Snowdon Mountain Railway

The Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR; cy, Rheilffordd yr Wyddfa) is a narrow gauge rack and pinion mountain railway in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. It is a tourist railway that travels for from Llanberis to the summit of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales.

The SMR is the only public rack and pinion railway in the United Kingdom, and after more than 100 years of operation it remains a popular tourist attraction, carrying more than 140,000 passengers annually. The line is owned and operated by Heritage Great Britain, operators of several other tourist attractions in the United Kingdom.

The railway is operated in some of the harshest weather conditions in Britain, with services curtailed from reaching the summit in bad weather and remaining closed during the winter from November to mid-March. Single carriage trains are pushed up the mountain by either steam locomotives or diesel locomotives. It has also previously used diesel railcars as multiple units.

The traditional logo for the railway includes a pinion ring engaged on a rack bar, representing the rack railway technology used by the line.

History

Construction

The idea of a railway to the summit of Snowdon was first proposed in 1869, when Llanberis was linked to Caernarfon by the London & North Western Railway. In 1871 a Bill was put before Parliament, applying for powers of compulsory purchase for a railway to the summit, but it was opposed by the local landowner, Mr Assheton-Smith of the Vaynol Estate, who thought that a railway would spoil the scenery.

For two decades nothing happened, and Assheton-Smith remained opposed to any plans. However, in 1893 the Rhyd Ddu terminus of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railways was renamed Snowdon, attracting many of the tourists who previously visited Llanberis and affecting the livelihoods of the accommodation providers who were Assheton-Smith tenants.

After much persuasion Assheton-Smith ultimately gave his assent to the construction of a railway to the summit, and though still the principal landowner in the area, he was not a major influence in the company. However, no Act of Parliament was now required, as the line was built entirely on private land obtained by the company, without any need for the power of compulsory purchase. This was unusual for a passenger-carrying railway, and also meant that the railway did not come under the jurisdiction of the Board of Trade.

The railway was constructed between December 1894, when the first sod was cut by Enid Assheton-Smith (after whom locomotive No. 2 was named), and February 1896, at a total cost of £63,800 (equivalent to £ in ). The engineers for the railway were Sir Douglas Fox and Mr Andrew Fox of London, and the contractors were Messrs Holme and King of Liverpool.

By April 1895 the earthworks were 50% complete, a sign of the effort put into the construction work as much as of the lack of major earthworks along much of the route.

All tracklaying had to start from one end of the line, to ensure the rack was correctly aligned; so although the first locomotives were delivered in July 1895 very little track was laid until August, when the two large viaducts between Llanberis and Waterfall were completed. Progress up the mountain was then quite rapid, with the locomotives being used to move materials as required. Despite the harsh climate the first train reached the summit in January 1896. As the fencing and signals were not then ready, the opening was set for Easter.

The line was opened at Easter 1896. In anticipation of this, Colonel Sir Francis Marindin, compounded by excess speed due to the weight of the train. As a result of the inquiry's recommendations the maximum allowed train weight was reduced to the equivalent of 1½ carriages, leading to lighter carriages being bought and used on two-carriage trains. A gripper system was also installed on the rack railway.

Prewar

The railway reopened to Hebron on Saturday 26 September 1896. On 9 April 1897 the line re-opened to Clogwyn. By June the trains were again reaching the summit. This time there were no incidents and the train service continued.

On 30 July 1906 a wagon broke loose and ran into a train, injuring one passenger, the driver and guard. Traffic was suspended for several hours.

In 1910 there were reports of vandalism on the line. A man named William Morris Griffiths who had climbed Snowdon to see the sunrise, placed a stone on the rail and sitting on it, slid down the track at speed. Someone put a boulder on the line behind him and pushed it down, and it struck Griffiths in the back, he somersaulted off the line and died a few hours later. The manager of the railway also reported that crowds of visitors were breaking down fences, pulling up gradient posts, throwing down wires and interfering with the railway bed.

In 1936 it was reported that the railway carried 30,000 people to the summit during the season.

Passengers were still carried during World War II. The ''Western Mail'' for 12 May 1943 reported that two trains per day would operate from Llanberis (at 1.15pm and 4.00pm) and people could still book to stay at the summit hotel. However, this appears to have been just propaganda, as the summit was closed for military purposes from 1942 until the end of the war.

