Welcome to Railways of Britain

R.o.B

Presents

Kory McLeod

Singer/Song writer

Please have a listen:

Site 1

Site 2

Last Updated 25/02/2007

R.o.B Incline Railways

The Snowdon Mountain Railway

Including:

The Padarn Railway

The Llanberis Lake Railway

The Bangor & Caernarvon Railway

The Caernarvonshire Railway

(Caernarvon to Afon Wen)

The Nanttle Railway

The Caernarvon & Llanberis Railway

Mount Snowdon in North Wales is the highest mountain in Britain south of the Scottish Highlands, is surrounded by the Snowdonia National park, the peak of the mountain known as Yr Wyddfa in Welsh (Tumulus in English), and is 3560' high, Snowdon being Saxon for 'Snow Hill'. The Snowdon range has six ridges formed by glaciers in the ice age though of varying steepness some sheer and others shallower and grass covered. When the weather allows views from the top of the mountain show Ireland,  Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and of course Wales. Though it is obvious that people have climbed the mountain for hundreds of years the first recorded climb was in 1798 though has seen many more climbers since.  The mountain is of course a popular tourist site and as this is a railway website we come to the railway that was built to carry passengers up and down it to sample its views the first stop being Llanberis the town at the foot of the mountain range 10 miles from Caernafon. The town is sited at the foot of a long gorge running up the side of the mountain, with an industrial background connected to slate quarries that have terra-formed much of the valleys in the area, each quarry having there own network of industrial tramways. The quarries started as a small concern but due to the high quality of the slate they soon flourished growing from 1824 onwards. A horse worked 1' 10 3/4" gauge tramway  opening in that year to aid the movement of the slate to the purpose built Port Dinorwic on the Menai. The quarries are 2565' above sea level covering 700 acres of land, divided in to two sections with each section subdivided in to 20 'galleries', initially the stone was taken down from one level to another by sledges on ramps though the levels were later linked by rope worked inclines some with gradients up to 1:3, the tramway gauge along the gallery being the afore-mentioned 1' 10 3/4". Four stone cutting  mills were also built to saw and plane the slate in to slabs, one of the mills was driven by steam with thirty-horse power while the others were powered by water. By 1840 the tramway was carrying upwards of 60 tons a day though with the lightly laid nature of the line it soon became apparent that a new railway was required that would also benefit from a new route.

The main line of the tramway was re-built in 1843 for locomotive use at a cost of 35,000 pounds to create the Padarn railway of 4' gauge and 8 miles long a locomotive working to the top of an incline 800 yds long with the wagon connected to a continuous chain 1600 yards long to lower them down the gradient. The name Padarn Railway for the new line due to its running alongside the Llanberis lakes for three miles especially Lake Padarn. Despite the change in gauge the wagons of the former narrow gauge tramway remained in use in the quarries where it was impractical to use the larger gauge. The wagons in the quarry were pushed by hand to steep inclines where they were formed in to short trains of 4 wagons to be lowered down the valley face by gravity worked rope incline the quarry consisting of different levels. At the bottom of the incline they were loaded on to 4' gauge wagons for dispatch along the main line to Port Dinorwic. From 1870 shunting was worked by steam locomotives in the main galleries though the actual shunting of wagons at the work face remained human operated. With the change of gauge on the main line two 0-4-0 outside cylinder steam tender locomotives were ordered from S Horlock & Co of Northfleet Ironworks, Kent. These locomotives employed screw reversing gear with the valve gear driven of the front axle of the long wheelbase, the boiler and cylinders lagged with wood. The only braking was on the tender with sanding equipment fitted to the rear wheels which were sited behind the firebox. One of the locomotives No.1 'Fire Queen' was later preserved by the National Trust at Penrhyn Castle Museum which has an industrial railway section containing some of the locomotives that once operated on the Padarn railways, the other No.2 'Jenny Lind' cut up for scrap when both were withdrawn in 1886. To replace the two locomotives three 0-6-0T's were purchased from the Hunslett Engine Co of Leeds between 1881 and 1895, these locomotives could be detached from their train automatically by use of a lever on the footplate, the main line operating under one engine in steam principle with one on standby and the other under repairs. To maintain its fleet of locomotives the company developed works at Llanberis and Port Dinorwic which even maintained some of the boilers for the Snowdon Mountain Railway Engines. Most of the engines used in the galleries were again by the Hunslett with 18 supplied between 1870 and 1904 all saddle tanks with 'Sybil' being provided by Bagnall in 1906. A 12 ton 4 cylinder petrol locomotive built by Hardy Motors Ltd was tried out on the 4' gauge line in 1925.

