Presby said the faster uphill trip allowed by the biodiesel engines that replaced the old steam engines meant the siding was no longer necessary. This location, called the Skyline, once housed a siding where trains could pass each other.

Presby said the company wants to build the hotel about a mile below the summit, near where a hiking trail called the Jewell Trail crosses underneath the train’s trestle. The Mount Washington Cog Railway runs three miles up the west side of Mount Washington, from a base station to the summit. There are options: One is to build it over the tracks, so the train goes through the middle,” he said.

“We haven’t really finalized what the design is going to be. Wayne Presby, who has owned the Cog Railway for 34 years, said the plan is to build 35 “high-end” rooms and a restaurant within the 99-foot-wide strip of land that the company owns straddling the railway line. Leon Rideout, a Lancaster Republican and member of the Coos County Planning Board, which will hear the proposal at a hearing Dec. “This one is certainly going to be interesting, because of where it’s located,” said Rep. The owners of the Mount Washington Cog Railway want to build a small hotel to deal with growing crowds of visitors drawn to the state’s highest peak – but to build it in an unusual spot, two-thirds of the way up the mountain, alongside the railroad track.

Cog railroad new hampshire