Snowdon Mountain Railway

Snowdon Mountain Railway
Rheilffordd yr Wyddfa
Snowdon Mountain Railway in June 2012
Overview
OwnerHeritage Great Britain[1]
LocaleGwynedd
Termini
Service
TypeRack-and-pinion mountain railway
Operator(s)Heritage Great Britain
History
Opened6 April 1896
Technical
Line length4 mi 55 ch (7.5 km)[2]
Number of tracksSingle track with passing loops
Rack systemAbt[3]
Track gauge800 mm (2 ft 7+12 in)
Route map
Scale map of the route
Snowdon
Mountain Railway
Engine shed
Llanberis
Waterfall
Hebron
Halfway
Rocky Valley Halt
Clogwyn
Summit

The Snowdon Mountain Railway (SMR; Welsh: 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 4.7 miles (7.6 km) from Llanberis to the summit of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales.[4] A return journey, including the stop at the summit, takes 2½ hours.[5]

The SMR is the only public rack-and-pinion railway in the United Kingdom,[6] and after more than 100 years of operation it remains a popular tourist attraction, carrying more than 140,000 passengers annually.[7] The line is owned and operated by Heritage Great Britain,[8] 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.

  1. ^ "Welcome to Heritage Great Britain PLC". heritagegb.co.uk. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  2. ^ Yonge, Padgett & Szwenk 2013, Map 51G.
  3. ^ "Snowdon Mountain Railway history". snowdonrailway.co.uk. Retrieved 28 March 2017.
  4. ^ Tourist Attractions in Snowdonia Wales – Visit Snowdon Mountain Railway!, archived from the original on 15 April 2003
  5. ^ "Plan your visit - Times & Prices - How to Find Us - FAQs". Snowdon Mountain Railway.
  6. ^ Snowdon Mountain Railway on AboutBritain.com
  7. ^ "Evaluation of Tourism Attractor Destinations: interim report". gov.wales. Retrieved 4 February 2020.
  8. ^ Heritage Great Britain plc