Visiting the Snowdon Mountain Railway

Will be attempting to do just this at some point over the next couple of weeks. Does anyone know which services are or tend to be steam hauled?
You cannot get a straight answer out of them when you ring up and ask!

 

It's pot luck, the missus and I visited on Sept 1st and found that some trains are diesel and some are steam hauled. I don't think there's a specific roster for steam and diesel hauled services.

 

When we went this summer, the first train of the day was diesel, and I believe this is the norm. Once the day was fully up and running, there were 7 trains, and it seemed like there were three diesel-hauled in a row, followed by four steam-hauled, though I guess that pattern might vary day-to-day. But you're hostage to the weather to some extent - if they can't run to the summit, they run fewer sets, so any planned roster would presumably go out of the window. So I guess they are right to be cautious about promising something they might not deliver on the day.

On that basis, if I were you I'd either take a chance on booking the fourth train of the day, or on being able to buy tickets on the day - though none were available the day that we went.

Hopefully someone else will be able to give you a more informed reply!!!

 

Is hauled quite the right verb to use seeing as the locos propel the coaches and are not actually coupled together? :wink:

 

Hi all,

There is generally no set plan for what is steam and what is diesel. My observations are as follows:

Two works trains go up first thing with diesels, the 0900 passenger is a diesel. From that point on it is all about demand but the 0930 during the Summer is often steam. Service usually runs half hourly but more than one train can go up at a time (a doubler). Up until August only three steam engines were available but no.6 returned from overhaul meaning all four 'operational' steam engines were working for the peak weeks.

Some pics from this year are here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/64433281@N07/sets/72157627039574586/

The railway is very friendly and happy to provide information on the day. The booking office will ring the controller to check what is steam if you ask.

Best regards,

 

Make sure you are at the front of the queue to board. The coaches were built for smaller people than walk the earth today and once there are three a side it gets quite interesting trying to fill to the four a side that is actually sold.

So much so that we walked away as six horrified faces looked at us from an already full compartment where there was simply no room left for anyone of greater stature than a five year old. The booking office said no refunds but we were given our money back with no quibble - must happen quite often!

 

Alternatively one could be daring and drive up the line in a 4x4! (Twice!) Sorry, could not resist it. (No, it wasn't me either.)

 

Went in summer, asked in the ticket office which was the next steam hauled service with available seats, bought tickets and came back two and a half hours later, incredible thrash up Snowdon.

Worked well for us, even the sun shone !

 

Book compartment A for the view, and pray you don't get any fat buggers in there with you! Get in the queue early to grab a window seat.

 

Better leave the wife behind then!

Thanks for the replies.

 

I see that the Wikipedia page for the SMR claims Nos. 7 & 8 (& 5) are 'under overhaul'. Is this just wishful thinking?

The SMR's own website makes no such claim - but it also says that 7 & 8 were removed from service in the 80s, despite the fact that I photographed one of that pair in steam in about 1991, so I'm not sure what to believe!

 

Perhaps you could spend your money that was refunded from the ticket on a years membership at slimming world (its a quid cheaper than weight watchers), rather than moaning about a very well established preserved railway over tickle tattle......

Either that or just sit in more than one compartment...

 

Another idea, why dont you suggest that they re-gauge the entire line so that you family can fit into wider coaches? Just a suggestion...

 

I don't think TBirdFrank has travelled on any railway in the UK since the demise of broad gauge :wink:

 

I can sense some insults about people who take care of their weight about to arrive........

ound:

 

It's not just Network Rail which has gauging issues. My kinematic envelope has changed considerably over the years.

Richard