Postwar

Normal service resumed in 1946. The shortage of coal led to the railway attempting to burn old army boots as fuel.} The British Railways Llanberis–Caernarvon line closed to passengers in 1962. In 1983, the summit buildings were transferred to the ownership of Gwynedd County Council. A share issue was made in 1985, primarily to raise money to purchase the first two diesel locomotives. Between 1986 and 1992 the railway company was involved with the airfield and aviation museum in Caernarvon.

Centenary

As part of the centenary celebrations the railway held an enthusiasts' weekend in September 1996. This was one of the few occasions when the public were allowed to visit the railway's workshops. Scrap pinion rings were also sold as (rather large) souvenirs. From this time the locomotives were painted in differing liveries, but by 2005 this practice had ended.

Summit building project

In 2006 the Snowdon summit cafe was demolished and construction of a new visitor centre was started. While this construction was taking place passenger trains terminated at Clogwyn, but the line and a works train was still used to transport workers and materials to the project. On some days, however, the train could not reach the summit and the workers had to walk down to Rocky Valley. The new building, ' (loosely translated from Welsh as ""), was officially opened by First Minister Rhodri Morgan on 12 June 2009.

Rescue work

In 2015, after the coastguard rescue helicopter was unable to reach the summit, the railway was used to carry mountain rescue teams to the summit of Snowdon to rescue a 17-year-old girl who had collapsed due to an asthma attack while sheltering from wind gusting up to . The railway was then used to carry the girl and rescuers to the foot of the mountain, where she was transferred to an ambulance.

Route

The lowland terminus is Llanberis station, at the side of the main road, a short walk from the site of the Llanberis terminus station of the railway from Caernarvon which closed in 1962. The railway is a single track line with passing loops. It is long, with an average gradient of 1 in 7.86 (12.7 %). The steepest gradient is 1 in 5.5 (18.2%), and this occurs in a number of places. The railway rises a total of , from above sea level at Llanberis to at Summit station.

Operation

The Llanberis complex also houses the company offices, locomotive shed and workshop building. The forecourt has recently been changed from a visitor car park into a café and picnic area.

Train control

Traffic and train movements are controlled from Llanberis: communication between Llanberis, Clogwyn and the Summit, as well as to trains' guards, is by two-way radio.

The line has three passing loops, around 15 minutes travelling time apart. Going up the mountain, these are at Hebron, Halfway and Clogwyn stations. The operation of the Hebron and Halfway loops was converted to semi-automatic operation in the early 1990s. The Clogwyn loop is still staffed and retains the original mechanical point levers. Waterfall station had a siding but never a loop, and has been closed for many years.

All three passing loop tracks are on the southwest side of the main running line – this is in general the downhill side, where the mountain slopes away from the line. This means that, if required, the line could be easily be converted to double track without the need to cut into the rock face to widen the formation.

Including stops at the passing loops, the train takes an hour to climb to the summit and an hour to descend again, at an average speed of around .

Passenger trains normally run from Llanberis to the Summit. The wind speed is measured at Clogwyn Station and used to determine if trains can continue to the summit. Trains terminate at Rocky Valley Halt when the weather is too bad to allow them to proceed safely to the summit.

It is possible for two trains to run together on sight, which involves the second train following shortly (more than two minutes but less than five) after the first, and keeping a safe distance throughout the journey. This is known as a "doubler". All platforms and passing loops are long enough to accommodate two trains.

The two Llanberis platforms are dedicated, one for arrivals and the other for departures. Arriving trains empty of passengers then shunt to the other platform. At the Summit station arriving trains generally alternate between the two platforms.

When steam and diesel trains run together, it is normal for the diesel to lead up the mountain. This allows the steam train to enter the departure platform and load at its leisure, while the diesel moves across from the arrival platform from a quick turn-around.

Locomotives spend the whole day with the same carriage. Any locomotive can work with any carriage, although carriage No. 10 (the most modern) until 2012 usually ran with a diesel locomotive.

In 2013 four new carriages, which seat 74 passengers instead of 56 (as in the old ones), entered service. They work together with the four diesel locomotives and thus form four identical trains.

Steam versus diesel

For steam-hauled trains, the Llanberis shunt movement includes a trip to the water crane and coaling stage outside the locomotive shed. At Halfway Station steam locomotives also take water from a water crane, fed from a large tank located just above the station. For emergency use another large water tank is situated near Clogwyn Station which can feed two water cranes.

The diesel locomotives are used on the normal trains, with the steam locomotives being used on higher priced Heritage Steam trains. On arrival at Llanberis, diesel-hauled trains run directly from the arrival platform to the departure platform, load and depart at the scheduled time. Steam-hauled trains take at least half an hour to transfer from the arrival to the departure platform, thus making no more than one trip every three hours.