'

An example of the Inclines at use at the quarry.

Dolbadarn at Llanberis station.

Picture Courtesy of Mick Knapton

The next railway to reach Llanberis was the single line Caernarvon & Llanberis Railway opened in 1869 as a branch of the Bangor & Caernarvon Railway (B&CR) also known as the Caernarvonshire Railway (CR). The B&CR opened its single line from Menai Bridge, on the North Wales main line just to the west of Bangor, 7 1/2 miles to Caernarvon in the July of 1852. The line ran through the Vaynol Tunnel and along the side of the Menai Strait via Port Dinorwic, the railway soon seeing a rapid growth in traffic. Caernarfon railway station was located on what is now the site of a supermarket the station built as a terminus on the northern side of the town. The 18 1/2 mile long CR route to Afon Wen followed part of the route of the Nantlle Railway (NR) which had opened in 1828. this tramway as with many in Wales at the time was slate orientated its purpose to transport slate quarried from Gloddfarlon Quarries near Nantlle Pool 9  1/4 miles to Caernarvon quayside for transhipment. The Railway took three acts of parliament to complete these granted on 20^th May 1825, 21^st March 1827 and in May 1828. The first act authorised the construction of the line, the second was to raise the maximum capital limit for the lines construction as the initial assessment was half the actual amount required and the third was to extend the construction time due to the two new acts taking up much of the time that was required for the building of the railway. The line was designed and built by Robert Stephenson (George Stephenson's older brother) and George himself, Robert proposing a wider gauge for the railway than the 3' 6" gauge it was built at. The rails were laid between stone sleeper blocks with horses providing the motive power for the site traffic and also some passenger traffic though the latter was not authorised by parliament. With the arrival of standard Gauge metals to Port Dinorwic and Port Penrhyn either side of the Nantlle Railway.

The Festiniog Railways 'Prince' departs Caernarvon station on the New section of the Welsh Highland Railway.

The CR was authorised under and act of Parliament on 29^th July 1862 to build a 27 3/4 mile long standard gauge railway between Portmadoc and the B&CR the course of this new route following much of the NR. In the same year the Pen-yr-Orsedd slate quarry saw a branch opened to the NR and by 1864 10,000 tons of slate was being transported along the branch to the Nantlle line. The tramway was laid throughout the quarry workings using the 3' 6" gauge of the Nantlle but also some sections of 2' gauge for the narrower work faces with this latter gauge used until the end of quarrying in 1979. The connection to the Nantlle line having been closed in 1963 transshipment having taken place from the narrow gauge wagons to the standard gauge main line since the NR's conversion to the standard gauge. These quarries were the last to be in commercial use in Wales. The CR took over the NR and obtained an act of parliament in 1867 to widen and upgrade the NR between Caernarvon and Penygroes to standard gauge with the intention of continuing southwards towards Afon Wen. A change of gauge remained at Penygroes for trains to Nantlle but when the London & North Western Railway took over the north Wales railway companies in 1871, the company soon applied to the Board of Trade for conversion of the rest of the former NR line through to Nantlle (Talysarn station) to standard gauge, with passenger trains starting up under Board of Trade authority and running up the 1 1/2 mile branch from Penygroes to Nantlle until August 1932.  The main line continued southwards from Penygroes across the Lleyn Peninsula to the Cambrian coast where Afon Wen joins the sea the CR opening throughout in September 1867 though there was no physical connection at the time between the B&CR and the CR until the LNWR took over in 1871, a connection with the GWR was available from Afon Wen. To connect the two sections of railway the LNWR constructed a 163yrd long tunnel under Castle Square in the centre of the town this resulting in the CR forming and end on junction with the B&CR at the latters station which was duly converted for through running. As the area became increasingly popular with tourists that now had good access to the welsh coast the LNWR doubled the former B&CR with Caernrvon station enlarged in 1894. By the 1930's decline was setting along the route and its branches for freight and passenger traffic and over the next 20 years stations were closed and some branches such as the Nantlle and Llanberis branches lost their passenger traffic in 1932 for the Nantlle and sometime in the 1930's for the Llanberis line. The line south of Caernarvon finally closed to all traffic in 1964 the track lifted 4 years later the former B&CR line was singled in 1966 but was finally closed in the January of 1970 despite measures to reduce the cost of operation, it was temporarily re-opened from the June of 1970 to February 1972 for freight to Caernarvon due to the the Brittania Bridge to Holyhead having being seriously damaged by fire the line finally being lifted at the end of 1972. The tunnel under Caernrvon is still in use as it was converted to road use in 1995 and as mentioned above the former station site is now home to a supermarket. The new terminus of the Welsh Highland Railway is on the trackbed of the Carnarvonshire Railway just south of the tunnel on St Helen's Road and opened as part of the first phase of the lines re-opening in 1997. Several miles of the trackbed southwards from Dinas have been used to improve the A487 road, some of the remainder of the line converted in to a cycle path. The 1869 C&LR branch ran parallel to the main line southwards the junction for Llanberis being on the outskirts of Caernarfon and it is possible that a Chaplin vertical boilered locomotive was used for ther lines construction by Mr S.C Ridley who was the contractor, the engine believed to have been put up for sale in the July of 1870 at Caernarvon. Llanberis station was closed inthe December of 1964 with the end of excursion traffic on the line with most of the track bed as far as Cwm-y-Glo now forming the alignment of the A4086 road, which bypasses the centre of Llanberis the original station still exists but is in private use.

