Britain's railways were once the envy of the world.
You could get a train from almost anywhere
to almost anywhere else.
They were the network that supported an industrial superpower.
This is about as close as you can get to the early steam locos.
But today...
Ah, lovely!
..4,000 stations and 8,000 miles of track lie silent...
This station feels truly lost.
..so I'm setting off to discover more
of Britain's lost railways.
This is amazing!
Woo!
They tell a story...
Look at this.
..of how we once lived...
This is not what I was expecting.
..and how we once worked...
It looks like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.
..and they help reveal how our world has changed today.
Come on!
HE LAUGHS
I'm on my way to the far north west tip of Wales -
and with its miles of coastline and the mountains of Snowdonia,
this is a part of Britain that I always love coming to.
People flock to this corner of Wales to walk, climb
and simply bask in some of the best scenery this country has to offer.
But before the visitors came the railways,
built to access and serve a region
becoming famous for one special rock - slate.
My access point, thanks to the surviving mainline from England,
is Bangor.
Welsh slate is known as the finest in the world, and for 150 years,
the industry here was massive.
It built railways, employed thousands and made vast fortunes.
From Bangor, I'm going to be following the old Coast Line railway
around to medieval Caernarfon, before heading inland to the heart
of Snowdonia's slate-filled mountains.
At Llanberis, I can still ride the railway that's carried visitors
to the top of Snowdon for over 120 years.
But before I leave Bangor,
there's a small and much older railway to investigate.
At the eastern edge of the city lies Port Penrhyn,
once the gateway to the biggest moneymaking operation
in North Wales.
It's very peaceful and tranquil down here today.
But if I'd been here - just across the water from Bangor -
a century ago,
this port would have been bustling with people
busy loading slate onto ships,
ready to be taken off all around the world.
And transporting all of that slate down from the hillside quarries
to this point was a railway.
The tiny Penrhyn Railway was just six miles long
and did nothing but move slate and its workers
to and from the local quarry.
But in these parts, it was an absolute game-changer.
I've only come a few metres along the old railway line here,
which is now called the Slate Trail,
and there's a reminder straight away of what drove the whole economy
of this area.
It's a slate fence!
I've never seen that before.
Slate has been quarried around here since the Roman Age
and used to floor and roof all manner of buildings.
But for centuries,
the problem was always how to move the very heavy stone
to a seaport where it could be shipped far and wide.
This problem wasn't solved until the Industrial Revolution
and the arrival of a primitive railway.
Well, this is an interesting little feature of this lost railway.
It looks like there's a split in the line
cos you've got two bridges going across the river.
In fact, this was the original bridge -
and it's a beautiful stone arch bridge.
And that was built for the horse-drawn wagons,
taking slate from the quarries down to the port.
And that opened up around the turn of the 19th century,
whereas this bridge here was built a good 70 years later
for steam-powered trains,
leaving our poor little sister down here sadly redundant.
Fortunately, though, she's still there today.
Because not only do I enjoy a lost railway, I love a good bridge too.
Whether horse-drawn or steam-powered,
this railway was always privately owned.
And it was overlooked by the home of the family who paid for it.
One thing's for sure - they could afford it.
The size of this place is just phenomenal!
Penrhyn Castle is nothing short of awesome.
Perched on its own hill outside Bangor,
it dominates the landscape.
Good morning, Nerys. Hi, Rob.
How are you doing? Fine, thank you. Welcome to Penrhyn Castle.
And what a castle it is! This is phenomenal.
This place looks fit for a Norman lord,
but as Nerys Jones can explain,
Penrhyn is a medieval impostor.
So who built this castle, then?
This castle was built for the Pennant family,
who owned the Penrhyn estate.
They were huge landowners. They had farms.
They employed the local quarrymen.
They also consolidated lots of little slate quarries and made
this huge big Penrhyn quarry.
The Penrhyn Quarry. Yes.
And they invested heavily, improving the local roads around the estate,
building schools in the local area.
And to top it off, then, this big fairy tale castle.
It is absolutely enormous.
I mean, this must have cost not even a small fortune, a large fortune
when it was built. Yeah.
It's rumoured that it cost around £150,000,
which, in today's money, is over £50 million.
Is it really?
I mean... That is a huge amount of money...
I'm not that surprised cos the sheer scale of this place
is enormous!
It makes a real statement in this landscape for sure.
This was built on the proceeds from the slave trade in the West Indies.
