The Miners' Tramway at Llechwedd threatened with closure.

For those of us who have never been, did the site have a functioning railway system which the present one emulates in some way (and could be worth 'preserving') or was it installed recently as a way of getting people from A to B and bears no relation to what happened at this place in the past?

 

Llechwedd, along with virtually all slate mines, made extensive use of railway systems to transport slate from where it was extracted underground up to the surface where it would be processed. The slabs of slate would be loaded onto basic trucks near the rock face, the truck would travel on light weight 'jubilee' track to the rear of the chamber where it would join up to the main 'truck' line which would extend the length of the level. From there it would travel back to the nearest incline where the individual trucks would be assembled into a train of multiple trucks ready to be hauled up the incline, either to a higher level, or direct to surface. Although underground locos were occasionally used at some mines, trucks would often be moved one at a time, either by hand or through the use of winches.

The waste slate produced underground would be put into trucks and ideally disposed of underground as well, eg. dumped into worked out chambers. If this was not possible then it would also have to be brought to the surface as well. Once on the surface it was quite common at the larger mines for locomotives to be found shunting the slate trucks from the head of the inclines to the processing mills. In this respect Llechwedd was somewhat unique in the use of electric locomotives running from overhead wires, the electricity being generated themselves from a water turbine.

The use of tramways and rail networks at the slate mines died out during the 1980s era when it was quicker and easier to use lorries and dump trucks. How much of the original system remains at Llechwedd I don't know, but given its continuous extraction and untopping operations, I suspect not much. The 'Miner's Tramway' tourist attraction was laid specifically for the tourist ride, so was not reusing an 'original' railway, although it's almost guaranteed that when the chambers visited during the tour were actively being worked there would have been a rail track laid along the level - just not the one that's currently there. Depending what Greaves' plans are for the loco & rolling stock, they may well be intending to relay the track through different chambers elsewhere. At the end of the day they are a private commercial company and can do what the heck they like with their own property - if there's commercialy viable slate available then they'll quite happily destroy anything in their way to get at it. There are plenty of disused slate mines across the country - it's great that this one is still running (albeit not as a 'mine' in the classic sense, as they're untopping).

 

The tramway will return in 2015 as a surface attraction. Having met the management and seen their plans for the revamp of Llechwedd, they're definitely heading in the right direction.

 

Good to hear the tramway is to survive and whilst it would have been a loss, was anyone this fussed when the Canada Creek Railway or Treasure Island Railway closed at Thorpe Park? Or the line at Chessington etc etc, all 2ft gauge, and built specifically to transport tourists around an attraction in the same manner as Llechwedd!

 

Indeed. Further, in the last twenty years or so almost all peat railways in the country have closed. Now they were heritage. But I don't recall any petitions about them or preservation schemes. (To be fair there is one scheme to preserve a loco currently derelict at Swinefleet, but that is all that I'm aware of).

On the subject of the Llechwedd, I do note that the petition appears to have been raised anonymously and does not cite from where it gets its information that the tramway is to close. Is there perhaps someone out there with an axe to grind about Greaves (the company behind Quarry Tours) and hence "keeping an eye on them"? I do recall there being some outcry about the buildings destroyed during uncapping.

 

There are some people who would like to see the whole principality turned into a sort of living (dying?) museum. They are not helpful.

What we need up here, welcome though the jobs provided by the tourist industry are, are more all-year-round industries. That is not a pop at preserved railways, many of which provide at least some permanent jobs (the Festiniog in particular), but our economy in general is far too reliant on six weeks in the summer.

 

And going on from there, if those providing the "tourist industry" type facilities find that their attractions are beginning to lose their attractiveness then they need to be free to re-invent themselves, otherwise even the tourist industry will fall and more jobs lost.

Steve B