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New SMR Carriages

Discussion in 'Narrow Gauge Railways' started by Christopher125, Nov 5, 2012.

  1. Christopher125

    Christopher125 Part of the furniture

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    BBC News article + video - Snowdon Mountain Railway taking delivery of new carriages

    A new livery too by the looks of it.

    Chris
     
  2. paulhitch

    paulhitch Guest

    Does anyone know the builder?
    P.H.
     
  3. 5944

    5944 Resident of Nat Pres

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    They don't look as bad as I was expecting. I thought they would be more like the "new" coaches at Brienz-Rothorn Bahn in Switzerland, with huge, curved sliding windows. And good to see they're planned to be used with the diesels instead of steam.
     
  4. david1984

    david1984 Resident of Nat Pres

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    Not too sure on the black part of the livery but otherwise they seem pretty fit for purpose, the SMR is really more for transport to the summit than a heritage railway, the Steamers only usually come out to play once all the servicable Diesels have been allocated.

    One thing I don't understand though if they wish to increase capacity, wasn't the the originally intended max train length load 2 ?, why has this never been looked at again ?, it wasn't an a factor in the LADAS incident and the Swiss equivelents regularly run with load 2/3.
     
  5. 48DL

    48DL Member

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    I wonder if they will offer the old ones for sale?
     
  6. MuzTrem

    MuzTrem Member

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    I must say, I'm a little concerned about the condensation on the windows. You'd think they would have taken the opportunity to introduce double-glazing! ;)
     
  7. Christopher125

    Christopher125 Part of the furniture

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    A little more detail of their construction in this video - looks like the main concern was reducing weight.

    Chris
     
  8. ragl

    ragl Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for the link Chris, one detail is of interest, reading the piece it appears there are 4 coaches being delivered - the price - £1.2 million!! WOW!!

    Cheers

    Alan
     
  9. Christopher125

    Christopher125 Part of the furniture

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  10. AndrewT

    AndrewT Member

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    That's a bit of a slight on Winson, not to mention Boston Lodge, which builds all our carriages these days.
     
  11. Christopher125

    Christopher125 Part of the furniture

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    ...oh, and according to the North Wales Rail site all but one of the steam loco's has been withdrawn, which would fit with the comment on their website that steam would only be used with their new 'heritage' (cough) carriage.

    Chris
     
  12. Achar2001

    Achar2001 New Member

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    The SMR engineering boss told me yesterday that the intention is to keep four locos for operation - 2, 3, 4 and 6. The other three, which were being stored outside and basically rotting, have been moved offsite to undercover storage with nothing likely to be done to them any time soon.

    The heritage steam service will be part of the daily operation and once the heritage carriage - which is built on the underframe of carriage 2 - has proven itself the hope is to build a second.

    We have to remember that unlike most of our narrow gauge railways the vast majority of passengers who ride the SMR are doing it not to experience a steam locomotive but to get to the top of Snowdon. The new contemporary carriages with their higher capacity have created the means to run the heritage service as part of the timetable - the SMR constantly faces a problem that other railways would love to have, finding enough seats for the amount of people wanting to travel.

    Regards

    Andrew Charman
    Narrow Gauge World
    http://www.atlanticpublishers.com/magazines/narrow-gauge-world/
     
  13. Achar2001

    Achar2001 New Member

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    Having looked at that North Wales Rail site I see that the latest issue published a few days ago says all the locos bar Wyddfa have been withdrawn - it was no 2 Enid that took us to the top of the mountain yesterday!
     
  14. Christopher125

    Christopher125 Part of the furniture

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    Thanks for the update Andrew.
     
  15. andrewshimmin

    andrewshimmin Well-Known Member

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    Does anyone know whether this is still the status / policy on the SMR?
     

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