The Pennant family managed sugar plantations out there.
That money then was brought back over here and it was ploughed
into improving the Penrhyn estate.
So this shows off the amount of power and wealth
that the family had.
So despite the fortress-like appearance,
Penrhyn was actually a fantasy creation of the Industrial Age.
LAUGHS: Look at this!
This is some welcome here, Nerys.
The grandeur on the outside,
it's absolutely brought inside as well, isn't it?
It definitely is. And this is the Grand Hall.
Absolutely stunning!
It feels like there's a lot of different design styles as well,
with different shaped arches and triangles.
It's a lot to take in, Nerys.
Yeah. It does look like an old medieval castle.
But there are lots of signs - even in this room - that, actually,
it was built in the 19th century.
Go on. You're going to have to enlighten me on those. OK!
You can see over here this door, it's slightly off-centre
with what looks like a larger door arch.
So, you would think that there was once a big Norman castle door
in here and the castle's since been renovated and moved on
and requires a smaller doorway. Very clever.
There's also new technology used in the building of this castle.
And there's an example over here.
It was one of the first households in Britain to have what is a form
of central heating.
It's an underground duct system.
So, you would have hot air coming up from here.
The hot air would blow up and heat this space,
along with the fireplaces.
You can feel air coming up from it now.
You can. There's definitely air flowing from there.
So there will be other ducts like this throughout the property?
Yeah. So, they're obviously all linked together.
But just like how ornate this is... It's beautiful.
There's nothing that's purely functional here.
There's this form behind every single aspect
of this amazing castle.
This lavish home couldn't be more different from the gritty reality
of what went on outside.
I'm following the Penrhyn Quarry Railway as it progressed
inland to the quarry itself.
For 161 years, empty slate wagons trundled slowly up this short route,
pulled by small locomotives, puffing hard as they climbed
towards the Welsh hills.
Just short of the quarry and 150 metres higher than the port,
a collection of original buildings still survive.
The line's brought me here to this small industrial estate
in the hills just above Tregarth.
This was actually the terminus at the quarry end
of the slate railway line.
But this was also the engineering works for the quarry.
And it was in all of these buildings around here where the processing
and the cutting of the slate would take place,
to cut these huge chunks like this down into the small finer slates
that would then get loaded onto wagons and taken off down the port.
That process continued until the railway closed in 1962.
But by then, it had had a lasting impact.
But by then, it had
had a lasting impact.
Yes!
Here we go.
This is why I've come up here. Just look at that.
The Penrhyn Slate Quarry.
This is the reason the slate line existed.
And it is just vast!
Slate had been quarried here since the 16th century -
but until the railway arrived,
very little of it could leave the local area.
This gigantic hole was a product of the railway age.
It's roughly a mile in length and 1,200 feet deep.
And you can't really get the full extent of that depth
because about half of it now is full of water.
That goes way, way down below there.
Stood here right now, I feel absolutely minuscule.
By the end of the 19th century, this was the largest slate quarry
in the world, producing around 120,000 tonnes of slate every year.
This was a global industry.
But today, there's a very different industry in town.
Coming up...
Three, two, one!
..I see what you can do with a giant hole in the ground.
This place is amazing!
..and I find out how a lost railway helped create the Prince of Wales.
It was the first royal ceremony to go out in colour,
watched by 39 million people worldwide. Wow!
Here in North Wales, I've found my way to the Penrhyn Slate Quarry.
It is just phenomenal.
From Sydney to South Africa,
this site has roofed and floored buildings across five continents.
But none of this could have happened before 1881,
when a ground-breaking railway was built,
linking the quarry to the coast
next to Bangor.
The quarry, too, was once filled with 60 miles of short tracks
and wagonways.
Today, their position is flooded with water.
But this giant industrial scar has now found a new role.
It's home to the fastest zip line in the world.
So there's only one thing to do.
Fits like a glove.
Let's go for it.
The quarry is so massive.
There's a three-mile track to reach the top of the zip line,
so I'm grabbing a lift with Tim Pennington,
who works for the new industry in town.
Tim. Hello. How are you doing? Hi. Nice to meet you.
I'm in your hands.
Do you get all sorts of people coming and doing this?
We do indeed, yes. I think one of our oldest riders was in her 90s.
And we get people from all over the world joining us.
This isn't the first time the quarry's drawn a crowd.
The early Victorians used to come here to marvel at a natural wonder
of the Industrial Age.