Snowdonia National Park.

Picture courtesy freefoto.com

With the opening of the C&LR the opportunity arose for people to visit the mountain of Snowdon to climb or to take a donkey ride to the top. The LNWR, when they took over the North Wales lines, proposed building a railway up the side of the mountain from its terminus at Llanberis. The local landowner George William Duff Assherton Smith who wanted to preserve the nature of the area fiercely contested all these proposals and many others over the following 25 years. Despite their being huge quarries on the opposite side of the valley not because he did not want a railway on his land as his quarries on the opposite side of the lake Padarn showed but because he considered Llanberis as doing well without the need for a railway up the mountain. Wanting to tap in to the profitable market that they could see from the tourist trade local businessmen put together a Snowdon Railway Bill to be considered by parliament in the 1872 session, the railway proposed to use the Riggenbach Rigi rack system that was at the time being demonstrated in Switzerland and was considered a great success. Riggenbach's system is the oldest form of rack and pinion railway system and uses a ladder type rack that allows a geared wheel on the locomotive or train to connect with it was first developed in 1863 and first used on the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn in 1871. This became the first rack railway though this system is much more expensive and difficult to maintain than systems that were to develop over the following years. The proposed Snowdon Railway was to be just over 4 miles long starting at Llanberis main line station and was to climb several gradients to a terminus at Crib-y-ddysal, 500' below the summit the railway to cost 20,000 pounds the whole to be of single track throughout and described as a Railway or a Tramway. Once again Assheton Smith was to veto any railway plans and the scheme was thrown out. Another proposal this time in 1880 was by the railway engineer CE spooner of the Festiniog Railway who proposed to run a rack railway up one side of the mountain and doen the other side to join with the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway (NWNGR) at Rhyd-ddu, though this was again contested by Smith. Rhyd-ddu is in fact 1 3/4 miles closer to Snowdon summit than Llanberis which was 5 miles from the summit, so it soon became an obvious choice for the NWNGR to re-name 'Rhyd-ddu' 'Snowdon'. This move saw tourist traffic to Llanberis drop dramatically with the NWNGR station traffic increase dramatically, the economy of Llanberis was not helped by a slump in the slate in 1880. This led to increased pressure on Smith to allow the building of a rack railway up the mountainside to attract visitors back to the area seeing Smith withdraw any objection to any future proposal that made economic sense and would even allow sale of any land that was required. On 16^th November 1894 the Snowdon Mountain Tramroad & Hotels Co Ltd was registered to take over the Royal Victoria hotel in Llanberis and to build a second hotel at Snowdon summit a rack railway to take passengers up the mountainside. The survey for the railway was completed by 1^st July 1895 for the 4 mile long single track with passing places railway which would climb to 3493' above sea level with the 'Abt system' of rack rail to be employed. Abt was an engineer on a railway using the 'Riggenbach system' and had greatly improved on the initial design but had also reduced the expense.

