No. 5 makes it four at Snowdon

The return to steam of Snowdon Mountain Railway No. 5 Moel Siabod brings the number of working steam locomotives at the SMR up to four for the 2017 season.


Resplendent in familiar SMR green, No. 5 Moel Siabod is ready for the start of the season when it will return to service after 17 years. SMR

Withdrawn in 2000 for overhaul, the Swiss-designed 0-4-2RT will join Nos. 2 Enid, 3 Wyddfa and 6 Padarn as part of the mountain railway’s operational steam fleet.

Alan Kendall, SMR general manager, said: “I’m particularly pleased to have No. 5 back taking passengers up Snowdon once again.

“Our engineers assure me it will be the best presented locomotive on our railway and the benchmark for future locomotive re-builds.”

Moel Siabod was one of the original batch of five rack locomotives built for the SMR in 1895/6 by the Swiss Locomotive & Manufacturing Co. in Winterthur, and is named after a neighbouring mountain in Snowdonia. Only four of the original five locomotives survive, as No. 1 LADAS was destroyed in an accident on the line’s opening day on April 6 1896.

The fleet was supplemented in 1923 by a trio of superheated locomotives - Nos. 6 Padarn, 7 Ralph and 8 Eyri – also built by the Winterthur firm. Of these, only one is currently operational.

Services on the SMR recommence on March 17, with trains running as far as Clogwyn station, 779m above sea level. Passengers will be able to reach the summit later in the spring when the Haford Eryi visitor centre re-opens.

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