From the track, you can clearly see the tiered galleries
cut into the quarry walls,
where workers could shelter with their mates from the worst
of the Welsh weather.
These days, it's all about racing your mates.
Are you ready for this race, Tim?
I am ready for this race. Are you? Ooh!
That was a menacing look you gave me there.
I was!
This business now employs over 300 people,
a long way short of the 3,000
who once toiled in the quarry below, though.
And without their work,
none of this would be possible.
Feels like I'm going for a massage or something.
I think it's less relaxing, isn't it?
The view from here suddenly got very real.
Ooh! Take the string!
It's a mile long
and I'll be down the other end in under a minute.
If you want to go fast, then the trick is to keep your legs
fully extended, your elbows in and your head forward
so you're nice and aerodynamic.
How's everyone feeling? All right?
Nervous! Nervous, good.
I'll beat you to the bottom, Rob.
Yeah, Tim, I'll see you there first, boy.
Are we all good? I am ready!
Safety's off.
Oh-ho!
And in three, two, one!
Yeah!
Woohoohoo!
Woohoo!
This is so fun, believe me!
Wow!
This place is amazing!
This place was once full of people quarrying out the slate!
Now it's just me flying over the top!
And I think I'm winning!
Come on!
I've got it!
I've got it.
Yeah!
Woo!
That is brilliant! Heart is going like the clappers!
Tim, that was wicked, mate! Excellent! Well done!
Thank you so much! That was awesome fun!
Beat me by a long way, my friend.
I didn't feel like you were that much behind me.
I was quite away behind. Photo finish. Not quite. I think you won.
That was brilliant, Tim. Thank you so much indeed.
But there's one big question remaining.
Why did the original industry here disappear,
prompting the closure of this slate railway?
To help answer that,
I'm meeting Fred Buckley in the neighbouring village of Tregarth.
Hey, Fred. And welcome to Tregarth.
Thank you very much. It's lovely to meet you.
Fred was the fourth generation of his family to work in
the slate industry.
It did employ a lot of locals, didn't it, the slate industry?
The quarry was employing all the locals.
I always had to travel with the engine driver and the fireman...
On the slate train? ..on the engine. On the engine itself.
Others were travelling on the wagons and there were three engines
on the main line - Blanche, Charles and Linda.
So, the slate trains would go between the quarry and the port.
I mean, how often...? Four times a day.
Every run - we used to call it - had about 60 to 70 wagons.
Wales once produced 80% of all British slate, and in 1899,
Penrhyn Quarry earned its owners £13.5 million in today's money.
But this peak of success led to a dark chapter in the history
of North Wales and - in part - to the slate industry's demise.
Lord Penrhyn refused to improve his workers' pay and conditions.
The result was the longest industrial dispute
in British history and deep divisions in the local community.
Some of the blacklegs that broke the strike lived in these houses.
They called it the telltale terrace.
Telltale terrace? Yes.
These cottages were built by Lord Penrhyn for workers
who returned to work -
folk who were then turned upon by those living elsewhere.
They used to put cards in the windows
that no blacklegs were living here.
As a statement to say... A statement... .."We're on strike."
.."Yes, we're on strike."
They were fighting and they were throwing rocks through the windows
at people who broke the strike. Really?
It was a terrible time here, my grandfathers told me.
And Welsh slate would never fully recover.
The halt in production shook confidence in the industry
and cheaper slate was now to be found in Spain.
Does any of that tension or animosity still exist today?
Well, I remember when I started in the quarry...
Yeah. ..at the age of 15,
the first thing they wanted to know was, "Who was your grandfather?" -
in case your grandfather had broken the strike. Really?
The first thing they wanted to know.
So that's 50 years roughly after the strike.
Yes. It was that strong still? It was still that strong.
To this day, there are still many in Tregarth - and in neighbouring
villages - who won't set foot in the home of Lord Penrhyn.
It's time for me to pick up the lost line heading out of Bangor
that once hugged the Welsh coastline.
But just two miles along, it passes something
that still very much exists.
A few little flash glimpses through the trees here.
There's something I want to show you.
Wales suffered more than most during the railway closures
of the 1960s.
If the infamous Dr Beeching had had his way, then Wales today
might have just one line.
The reality was not quite so drastic
and the glorious link to the Isle of Anglesey was saved.
