Driving up through the Mount Washington Valley from Bartlett, NH to Bretton Woods, NH is an amazing drive up through the narrow Carter Notch with its sheer cliffs, mountain ponds and waterfalls.
Even more amazing is the spindly train trestle that peaks through the trees high above the road. With Frankenstein Cliffs, a favorite of ice climbers in the winter towering above and a sheer drop off to the valley below on the other side, Frankenstein trestle to this day provides safe passage for the Conway Scenic Railroads as it snakes through the valley from North Conway to the Carter Notch Station.
Since September of 1995, the Conway Scenic Railroad has offered seasonal, passenger excursion trains on a five-hour round trip through the Notch. Starting at its 1874 Victorian station in North Conway Village, the “Notch Train” proceeds through Crawford Notch State Park and the White Mountain National Forest to Crawford Depot, and includes traveling over the Frankenstein Trestle.
https://www.conwayscenic.com/history/building-frankenstein-trestle/
Having hiked up the snowline on the beautiful Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail in the morning of a beautiful sunny late October day, I decided to head to Carter Notch and see if anything was happening.
My timing was perfect as the Conway Scenic Train had just pulled into Carter Notch Station. I stopped to take a few photographs and then tried to plan out a good location to photograph the train on it’s return trip.
I knew that ice climbers frequent the area around Frankenstein Cliffs in the winter and looked for a promising location. I spotted a rough pullout that looked like an unmarked parking lot for about 10 cars but signs and not trail blazes.
With the leaves on the ground, it was difficult to figure out a path the base of the cliff but I started out on a promising opening through the trees. I walked a bit but then got nervous that I was following nothing more than a game trail.
Luckily I spotted a couple of young guys with cameras heading up the trail. A couple of railfans up for the day from Massachusettes. Confirming they knew where they were going I tagged along.
We carefully crossed the trestle (I tried not to look down through the steel grates!) and tried not to think about that scene in “Stand By Me” where the kids nearly get run over by the train on the trestle.
Then we set up positions and waited about a half-hour for the train to slowly snake around the bend. It stops on the cliff for about ten minutes for picture taking and then blows its horn and slowly makes it way across the tracks.
My younger companions had scramble up the rocks for the classic “money shot” of the train on the trestle lit by the sun that is seen on Instagram but I wasn’t about to break my neck for the photo.
I took a different angle and was glad I did because as the train past I was able to jump on the tracks and get a cool shot of the back of the train as it squeezed between two sets of rock cliffs.
It’s a different shoot from a location that has been shot a lot and should make for a good book cover.