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Snaefell Mountain Railway

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Railway transport

   Car no 4. Note the central Fell rail.
   Enlarge
   Car no 4. Note the central Fell rail.
   Train in distance
   Enlarge
   Train in distance

   The Snaefell Mountain Railway is an electric mountain railway
   connecting the town of Laxey with the summit of Snaefell which is, at
   2036 feet (620.6 m) above sea level, the highest point on the Isle of
   Man. The Snaefell Mountain Railway connects with the Manx Electric
   Railway in Laxey.

Operation

   The line is five miles (8 km) long, built to 3 ft 6 in (1067 mm) gauge
   and uses the unusual Fell centre rail for braking on the steep
   gradients. The line is electrified using overhead line at 550 volts
   direct current, using a bow collector.

   Services run between April and September and operate at regular
   intervals taking 30 minutes for a one-way journey. There is no winter
   service and during the winter period the overhead wires on the exposed
   upper part of the route are dismantled to avoid damage caused by
   excessive icing.

   All passenger traffic is carried in six wooden-bodied electric
   railcars, built in 1895 and numbered 1 to 6. Car 5 was burnt out in an
   accident in 1970 and the body it now carries is a replacement built in
   1971 to a similar design. All six cars were re-equipped in the late
   1970s with newly built bogies to a design based on the original, and
   using motors and traction equipment taken from withdrawn trams that
   formerly ran in Aachen.

   Because of the different gauge and centre rail, railway vehicles cannot
   inter-run between the Snaefell Mountain Railway and the Manx Electric
   Railway. Snaefell Mountain Railway vehicles are occasionally worked to
   the Manx Electric Railway workshops at Douglas by swapping their
   bogies, and to aid this there is a dual gauge siding in Laxey.

   The Snaefell Mountain Railway is owned and operated by Isle of Man
   Transport, a department of the Isle of Man government.

History

   The line was originally surveyed by George Nobel Fell, the son of John
   Barraclough Fell who invented the Fell system. This survey was for a
   steam-operated railway using the Fell centre rail for both propulsion
   and braking, and the scheme was approved by Tynwald in 1888 but not
   built at that time.

   In 1895 the Snaefell Mountain Railway Association (SMRA) revived the
   plans, and adopted the route of the earlier survey. As the line was
   built entirely on land leased by the association, there was no need for
   statutory powers to be gained and the line was constructed very quickly
   and opened on 20 August 1895. The line was built from scratch as an
   electric railway, and the cars were never fitted with Fell traction
   equipment, instead relying on normal rail adhesion for propulsion up
   the steep gradients. However the cars were fitted with Fell braking
   equipment for use when descending the same gradients.

   In December 1895 the SMRA sold the line to the Isle of Man Tramways &
   Electric Power Co. Ltd. (IoMT&EP) which already owned the Manx Electric
   Railway. However doubt was thrown on this transaction in aftermath of
   the later collapse of the IoMT&EP, when it was revealed that the SMRA
   was unregistered, and that most of the board of the IoMT&EP were also
   members of the SMRA and had voted on the acquisition in contravention
   of that company's articles of association.

   The IoMT&EP went into liquidation in 1900 as a consequence of a banking
   collapse. The Snaefell Mountain Railway and the Manx Electric Railway
   were sold by the liquidator to the newly formed Manx Electric Railway
   Co. Ltd., which took over the services in 1902. By the late 1950s the
   Manx Electric Railway Co. Ltd. was itself in financial difficulties,
   and the company and its assets were acquired by the Isle of Man
   government in 1957.

Tram stations and stops

     * Laxey
     * Bungalow
     * Snaefell summit

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