This system has vertical steel plates in the centre of the track parrallel to the running rails with teeth machined in to them at specific equal distances apart which allow pinion teeth on a geared wheel on the locomotives driving axle to engage with them in a much smoother manner than the Riggenbach system. The rack is laid with two separate rack rails next to each other to ensur that the locomotive always has pinion teeth connected with the rail. The pinion wheels can be mounted on the same axle as the rail wheels or driven separately, in this case the pinion is driven off the axle, the outside running wheels acting as supports for the weight of the engine. The running rails were laid to a gauge of 2' 7 1/2" as reccomended by Abt himself. Work on the 4 mile long lines constuction which has an average gradient of 1:7.86 with the steepest gradient at 1:5.5 started on 15^th December 1894 with the possibility of electric traction being employed as an alternative to steam or alongside steam operation. To help with the lines construction three steam locomotives were ordered from the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Co of Winterthur, and five carriages from the Lancaster Carriage & Wagon Co Ltd locomotives No. 1 'Laddas' and No.2 'Enid' and No.3 'Wyddfa' arriving in 1895 with another two and No.4 'Snowdon' and No.5 'Moel Siabod' arriving in 1896, the first three locomotives playing an important role in the building of the line. These engines were of a similar design to one another each having 6 wheels and long side tanks with their boilers inclined downwards at a 9 degree angle towards the smokebox to keep water over the firebox crown as it ascended and descended the gradients the type often referred to as 'kneeling cow' design. These engines worked on saturated steam and slide valves with their side tanks extending along the boiler as far as the buffer beam each tank having two compartments, the smallest in front holding water for compression-cooling the rear one in addition to the well tanks are for boiler feed. It is very difficult to classify these engines under the normal Whyte system as the driving pinions are sited on the axles and are connected the running rail wheels as mentioned above run freely and only provide support for the engines weight and guidance. The locomotive builders guaranteed that the engines could propel 18 tons up a 1:5.5 gradient at a speed of 4.2mph, when the descent is carried out the locomotive is pushed by the carriage counteracting this by using a counter pressure air brake the flap for the chimney being swung over to cover it over minimising the draught through the fire to keep it good for the next run. There are three braking systems for the trains operated by hand steam and air with the maximum line speed at 5mph the locomotive and carriage never coupled and having learnt from the experience of the opening day only one coach trains are operated. The coaches were a plain design with no windows though they did have canvas curtains, and were built to a swiss design, the open sided nature to minimise the potential of the carriage being blown of the track by gale force winds, each able to accommodate 54 passengers and a guard, each carriage having its own set of pinions and automatic air brakes to stop the carriage rolling away in an emergency and if the trains speed exceeds 7.5mph the brakes automatically apply. Four goods wagons that were to be used for the lines construction and later for transporting baggage and supplies to the hotel, though with little use they were allowed to rot away.

The laying of Abt track has to be very precise and can only be achieved by continous laying from one end of the line to the other meaning that there was often delay in laying the track as earth works were completed this being the case with the construction of the higher of the two viaducts on the railway. The railway was single track throughout with passing loops at Henton, Halfway and Clogwyn with little or no signalling as it was found to be unnescesary though in the 1930's some lower quadrant semaphore signalling that had been installed on the line in 1896 was removed. The line consists of only 11 sets of points which is beneficial in a financial and practical sense as pointwork is very difficult to lay and maintain on Abt track. On the level sections only one rack rail is required but on th inspection pits at the shed this has to be kept in place to allow the engine to move. To reduce the time lost on mornings and evenings by the workmen returning to the village through the week huts were built on along the route their having to walk down to the village for entertainment at a weekend. By the April of 1895, two hundred workers were building the line in the hope that construction completed by the 1^st of July but with 4 1/4 miles of track laid in 72 days the summit was only reached on 6^th January 1896. The first passenger train on the railway was on the 9^th January 1896 taking directors and other guests up to the summit the journey taking 1 hour and 12 minutes. The railway opening for public operation on 6^th April 1896 with an order already placed for two more locomotives, the first train formed of only one coach proppelled up the railway as was to become the standard practice with the engine not coupled to the carriage for safety reasons, the next train did have towo coaches due to the amount of people wanting to travel on the railway. Both trains reached the terminus safely but in the return journey with No.1 'Ladas' leading its two coach train a mist descended on the mountain. On approach to Glogwyn station the train lurched with the carriages gaining speed seeing two passengers jump out in panic the railways General Manager quickly applying the carriage brakes to bring the train to a stop. Upon investigation it was found that there was in fact no locomotive at the head of the train it having de-railed and fallen down the side of the mountain, the driver and fireman having managed to jump out in time. This was not the end though as the following train hauled by No.2 'Enid' descended the line at caution but with the fog ploughed in to the back of the stationary coaches which were fortunately empty. No further public services were operated until the investigation was completed, which showed there was no clear evidence as to why the accident had occurred, though it was assumed it was down to some minor subsidence of the track. This saw the introduction of guide rails laid either side of the running rails with grippers fitted beneath the locomotives and carriages , the re-opening of the line taking place on 19^th April 1897.

