Mt. Washington Cog Railway passengers watch with interest as their Engineer greases numerous fittings during a stop at Waumbek Tank. The locomotive depicted here is #9, which has been the subject of numerous experiments over the last 10 years....including a well-publicized attempt to convert her to burn biodiesel. While that conversion has since been reversed, she still sports a few of the mods that went along with it. Visible between the trailing wheels on the tender is a large sprocket. This meshes with the cog rail and provides power to a feedwater pump via a chain drive. #9 is one of only two of the railway's locomotives (#2 is the other) to be equipped with a feedwater heater for increased efficiency. The feedwater pump (green housing) is located under the tender body and the feedwater heater itself is on the left side of the locomotive frame, out of view. Also visible here are the small deflector plates that were installed behind the tender's wheels. These are clearly designed to remove any stones, lumps of coal or other objects on the track that might result in a derailment. And yes....those are icicles hanging from the frame! It was a bit chilly on the mountain this day.
