A picture is worth a thousand words

I’ve had a webcam continuously mounted to the roof of my family’s cottage on Lake Sunapee since 2014, mainly with the purpose of spying on the weather when away from the lake. Our view of Sunapee Harbor is one of the best views on the lake. Unfortunately, from the angle of the webcam, you can’t see Mt Sunapee, which is located directly behind the tall tree on the right.

I wrote a program for a Raspberry Pi micro computer that sits inside the cottage which uploads photos from the camera to a website, which also gets forwarded to other weather websites such as Windy and, formerly, Weather Underground. Windy even generates 24-hour time-lapses.

Additionally, within the last couple years, I wrote another program that tweets the sunset and sunrise webcam photos on the @SunapeeWX Twitter feed. Slowly, I’ve made improvements to the feed, including embedding a temperature forecast API. Soon, I hope to integrate a sunset/sunrise forecast API, SunsetWX, which is also available via the Alpenglow iPhone app.

Keeping a remote webcam online over the years has proved to be a challenge, particularly with intermittent power and internet. This is the second webcam I’ve had on the roof and this spring I’ll probably upgrade and get a newer one. The sensor is starting to fail, thus why it frequently shows blank or pixelated images. The Chinese firmware in this Amcrest camera is also particularly bad. The reviews on newer Reolink cameras look more promising.

I’ve also experimented with personal weather stations on the roof over the years, but those have proven to be finicky as well, so I’ve chosen to focus on the webcam instead. The webcam has been extremely useful for anticipating both aviation and ski conditions. A picture is worth a thousand words!

The Mountain Division

North Conway Depot was designed by Bostonian Architect Nathaniel J Bradlee

The Maine Central Railroad’s Mountain Division thru Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, is the crown jewel of the historic mainline railroads in New England. The road snakes into the White Mountains to Crawfords Station, about 25 miles north from North Conway. An inactive right-of-way continues another 45 miles from Crawfords to St Johnsbury, VT.

Other than the grand scenery, the significance of this line was that it once served as the primary route for freight traveling from Maine to points west of Chicago via Canada. After the consolidation of the Boston & Maine and Maine Central railroads in the 1980s, the preferred route for freight was the St Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad via Gorham and Berlin, NH, which has more gentle grades.

Nowadays, the glory of the Mountain Division can still be experienced aboard the Conway Scenic Railroad‘s Mountaineer train, which my parents and I had the pleasure of doing the week before Thanksgiving this year, during my interim between jobs. This was the Conway Scenic Mountaineer’s final excursion of the 2021 season and the neat thing about the ride late in the year is the ability to see the snow-capped peaks without foliage blocking the views.

Drew’s reflection onboard Conway Scenic’s Mountaineer on the Maine Central’s Mountain Division in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire

Trip highlights

  • North Conway Depot – The mountain backdrop with Cathedral Ledge and the atypical architecture for New England make this a photo destination unto itself. This is was designed by Bostonian architect Nathaniel J Bradlee and is considered a unique blend of Victorian and Imperial Russian architecture. Bradlee was an accomplished architect and designed many of the brownstones in Boston’s South End.

  • Frankenstein Trestle – It’s a long curved trestle. A lot of bystanders take pictures of the traversing trains and I’ve spotted several great drone shots on Instagram of trains on this trestle. Honestly, it’s not the most scenic part of the ride, but it must have been quite the engineering feat when the railroad was built in the mid-1800s.

  • Mt Washington views from Crawford Notch – Nothing short of amazing. I’ve been on many trains thru the Swiss Alps and the views along here are in the same league.

  • Crawfords Station – Another fine example of Bradlee’s work, although slightly more standard Victorian. There are many excellent photos ops of the station with Crawford Notch in the background.

  • AMC Highlands Center – Probably Appalachian Mountain Club’s most modern lodging facility. It has a gift shop, restrooms, a cafe, and many scenic vistas. This is walking distance from Crawfords Station.

One of the big themes of the guided narration during the train ride was mortality. Both the aspect of inhabiting an avalanche-prone valley and operating a railroad in the wilderness a century ago were dangerous prospects. The conductor memorialized many lives lost trying to tame the savage elements of the White Mountains. Along the railroad itself, there were numerous accidents, including a particularly bad train boiler explosion. It’s no wonder that the American Indians demurred from inhabiting much of the rugged terrain and were also reluctant to ascend the high peaks.

Conway Scenic trains reversing direction at Crawfords Station

This was a long ride, sitting at about 5 hours round trip. It’s unfortunate that the tracks in the low country leading up to the notch aren’t in slightly better condition allowing for faster speeds, since the scenery is not quite as interesting as it is along the notch. However, the weather was as good as it possible could have been since Mt Washington’s summit is usually hidden in the clouds the vast majority of the year. Also fortunately, the seats are very comfortable and the large windows offer the audience world-class views. This was a wow.