Earlier today, I had the opportunity to talk with the president of the Academic Film Archive of North America that is attempting to preserve old 16mm educational films. Because many of the films are outdated, school districts are literally throwing the canisters away.

To date, they have several thousand films in their archives; unfortunately, only a handful are available off their website for view. One short film, "Brake Free", features the Mt. Washington Cog Railway.

http://www.archive.org/details/brake_free_1970

The last segment of the film is worth the ride!

Thanks for sharing, just another example of preservation which doesn't involve a loco or a passenger car.

I found it interesting that right at the outset the film describes Wash Cog as "one of the very few which have never given up on steam". Sigh, I know it was necessary for their long term survival and profits but it was a sad day they went over to the dark side (diesel), and a somewhat ugly diesel at that. The only redeeming factor is that it's powered by a John Deere :) I wonder if someday anyone will miss the day when that diesel 'used to run'?

We don't often refer to their complex in the same breath as Orbisonia or Chama, but I believe its still the orginal shops from steam days. Is that right or can someone correct me on that?

I recall a story about train crews making sleds to ride on the cog and ride it down, the practice stopped when a sled "derailed" flying the person off killing him.

Wonderful film. Made just four years after my last year there. I didn't recognize any of the coggers-too bad. I must say I never saw a little boy or anyone else wearing a coat and tie and I don't know how they did the scenes where the kid appeared to be running the #2.
The final scenes of running down hill speeded up are the stuff of nightmares. Truly the good old days. It's not like that any more.

An addition to my earlier post. Yes, the shops are a must see for anyone interested in preservation. They date from the +/- 1890s and consist of a transfer table with back shop and loco stalls on one side and coach shop and stalls on the other. Should be have some protected status,, but they probably don't.