It might be a wet day here in North Wales,
but nothing can dampen my spirits when I'm faced with this -
the Britannia Bridge.
This isn't the original bridge.
That burnt down - very sadly - in the '70s.
But what does remain from the original bridge are
these beautiful stone towers in the middle of the Menai Strait there.
It's absolutely gorgeous.
You can see there's traffic going across the top deck,
but the original bridge was purely a railway bridge,
and that took trains across from the mainland, as it still does today,
over to Holyhead on Anglesey.
But this is the point where I leave the modern railway
and follow the old line south to Caernarvon.
The line followed the Menai Strait,
a notorious narrow stretch of water that Nelson described
as the most difficult to navigate in the world.
The old railway line makes for a far more reliable passage...
..and is taking me to my second Welsh castle.
Caernarvon is the stuff of picture books.
And, unlike Penrhyn, there's nothing phoney about this place.
It's been impressing visitors since before the railway age.
So when they did come, lines into town kept a low profile,
through a series of cuttings and tunnels.
And all the lines converged here at Slate Quay.
The river mouth area in front of the giant castle
once bustled with railway activity.
And it's where I'm meeting seasoned tour guide Sue Kirk.
Hello, Rob. Very nice to meet you. And you too.
This is something, isn't it? Quite a welcome.
The most impressive castle you'll ever see.
How long's the castle been here, then?
The building work started in 1283,
so what you're looking at is over 700 years old.
700 years old! Built by who, then?
Well, built by Edward I -
and it's built to reflect the power that he now held in North Wales
and establish English rule and law here.
Because, of course, here in the castle in 1969,
we had the investiture of Prince Charles, who was invested
as Prince of Wales here.
Here, in the castle... In the castle itself.
..which must have been a huge event for the castle,
for the town of Caernarvon, for the whole of North Wales.
It was.
It was the centre of the world because it was broadcast.
It was the first royal ceremony to go out in colour
and it was watched by 39 million people worldwide. Wow!
And to start his big day,
what did Charles do but arrive by train?
In fact, he and his family were amongst the last passengers
to travel the line I've just followed from Bangor.
The railway closed just months later at the start of 1970.
The rest of that day, though, was a timeless showcase of British
pomp and pageantry.
Wow!
So, we're standing on the dais, which was built specially
for the ceremony for Prince Charles in 1969.
Here, where we're stood here, right now? Right here.
I am going to assume that is local Welsh slate. It is slate.
This came from Penrhyn Quarry. Lovely!
OK, I'm Prince Charles. I'm stood here now,
I'm looking out. What might I have seen here?
Well, you would have just seen a sea of faces.
You'd see everybody in ceremonial dress.
You'd be kneeling before your mother and your father, with the mayors
and choristers all around.
Lots of ceremony.
NEWSREADER: The Queen takes the new Prince of Wales
and presents him to his people at the Queen's Gate.
As Prince of Wales, Charles received the accepted title of the heir
to the throne - and, like dozens of his predecessors, his Welshness
is a little questionable.
Why did that investiture take place here?
Well, it goes back to a much older tradition that the first English
Prince of Wales was born here.
The story is that Edward I had promised the Welsh
a prince born in Wales who could speak no English,
the implication being he'd nominate a Welsh prince
who would speak Welsh.
In fact, he brings his wife here.
She gives birth to a son.
And it's his own newborn son that he takes
and presents as the Welsh prince born in Wales,
who can't speak English - or anything else.
So a little bit trickery there? A little bit of trickery.
He does become the first English Prince of Wales.
He's known as Edward of Caernarvon all his life. He becomes Edward II.
That's why we have the ceremony here. Wow!
But this is the Welshest town in Wales. Right, yeah.
So about 90% of the local population speak Welsh as their first language.
It's what people speak at home.
Children here are taught in Welsh in schools.
And part of that identity is a rejection of
the English Prince of Wales, so...
And in that sense, not that much has changed in the 700 years
since the castle was built, I guess.
There is still a slight antipathy there.
Yes, you could say that.
That said, I hasten to add, I feel very welcome here.
I think you'll find the Welsh people are the most welcoming people
in the world. I wouldn't disagree.
As long as you're not an English prince!
I can vouch - on the royal dais - that I am not an English prince.
Then you're welcome. Thank you very much, Sue!
Coming up...
Can we let gravity do its work?
..I'm in the mountains to see my steepest railway ever...
It's stunning!
Climb when ready, Rob.
