Friday 19 April 2013

Work continues on the heritage carriage

The construction of the Heritage carriage has come on leaps and bounds in recent weeks. Garmendale Engineering Ltd has completed the main super structure and is being test fitted onto the chassis.  The brake rod has been attached to the bogies and the structure has been sent off to be powder coated. Hunslet Engine Company has updated the pivot point design to accommodate the height of the bogies.
 Holes have been pre-drilled into the chassis structure ready for the seating to be dropped into place. The timber for the windows has been fitted with the corner detailing, typical of a Victorian carriage, are ready to be attached.


Our engineering team uncovered a true treasure while dismantling carriage 2, the donor carriage for the heritage carriage, original brass handles! These handles have been stripped of their black paint and polished up ready to be used on the Victorian carriage.







Tickets for the Heritage Steam Experience includes an incredible site-seeing trip spanning up to 3 hours.
There is a lot of work still to be done on the heritage carriage but with progress ahead of schedule everything is looking good ready for its launch in June. 

To avoid disappointment, tickets can be pre-booked either through our website or by calling the booking hotline on 0844 493 8120 every day from 1pm.

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Tuesday 2 April 2013

Service resumes after heavy snow


After a tremendous effort from our Permanent Way team we are now back to business and running to halfway up Snowdon. The extremely heavy snowfall is very unusual for spring – this time last year the summit building was open and we were enjoying a glorious heat wave!

The team have been working in extreme conditions with 30 feet snow drifts and bitterly cold temperatures of -10°C, wind speeds have peaked as high as 103mph at Clogwyn Station. The weather was even putting our machinery to the test with 2 excavators taking 10 days to reach the half-way point. The team are doing their very best to uncover more track so that trains can reach higher parts of the mountain. 


We are still hopeful to be running to the summit by early May. Once the track is clear there is a ten day commissioning period to set the building up ready for passengers and climbers.

The weather in Llanberis today is beautiful sunshine and blue skies, it is the perfect day for the visiting us. The BBC joined us yesterday; you can see what happened on The One Show later this evening at 7.00pm.