A train descends from summit, note the open sided carriage and chimney closed.

Picture Courtesy Snowdon Mountain Railway.

The railway continued in service from that time right the way through WW1 with no problems though there was a limited service due to the war with a growth in visitors once the war had ended. To cope with the demand three new locomotives were ordered from Winterthur along with four more carriages in  the early 1920's with the first engine to arrive being No.6 'Sir Harmood' in 1922 followed by No.7 'Ralph' and No.8 'Eryri' these two arriving in 1923. These engines were different to the initial batch as they are superheated, have piston valves and have shorter tanks which are used for boiler feed only, the water for compression cooling being taken from the boiler, Nos. 7 & 8 both have deep well tanks which mean they do not need to stop on route to take on water, which the others do. On 15^th May 1928 the became the Snowdon Mountain Railway Ltd. With WW2 the line was little affected for most of the war a normal service operating up to 1941 but due to a ministry of supply experiment services were restricted to twice daily trains on a weekday with no services throughout 1944. Normal traffic resumed on 4^th May 1945 the only problem being the track and locomotives were in need of repair but with the lack of resources this proved difficult, No.4 having already being withdrawn from traffic in 1939 provided parts for the other engines until work could take place on its overhaul in 1961. The time was taken to convert the semi open carriages to all enclosed to provide a more comfortable ride for the more discerning passengers, with one coach per year being re-fitted with all seven complete by 1957, the last 1895 carriage being scrapped as beyond repair. On 31^st December 1951 the Snowdon Mountain Railway Ltd released itself from the hotel lease at Llanberis to concentrate more on the hotel at the summit and railway operation, work on upgrading the hotel at summit taking place in 1952. That year an RAF Anson aircraft crashed on the railway just above Clogwyn station stranding a train load of passengers that was descending the line stranding the passengers over night. The mid 1950's saw both No.4 'Snowdon' and No.2 'Enid' out of action though the latter engine was dispatched to Leeds and the Hunslett engine works for a full overhaul in 1958 bringing it back in to traffic. From 1960 the track was renewed at the Llanberis end much of it having been the original infrastructure from when the line opened with 4230 yards of track replaced, and with the other remaining engines sent away for overhaul once 'Enid' returned, 'Snowdon' returned to operation in 1963 with all overhauls from then on carried out at the shed at Llanberis. In 1986 to help the aging steam locomotives the railway purchased two 320hp diesel hydraulic locomotives from the Hunslet Engine Co each having a six cylinder Rolls Royce supercharged diesel engine with a 12 litre capacity. These locomotives becoming No.9 'Ninian' and No.10 'Yeti' with two more arriving in 1991 and 1992, becoming Nos.11 'Peris' and No.12 'George' respectively. The introduction of these locomotives brought high operating efficiency and economy  and see most traffic to save the 112 year old steam engines from too much strain, though in 2007 the SMR shows that only four of the engines are still in operation these being Nos.2 'Enid', 3 'Wyddfa', 4 'Snowdon' & 6 'Padarn'. In 1995 the railway also took the step of introducing three diesel electric railcars built in south Wales by HPE Tredgar Ltd, the units able to operate, when required, in multiple, though at present 2007 these are out of service. Control of the railway is from a base at Llanberis a Traffic Controller having two way radio communication with the train crews on route.

An engine ascends the mountain propelling its train.

The journey to Summit and back takes an average of 2 hours and on departing Llanberis station the line passes the original engine shed which is still used for the maintenance and preparation of the engines, just past here is one of the few civil engineering structures on the railway which is a stone viaduct taking the line on a climbing gradient over a road in the village.  Short way beyond here is the first passing station of Hebron from where the train continues to Half way the locomotive taking on water as it waits for a descending train to use the passing loop. Clogwyn station is is 1094' below the summit of the mountain and in 2007 is the terminus of the line as the former hotel at Summit is being re-built as a joint enterprise between the railway and Gwynedd County Council.