Cog Days: A Boy’s Life and One Tragic Summer
on Mt. Washington
McQuaid, president and former publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, spent his summer teenage years, working on the world-famous Mt. Washington Cog Railway.
His parents dropped a protesting McQuaid off at the Cog’s Base Station when he was 16 and promised to return at the end of the summer. Reluctantly, he started working with the girls at the lunch counter, but soon mastered the demands of being a brakeman and fireman. He learned inside and out what it took to work on a track crew and take care of the Cog.
McQuaid describes the early history of the White Mountains, recounts the beginning of the Cog Railway, and writes of Art Teague, a World War II hero, who bought the Cog in 1962 and nurtured it as a tourist attraction. He writes of its dedicated employees, workers who identified themselves as part of the Cog, or as Coggers. One sign of pride was to be seen wearing pants so dirty they could stand up by themselves. McQuaid spent five years as a Cogger until 1968, and describes every aspect of what it took to run, repair and clean the railway.
He also writes of 1967 when Teague killed himself. And, still reeling from his death, the Cog Railway took another blow. The Chumley car crashed, which killed eight people. The Cog recovered from the tragedies and runs to this day.
The book is published by PlaidSwede Publishing Co. in Concord.
His parents dropped a protesting McQuaid off at the Cog’s Base Station when he was 16 and promised to return at the end of the summer. Reluctantly, he started working with the girls at the lunch counter, but soon mastered the demands of being a brakeman and fireman. He learned inside and out what it took to work on a track crew and take care of the Cog.
McQuaid describes the early history of the White Mountains, recounts the beginning of the Cog Railway, and writes of Art Teague, a World War II hero, who bought the Cog in 1962 and nurtured it as a tourist attraction. He writes of its dedicated employees, workers who identified themselves as part of the Cog, or as Coggers. One sign of pride was to be seen wearing pants so dirty they could stand up by themselves. McQuaid spent five years as a Cogger until 1968, and describes every aspect of what it took to run, repair and clean the railway.
He also writes of 1967 when Teague killed himself. And, still reeling from his death, the Cog Railway took another blow. The Chumley car crashed, which killed eight people. The Cog recovered from the tragedies and runs to this day.
The book is published by PlaidSwede Publishing Co. in Concord.
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