The use of diesel locomotives therefore allows more trains to be run with the same number of carriages. By using diesels, the reduction in costs for both operating trains over the line and having them standing between infrequent runs has allowed the operating season to be extended considerably.

It is stated by the management that the vast majority of passengers do not care whether the trains are powered by steam or diesel locomotives. In the late 1980s comparative figures for the diesels against steam locomotives made it clear that they made economic sense.

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Technology

Rack rail

The line is built to 800 mm gauge ( gauge), a gauge it has in common with several rack railways in Switzerland. The rails are fastened to steel sleepers. The line uses the Abt rack system devised by Roman Abt, a Swiss locomotive engineer. The system comprises a length of toothed rail (the ''rack'') between the running rails which meshes with a toothed wheel (the ''pinion'') mounted on each rail vehicle's driving axle. These pinions provide all the traction and braking effort, and the vehicle's wheels are free to revolve on the drive axles and serve only for support and guidance.

Train formation

For safety, train formations consist of one locomotive pushing a single carriage up the mountain and leading it down again while the locomotive brakes allow a controlled descent. (On opening, the usual practice was to have a locomotive pushing two coaches; this was changed in 1923.) The carriage is not coupled to the locomotive, as gravity keeps the two in contact.

Rolling stock

The company has owned a total of eight steam locomotives, five diesel locomotives and three diesel railcars.

History

When the railway was being planned, only the Swiss had significant experience in building rack locomotives, so it was they who won the contract to build the engines for the line. In comparison with some Swiss railways the line is not very steep, and this is reflected in the design of the engines, which are all classified 0-4-2T. The boilers of the locomotives are set at an angle of 9°, to keep the water level over the tubes when the locomotive is ascending the mountain.

Built specially for the line in 1895 and 1896, Nos. 1 to 5 were manufactured by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur. The first locomotives cost £1,525 (equivalent to £ in ). Nos. 1 to 3 were delivered before the line was open and used on construction work. On at least two occasions, trials have been made on oil burners on Nos. 2 to 5, the latest being on No. 2 in the late 1990s.

For most of the time, the railway's steam locomotives have burnt coal. The requirement for the locomotives to have a hot fire burning efficiently for a solid hour has led to problems when best Welsh steam coal has not been readily available. During 1978 Nos. 2 and 8 ran with oil burners. To hold the fuel oil, a tank was fitted to the roof of each locomotive. The tanks were thin and followed the profile of the roof. In 2000, No. 2 was again fitted with an oil burner in an attempt avoid the increasing problems of obtaining suitable coal.

In 1922–23 a further three locomotives were delivered, becoming Nos. 6 to 8. Although similar to the first engines in terms of size and power, they have a different design. Again all were built by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur.

When the boilers of Nos. 7 and 8 needed replacing they were withdrawn from service in 1990 and 1992 respectively, but no new boilers were bought. This is probably due to the extra expense of superheaters, and to the reduced need for steam locomotives after the introduction of the diesels. Neither is likely to run in the foreseeable future.

The railway first thought of using a diesel locomotive in the early 1970s, when a small four-wheeled diesel-mechanical locomotive built by Ruston & Hornsby (their class 48DL) was bought second-hand from a quarry. It was intended to regauge it and use it as a yard shunter at Llanberis. It was sold to the Llanberis Lake Railway in 1978 without being regauged or used on the SMR. It would have been the railway's only locomotive without pinions, and as such would have been of limited use – it is doubtful if it would have had sufficient grip on the grease covered rails to shunt a dead steam locomotive. This locomotive has since been dismantled and scrapped.

It was the mid 1980s before any effort was made to obtain a diesel locomotive that could work trains up the line. Between 1986 and 1992, four diesel locomotives were bought from the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds, to a design and specification jointly developed with the railway. These became Nos. 9 to 12. During the period between the building of No. 9 and No. 12 both the locomotive manufacturer and the diesel engine manufacturer changed their names, Hunslet becoming Hunslet-Barclay and Rolls-Royce diesel engines being sold to Perkins.

In 1995 three identical railcars built by HPE Tredegar (successor to Hugh Phillips Engineering) were delivered. These were designed to run as either two- or three-car multiple unit trains. When all three were coupled together, they were the maximum length of a train that could fit into the platforms and passing loops.

