Virtual Railfan Tour UK - Llanberis Railway

 

One of the Welsh quarry locomotives used on the Llanberis Lake Railway
http://www.lake-railway.co.uk/
It was on Friday 2 June 2017 that Paul and I traveled from Porthmadog for our unsuccessful trip up Snowdon.  Arriving in good time we were able to take a look at the Llanberis Lake Railway which runs along the lake from Gilfach Ddu (Llanberis) to Penllyn, along the course of the old Padarn Railway
The extent of the abandoned quarry railways can be seen on the right hand side.

The Padarn Railway was originally built to the unusual gauge of 4' 0" and its trains hauled the narrow gauge (2' 0") slate wagons on flat cars with two parallel sets of rails. The Glasgow Underground is one of the few other railways in the world using the four foot gauge
The Llanberis Lake Railway is built to the two foot gauge using former Welsh quarry locomotives.
Because of our reservation on the Snowdon Mountain Railway we could only get a glimpse of the Llanberis Lake line from Gilfach Ddu. It certainly was not affected by mountain clouds


A view of the now abandoned slate quarries with their many levels


The vegetation has started to take over the quarries
So with a pleasant walk through Llanberis we returned to Caernarfon for a wonderful trip over the Welsh Highland behind a Garratt.
Click here to see my blog of our trip on 2 June 2017

Video of a trip over the Llanberis Lake Railway

This video includes a footplate ride

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