This trip was done roughly around midsummer during 2022
History
Snowdonia (Eryri) and the summit of Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) has been a tourist magnet for a long time which became a significant earner during the Victorian age when railways enabled many more people to travel
Various towns competed for a share of the tourist trade and Llanberis was very popular after a railway from Caernarfon was opened in 1871, to serve both slate trade and tourism too. But when a railway was opened to Rhyd Ddu tourists started to shift South to walk up Snowdon from Snowdon Ranger and Ryd Ddu. Llanberis wanted to secure their place as the main tourist hub and the idea was floated to build a railway from the town to the summit
Railways have specific laws around policing, inspection and operation. To establish a railway requires and act of parliament which was difficult and expensive and avoided by everyone where possible, for example continued use of many tramways used by slate quarries where goods could be rolled down and the empty waggons could be brought back up by horses or hauled by cables rather than driven by engines as a tramway wasn't a "railway". As an odd loophole at the time, the Snowdon Mountain Railway were able to establish without an act of Parliament as they managed to purchase all land themselves (no compulsory purchase) and didn't carry goods
The railway was constructed between December 1894,and February 1896, at a total cost of £63,800 (equivalent to £8 million in 2021). Engineers were Sir Douglas Fox and Mr Andrew Fox of London the principal contractors were Holme and King of Liverpool.
The distance of the track is 7.5km and the height between the summit station 1,065m (20m below the actual summit) and Llanberis station 108m is 957m.
Consider that for a moment 957m of height over 7.5km - or another way to think of it is 7.7km with an average slope of 1:7.8 (although on the route some sections are shallower and some are as steep as 1:5). No wonder it needs to be a rack and pinion system.
If you consider only the section outside the town in a slightly more secluded area such as Hebron station/Summit station, Hebron is 326m you still have (1065-326) 739m of height drop over roughly 5.5km - or another way to think of it is 5.5km track (horizontal equivalent) with average gradient 1:7.4 (although much is 1:5). WOW, that caught my attention! What a run of track! not only length but height even more so!
Compared to an average railway the Snowdon Mountain Railway is unusual, it has steep sections including on corners within cuttings. The expertise came from the Swiss, who had experience of mountain rack and pinion railways and the distance between the centres of the tops of the rails (track gauge) was 800mm rather than something in imperial measurements. The track system had been invented by the Swiss engineer Dr. Roman Abt in 1885.
However the setup wasn't quite the same as the Swiss and the trains weren't quite the same and the track was slightly bumpier due to settlement which meant that there was a tendency for trains to bump up and derail. On the official day of opening of the railway 6th April 1896 *both* trains were derailed on decent. The first the locomotive "LADAS" on the way back down derailed and was wrecked tumbling down the mountain taking a carriage down with it, one passenger was fatally injured jumping from the train, the remaining carriages were struck by the other train descending derailing that too. As a result, the railway was closed and an additional gripper rail was fitted around the rack in the centre of the track, this is like angle iron on each side forming a kind of T shape together giving the train something to keep it held down. The additional gripper rails are on most of the track but a few sections are without it.
The gripper rail forms a kind of trough or channel, traditionally local kids would find pieces of stone that would sit in the channel and sit on them to slide down, the problem is that if you are thrown off the rack the rack is particularly effective for injuring people, I've heard tales of some old folk in Llanberis missing a thumb as a result of childhood track-surfing pranks. There are accounts of some early climbers (like Joe Brown) sliding down sections of railway like this. In 1910 someone called William Griffith was killed after sliding down a section someone let a piece of rock slide after him which struck in the back and he died a few hours later. Apart from the obvious health and safety stupidity of trying to slide down a railway a limiting factor is all the right shaped stones are no longer at the top of the mountain
so this is no longer done today. Even the most "special idiot" should be dissuaded from playing on the railway. Please do Not "do this at home".
One more unusual feature we learned about, is that because the running rails are not used for traction or braking the trains, they grease the rails. Let me impress that again, there is a film of grease on the rails . This is noticeable in the section from Llanberis to Clogwyn station where trains stop in 2022 due to track replacement works between there and the summit, in the upper section the rails are as grippy as you would expect, but *not* in the section where trains are running.
Did those Victorian Engineers realise they were creating the UK's best (and arguably one of the best in Europe) "Luge" tracks?
