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The Great Orme Tramway, 2015 |
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I visited the Great Orme Tramway as part of a visit which included the Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza 2015. This 3' 6" / 1067 mm gauge railway is Britain's only remaining cable operated street tramway. It works in two halves, the top is a conventional funicular, it is the bottom half which is the more interesting. Official Website - http://www.greatormetramway.co.uk/ Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Orme_Tramway If you like this then...
Lower Section
At the passing loop the line splits into two.
However, above it, the lines do not recombine but there is a common third middle rail and each car uses one of the outer rails. There are separate slots for each cable.
At the midway station, passengers have to switch to one of the other pairs of cars.
Upper Section While the lower section is mainly urban, the upper section is entirely rural. There is a lot of gorse on what is essentially moorland.
This is the upper crossing loop, the scene of the tramway's two serious accidents, fortunately neither was fatal.
Nearing the top there are fine views.
This is the upper station, almost at the highest point. As can be seen from one of the pictures there is now a competing cable car.
On the occasion of our visit, there were long queues for the service which was running flat out at approximately 15 minute intervals. Apart from the car park at the top, there are very few places to park above the midway station. Fortunately while we were there just about everyone else wanted to get straight up or down. |
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