - See Online Database Above.

Vol. 2A Roster - A to I - 474 pgs / 213 MB / Mar 2023
Vol. 2B Roster - J to Z - 579 pgs / 208 MB / Mar 2023

Aggregated Timeline

A collection of Cog specific newspaper articles through January 2024 in two volumes. Follow the day-by-day, blow-by-blow account of the World’s first Mountain-Climbing Railroad as told by reporters working during the 10 ownership eras - collated, transcribed and edited by Jitney Jr.

Vol. 3A Timeline - 1866 to 1967 v4 - 876 pgs / 325 mb
Vol. 3B Timeline - 1968 to 2024 v4 - 858 pgs / 393 mb

Mt. Washington Cog Railways
Mt. Washington Cog Railways

Jitney Years Appendix

Originally part of the Operating Manual, the Appendix now stands alone with new takes on usual Cog Railway topics like Peppersass & the Devil’s Shingle. Learn more about “other” Cog Railways, the “first” diesel loco proposal, struggles at the Summit (both natural & political), and members of the Cog family as artists, storytellers & serving their country - some as leaders - some as spies (?) as well as some inter-family squabbles. Manuscript as of Jan 2024.

Vol. 4 Appendix v3 - 915 pgs / 213 mb