The work doesn’t stop when the snow flies!

Winter in Northern New England starts early and doesn’t give up easily. The Mount Washington Observatory records measurable snowfall on the summit 12 months out of the year. Snow begins accumulating on and around the Cog Railway in mid-October, and it’s not at all unusual for trains to pass hikers heading for the Great Gulf or Huntington Ravine with skis and snowboards on their backs in June! The Mount Washington Auto Road on the eastern slopes of the mountain have the massive task of removing between 20 to 30 feet of snow every spring.

We have it a little easier over on the western side of the mountain, since the fierce winter winds tend to blow the snow cover above tree line off into the eastern ravines. Even so, portions of Jacob’s Ladder, 25’ above ground level, usually drift over, as do the tracks up to our winter destination for passenger trains, Waumbek Station.

Over the years we’ve experimented with a number of snow removal solutions, including a converted jet engine mounted on a diesel powered flat car. But in 2020, we rolled out the best snow removal machines we’ve ever had: a pair of heavy duty hydraulic powered snowblowers. Manufactured by Teamco in Tea, South Dakota, and modified with a custom built mounting frame fabricated in our shop, the larger snowblower was mated with M7 and sent up the mountain.

A similar smaller unit was designed to fit on our Skid Steer, a tracked utility vehicle that performs a multitude of year round tasks at the base station and shop complex. Since the tracks at Marshfield are built directly on the ground, snow and ice can be more difficult to remove, but the skid steer/snowblower combo does the trick.