Continued...
History
Snowdonia (Eryri) and the summit of Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) has been a tourist magnet for a long time which became a significant earner during the Victorian age when railways enabled many more people to travel
Various towns competed for a share of the tourist trade and Llanberis was very popular after a railway from Caernarfon was opened in 1871, to serve both slate trade and tourism too. But when a railway was opened to Rhyd Ddu tourists started to shift South to walk up Snowdon from Snowdon Ranger and Ryd Ddu. Llanberis wanted to secure their place as the main tourist hub and the idea was floated to build a railway from the town to the summit
Railways have specific laws around policing, inspection and operation. To establish a railway requires and act of parliament which was difficult and expensive and avoided by everyone where possible, for example continued use of many tramways used by slate quarries where goods could be rolled down and the empty waggons could be brought back up by horses or hauled by cables rather than driven by engines as a tramway wasn't a "railway". As an odd loophole at the time, the Snowdon Mountain Railway were able to establish without an act of Parliament as they managed to purchase all land themselves (no compulsory purchase) and didn't carry goods
The railway was constructed between December 1894,and February 1896, at a total cost of £63,800 (equivalent to £8 million in 2021). Engineers were Sir Douglas Fox and Mr Andrew Fox of London the principal contractors were Holme and King of Liverpool.
The distance of the track is 7.5km and the height between the summit station 1,065m (20m below the actual summit) and Llanberis station 108m is 957m.
Consider that for a moment 957m of height over 7.5km - or another way to think of it is 7.7km with an average slope of 1:7.8 (although on the route some sections are shallower and some are as steep as 1:5). No wonder it needs to be a rack and pinion system.
If you consider only the section outside the town in a slightly more secluded area such as Hebron station/Summit station, Hebron is 326m you still have (1065-326) 739m of height drop over roughly 5.5km - or another way to think of it is 5.5km track (horizontal equivalent) with average gradient 1:7.4 (although much is 1:5). WOW, that caught my attention! What a run of track! not only length but height even more so!
Compared to an average railway the Snowdon Mountain Railway is unusual, it has steep sections including on corners within cuttings. The expertise came from the Swiss, who had experience of mountain rack and pinion railways and the distance between the centres of the tops of the rails (track gauge) was 800mm rather than something in imperial measurements. The track system had been invented by the Swiss engineer Dr. Roman Abt in 1885.
However the setup wasn't quite the same as the Swiss and the trains weren't quite the same and the track was slightly bumpier due to settlement which meant that there was a tendency for trains to bump up and derail. On the official day of opening of the railway 6th April 1896 *both* trains were derailed on decent. The first the locomotive "LADAS" on the way back down derailed and was wrecked tumbling down the mountain taking a carriage down with it, one passenger was fatally injured jumping from the train, the remaining carriages were struck by the other train descending derailing that too. As a result, the railway was closed and an additional gripper rail was fitted around the rack in the centre of the track, this is like angle iron on each side forming a kind of T shape together giving the train something to keep it held down. The additional gripper rails are on most of the track but a few sections are without it.
The gripper rail forms a kind of trough or channel, traditionally local kids would find pieces of stone that would sit in the channel and sit on them to slide down, the problem is that if you are thrown off the rack the rack is particularly effective for injuring people, I've heard tales of some old folk in Llanberis missing a thumb as a result of childhood track-surfing pranks. There are accounts of some early climbers (like Joe Brown) sliding down sections of railway like this. In 1910 someone called William Griffith was killed after sliding down a section someone let a piece of rock slide after him which struck in the back and he died a few hours later. Apart from the obvious health and safety stupidity of trying to slide down a railway a limiting factor is all the right shaped stones are no longer at the top of the mountain
so this is no longer done today. Even the most "special idiot" should be dissuaded from playing on the railway. Please do Not "do this at home".One more unusual feature we learned about, is that because the running rails are not used for traction or braking the trains, they grease the rails. Let me impress that again, there is a film of grease on the rails . This is noticeable in the section from Llanberis to Clogwyn station where trains stop in 2022 due to track replacement works between there and the summit, in the upper section the rails are as grippy as you would expect, but *not* in the section where trains are running.
Did those Victorian Engineers realise they were creating the UK's best (and arguably one of the best in Europe) "Luge" tracks?
Continued...
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