Downbound Train: Return to Marshfield
You’ll hear the re-boarding announcement inside the visitor center, and our summit Station Master is on hand to help get everyone lined up for the return trip. Unless you came up on the steam train, you’ll most likely be returning to Marshfield on a different train with a different engineer and brakeman. And this time, we’ll flip the seat backs for you so you’re facing down mountain. You’ll also notice that the locomotive is now at the lead end of the train, and your Brakeman is inside at the brake wheels or the brake console. With a simple thumbs up, the Engineer knows that the Sprag clutch on the coach is disengaged, and the train can safely leave the summit.
While the route down the mountain is the same, the vista seems wider. In clear weather you can really appreciate the ruggedness and vast expanse of this sub-arctic terrain when it all unfolds in front of and around you. You can watch hikers following the faint path of the Gulfside Trail to just below the summit of Mount Clay; most of them will turn left to take the Jewell Trail back down to the Base Station, but a few may continue a long, strenuous traverse of the Northern Presidentials.
In adverse conditions the landscape seems more mysterious, and the hikers are colorful ghostly presences appearing briefly out of the fog before disappearing again into the void.
As the tracks curve to the left and pitch over onto Long Trestle and Jacob’s Ladder, the entire length of the railway can be seen ahead and below– Halfway House, the Waumbek passing loop, and Marshfield Station. You can follow the line of Base Station Road all the way out to Route 302, the red roofs of the Omni Mount Washington Resort, the ski slopes and gondolas at Bretton Woods, and on the distant horizon 25 miles to the west, the summit of Mount Lafayette marking the eastern wall of Franconia Notch. During foliage season in the fall, the landscape below is particularly stunning.
And all too soon, it’s over- your three hour journey has come to an end. Your brakeman and engineer will be at the boarding steps as you leave the train, celebrating the trip with high-fives for the kids and shared wonder at it all. We love this experience as much as you do.
But our work isn’t over– it’s time to prepare the engine and the coach for the next trip, whether it’s in 15 minutes or early the next morning. There’s always more to do to keep the Cog Railway climbing to the top of New England.