List of motive power

Hybrid locomotives

On 13 August 2019, the railway announced that it had ordered two new battery-diesel hybrid locomotives from Clayton Equipment for introduction at the start of the railway's 2020 season, at a cost of £1.1 million. The intention was that the diesel generator on the new locomotives would be switched off on the downhill runs, with regenerative service braking used to recharge the battery to provide power for the next ascent. This method of operation meant that the locomotives' engines, which comply with Euro V emission standards, could be less powerful than those on the existing locomotives, thus providing maintenance and fuel savings, quieter operation, and lower emissions.

It was announced in February 2020 that the new locomotives were due to enter passenger service in May 2020. However, the launch was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022 both were returned to Clayton Equipment, having been deemed unsuitable for the SMR, by not generating sufficient energy when descending.

Opening day accident

First train

The public opening was on Monday 6 April 1896. A train was run from Llanberis to the summit to check that no more boulders had come loose; it is thought the locomotive was No. 2 ''Enid''. On its return to Llanberis, locomotive No. 1 ''Ladas'' departed with two carriages on the official first train. Shortly afterwards, No. 2 ''Enid'' departed with a second public train. All went well on the ascent, except that mist and cloud was covering the top of the mountain and extending down to about the level of Clogwyn Station.

At a little after noon, ''Ladas'' with the two carriages started back down the mountain. About above Clogwyn, where the line runs on a shelf formed across a steep drop, the locomotive jumped off the rack rail, losing all braking force and accelerating down the track. At first it remained on the running rail and the driver tried to apply the handbrake, but with no effect. Realising that the train was out of control, the driver and his fireman jumped from the footplate.

''Ladas'' ran about after losing the rack rail before hitting a left-hand curve. Here it derailed and fell over the side of the mountain. The two carriages accelerated to a speed at which the automatic brakes were triggered (). These brakes brought both carriages to a stand safely. One of the passengers, Ellis Griffith Roberts of Llanberis, on seeing the driver and fireman jump from the locomotive did likewise. Falling to the ground, he sustained a serious injury to his leg, which later had to be amputated, and he died.

Second train

In derailing, locomotive No. 1 had broken the telegraph lines used to signal between stations. Some versions say that the wires had touched as they were hit and made a signal that was mistaken for the 'line clear' signal, while other versions say that so long a time had passed that the people at the summit assumed that the telegraph system had failed. Whichever is true, the other train left the summit on its descent.

In spite of the line speed and a man being sent back up the line to warn the second train, it did not stop before reaching the point where No.1 had lost the rack rail; exactly the same thing happened, with No. 2 losing the rack rail and accelerating out of control. This time, however, the line was blocked by the carriages of the first train; No. 2 hit these with some force, causing the carriages of the first train to drag their brakes and run away down the line, and causing the locomotive to drop back onto the rack rail and stop safely. The carriages from the first train rolled down the line to Clogwyn station, where they became derailed.

Locomotive No. 1 was recovered and taken back to Llanberis.

Inquiry

It was revealed during the inquiry that the locomotive on a ballast train had lost the rack in January 1895 a little lower down the line. Details are not recorded, but it is likely that the locomotive dropped back onto the rack and was not badly damaged.

After hearing all the evidence, it was decided that the weather had caused a freeze–thaw action which had led to settlement in the ground. Another contributory factor was the construction work being carried out during poor weather, and then not being checked for settlement when the weather had improved. The settlement was sufficient to twist the tracks and reduce the contact between the rack (on the track) and the pinion (on the locomotive). The weight and speed of the train did the rest. The damage caused by the first derailment made the second almost inevitable.

Recommendations

The first recommendation was that the maximum load for the locomotives be reduced to the equivalent of carriages. These led to a further carriage being bought that was smaller and lighter than the others. From then on, only this carriage was used, with one of the originals, for two-carriage trains.

The second recommendation was that a gripper system be installed (see Gripper rail). This required extra rails to be added to the rack rail and a mechanism to be fitted to the locomotives and carriages.

See also

* Llanberis Lake Railway
* British narrow gauge railways
* Snowdonia National Park
* List of wind-related railway accidents

References

Sources

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Further reading

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External links

Snowdon Mountain Railway official site

{{Coord, 53.0998, -4.1045, display=title, format=dms, name=Snowdon Mountain Railway, Llanberis

Mountain railways
800 mm gauge railways in Wales
Railway stations in Great Britain without road access
Railway companies established in 1894
Railway lines opened in 1896
Rack railways in the United Kingdom
Heritage railways in Gwynedd
Llanberis
Heritage railways in Snowdonia
1896 disasters in the United Kingdom