WALES ON THE RAILS ... TravelWriter Geoff Moore visits NorthWales and finds heritage and steam!
Breathing in the cool mountain air as our tiny train snaked left, then right and then left again slowly plodding to the clear summit of Snowdon. Certainly taking the 30 minute train option to the top is vastly quicker than the three or four-hour hike to its peak via six possibly different routes, which those fitter do equally well but at a somewhat slower steady pace.
My excusewas that ‘timewas of the essence’ but in reality I had
for years dreamt ofmaking the unique cog rail ride to the top of Wales’s highest mountain. The huffing puffing steam engines of a bygone era are the number one choice for the thousands of visitors that make the trip every year. The diesels in my opinion do come off second best but if you are lucky enough to get a steam engine pushing you to just under the 3,500foot summit do take it!
Poweringmy ascentwas a delightful green as the valleys engine
namedwithout the use of any vowels until the last letterWyddfa! However the engine bumped and rattled my fellow 33 passengers and I for around half an hour with an almost a maritime sea saw action both ways on the steep gradient.
The SnowdonMountain Railway is not alone in this area ofNorth Wales where heritage railways seem to come along like the proverbial buses, three at a time!
The Welsh Highland Railway, the Festiniog Railway and the Llangollen Railway all provide very different experiences some being like Snowdon narrow gauge and the one standard gauge of the Llangollen where you can even have a go on the engine for an additional pre booked fee.
Packages can be taken with Great Rail Journeys or Rail Discoveries with in my case based at the family run Danoon Hotel in Llandudno where a hearty welsh breakfast starts the day and excellent 3 course dinner ends it.
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Both companies offer inclusive breaks where it’s possible to experience all of those railways on just one holiday package or some of them.
TheWelsh Highland Railway was a new kid on the block where passengers were concerned as it opened its narrow gauge service from Caenarfon to Porthmadog in 1923 but was never really viable and closed again in 1937.
Like many of the other heritage lines in the early 1960’s it was brought back into use by the huge efforts of rail enthusiasts and volunteers who by 2003 had 13 miles of it was back in use and today the line runs all the way to Portmadog.
Caenarfon station is currently beingmodernised so by 2018 the newstation buildings should be ready for the newtourist season and being the longest heritage railway in the UK 25miles long it will be one of the smartest and up to date too.
If the Welsh is the new kid then the Festiniog is the old sweat, theworlds oldest narrowgauge railway can chart its history back 200 years. The 13mile route from Portmadog to Blaenau Festiniog to the slatemining capital and was the very reason for it being built in the first place.
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