I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year - I'll catch up with all my reads and rates whe...
I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy New Year - I'll catch up with all my reads and rates when my guests have all gone home!
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A few years ago I wrote a list of all the things that I wanted to do before I shook off my mortal coil so to speak. The list included things such as a ride on the Orient Express and a climb to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral, both of which I have since done. It also still has many things yet to be achieved and taking the mountain railway up to the top of MountSnowdon was one of them.
As you may well know I have just been to Anglesey for a week’s holiday and as we toured around North Wales we found the mountain railway at Llanberis. We decided to return later in the week and take a ride up Mount Snowdon.
The railway station is on the main road through Llanberis, which is the A4086 from Caernarfon to Capel Curig. It is also easily accessible by bus from either Bangor or Caernarfon.
The Snowdon Mountain Tramroad and Hotel Company began building the railway in 1894 completing it in 1896. They used Swiss engineered rack and pinion
systems to cope with the steep gradient.
The railway runs every day between 15th March and 4th November each year, weather permitting. The trains go right up to the Summit Station from mid to late May until mid October given normal weather conditions but they usually terminate lower down the mountain at other times of the year.
No guarantees are given as to the running of the trains, the termination point of the journey or the view when you get there as the weather can be very different high up the mountain from what it is at sea level. It can also change dramatically and suddenly.
The first train runs at 9am providing there is a minimum of 15 passengers to make the journey worthwhile, and they then run at approximately half hourly intervals after that until 5pm at the latest.
It is advisable to book your train ride as soon as you arrive in Llanberis as each train only carries a maximum of 59 people and the places soon get filled. We arrived at 10.30am and got the last remaining tickets for the 11.30 departure.
There is plenty to do while you’re waiting in Llanberis. There is a souvenir shop, complete with a railway exhibition telling more about the building of the mountain railway. There is also a café and plenty of seating both indoor and outdoor. You could also walk the few hundred yards into Llanberis itself if you felt energetic, but you’d need to keep your eye on the time as the train will run on time whether you’re on it or not!
The prices were £16.90 for adults and £11.90 for children for a return journey, and we got concessions of £2 per ticket for the two senior citizens and one student in our group. In fact I was the only one to pay full fare – typical! We could have purchased single tickets for £11.90 for adults or £8.90 for children and walked back down, but it was far too hot for that. Besides mom and dad couldn’t have walked down, they’re in their 70’s after all. Look – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it, OK?
There are some journeys for which an early bird reduction of £3 for adults and £2 for children applies. These are the first two or three journeys of the day depending on the time of the year. It would be worth checking out the website or giving the station a call if you were intending to take advantage of this to make sure it was available on the day of your journey.
We paid by Visa, but could have also used Switch, cash or cheque so that was all very easy.
We were advised to be on the station platform a quarter of an hour before the train was due to depart, so that we would have more chance of being able to sit together in a group. The ticket reserves a seat on a particular train but it is not a specific seat, as there are no seat numbers as such.
We actually got there just as the previous train left and there were already quite a few people waiting. The train is one of five steam or four diesel trains running on this railway and there can be up to eight trains on the mountain at any one time.
The train is pushed up the mountain by the locomotive running chimney first behind it. The journey took us up the north west slopes to the terminus 3,494 feet above sea level and 3,140 feet above Llanberis Station. It travels along just over four and a half miles of track in about an hour at an average gradient of 1:7.8 which equates to 12.85%.
The maximum gradient is 1:5.5 equating to 18%, which is achieved over the final stage of the journey and I have to admit I was less than comfortable at this point. The train was rising steeply and looking from the windows the drop looked pretty hair raising too!
As I said earlier it took us about an hour to reach the Summit Station, taking in three stops on the way where the track splits into two in order for trains travelling in opposite directions to pass one another.
We then had half an hour at the summit to walk around, admire the views and take photographs. There is also a souvenir/gift shop, toilets and a café at the top too. The Summit Station isn’t quite at the very top of the mountain, but there is a relatively easy climb of a few metres to the actual top of Snowdon. There is also a post box up here so that you can send a postcard bearing the Railway Postal Label and it will be franked with the words ‘Summit of Snowdon – Cop’r Wyddfa’
Providing you return on the same train that you went up on you are guaranteed a seat for the return journey. You can however, choose to return on a later train but you have to take potluck as to whether there will be any seats available. It would obviously depend on whether anyone from that particular trip had chosen to walk back down.
I am scared of heights but, apart from feeling a bit uncomfortable towards the top where the gradient was at its steepest, I had no problem with this journey at all. The walkways at the top all have strong railings along them so I didn’t feel unsafe up there either.
The view from the top more than compensated for any doubts that I may have had. It was a little hazy the day we were up there, but we were told that on a clear day you could see as far as the Isle of Man and the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland.
I have now ticked that one off my list of things I want to do and I am very glad that I was brave enough to do it – it was brilliant!
One thing that did surprise me was the fact that it was just as hot at the top as it was at sea level. I expected it to be considerably cooler and had got everyone carrying fleeces just in case! I was well popular!
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Jul 31st, 2001
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