bcp Wrote:
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> Can anyone add information on this?
> “They soon became the objects of sport and
> competition,” said Paul Forbes, a historian of
> the Mount Washington Railway.
>
> The record time on Mount Washington, as on Pikes
> Peak, reached a speed of about 60 mph."
Yes, for a time in the late 1800s and early 1900s, railroad employees on the Mount Washington Railway used these homemade devices, called "Slide Boards" to make their way down the mountain at the end of their shift. We all know that you don't want to stand in front of the factory door when the bell rings at the end of first shift. The workers don't want to spend one more second on the premises once they clock out. Such was the case on Mt. Washington. One can imagine that coming down the hill by more conventional means could consume considerable time. The so-called Devil's Shingle, which was little more than a board with some side rails that fit loosely over the track, enabled these guys to make it down the mountain in around 15 minutes on average. They had small hand brakes on them to keep their speeds under control, but it certainly didn't take long for a competition to develop among those who perhaps thought they might live forever. I'm told that the record for descending the 3 mile line was under 3 minutes. Think about that. The maximum grade was 37%! And of course, there was no OHSA back then.
Yep, it's kinda steep
My understanding is that after one or more notable accidents and at least one death, the railroad put a stop to this activity just after the turn of the century.
/Kevin
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2017 09:34PM by KevinM.