..and I find out just what it took to work in a Welsh quarry.
That's proper bravery.
I'm in North Wales, exploring just a few of the many railway lines
that once littered this landscape.
This simple beam bridge is a lovely little relic from this lost line.
I can't get across it cos it's not actually safe any more.
So many of the lines here were built to carry the local slate,
from the quarries in the hillside down to the coast
to be sent off around the world.
But this one's a little different,
a small local line that ran right into the heart
of the Snowdonia Mountains - and it was built with people in mind.
Already, I followed the main coastal railway that once ran
between Bangor and Caernarvon.
But now, I've turned inland,
following a nine-mile branch line
opened in 1869, leading to the heart of Snowdonia.
I'm getting right into the mountains now.
The interesting thing about this valley is that it juggled both
heavy industry and tourism, and this was a handy line,
bringing in all those visitors from Caernarvon right along the valley
to experience the lakes, the forests and, of course,
the highlight of this region - Mount Snowdon.
Wales's great mountain was undoubtedly the big draw.
But for two miles, the railway followed the beautiful shores
of Lake Padarn,
ideal for well-heeled and slightly adventurous Victorians,
the first folk to visit this mountainous region for fun.
Up there would have been a great spot to watch the steam engines
thundering through from.
At the end of the line was the village now firmly established
as a hub of Snowdonian holidays.
Today, Llanberis is full of cafes and ice cream parlours,
B&Bs and climbing shops,
but you don't have to look too hard to find evidence of this town's
industrial past.
It was once one of the great quarrying communities
of North Wales.
Until 1969, the village struck a delicate balance between visitors
and heavy industry.
Today, the visitors rule the roost.
But you only have to gaze across the valley to see the massive scars
of the local industry.
At their foot...
How are you going? Fine, thank you.
..I'm meeting Elfyn Jones-Roberts of the National Slate Museum.
Bit of a walk-up now. That's all right. I like walking.
These are the best preserved quarry workings in North Wales.
And there's one railway innovation I've come to see.
This is unbelievable, Elfyn!
What exactly are we looking at here, then?
This is the V2 incline
that looked after this particular quarry -
the Vivian Quarry - hence the name V2.
So when you're carrying heavy slate, trying to get that down,
this was how it was done? That's how they've done, yeah.
So this operates mainly under gravity, then?
That's right. Yeah - gravity-powered.
So, the full wagons would be going down... Yep.
..and they would be pulling the empty ones up
to be refilled with slate.
This incline that's been built out of slate alone...
I mean, it's beautifully, actually!
It is - and all that is dry stonewall as well, you know.
It's fantastic, isn't it? Yeah. It's stunning! Yeah.
What's more, if you're prepare to climb to the top,
you can still see it working.
Here we are! A few furry friends coming to join us, Elfyn! Yes, yeah,
the local mountain goats.
They tend to come down when the weather's taken a turn
for the worse. Yeah.
Well, here they are today.
Ah-ha!
So, here we are.
We've got two wagons full of slate, ready to go down the incline.
As soon as the brakeman releases the brake,
these wagons start moving.
Can we, well, let gravity do its work?
Yeah. Let's go for it.
Stand back. Here we go.
We're off! Here we are. We're off.
Sort of. If we have a look here now,
what we've got is we've got the drum.
And then in the corner there, that's the drum brake
to slow the incline down.
So that would have been wooden brake pads on those...
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Very, very similar to a bicycle brake type of thing.
You know, you squeeze them. Just squeezing the wheel, controlling it.
Controlling the speed, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's so simple, isn't it? So simple - exactly.
But massively effective. Yes. Exactly, yeah.
You've got the other one coming up as well now. That's right.
Yeah, yeah. So they'll be swapping over the wagons.
The full wagons now will be loaded onto the train.
And then these empty wagons coming up,
they then will be refilled with slates.
So it's just a continuous cycle.
Elfyn, it's just lovely to see part of this now-lost industry
still in action here. Thank you so much.
Well, I should probably say Diolch.
Croeso. Croeso!
Cheerio, Elfyn! Thanks again.
Incline railways like this littered the hills
on this side of the valley.
Vivian Quarry alone needed five of them.
But elsewhere around the valley, the quarrymen didn't have
quite so much to help them.
This rare colour film from 1946 shows a quarryman going about
his daily routine.
Seems all you need is a solid rope and a decent pair of boots.
These days, a few more things are needed
if you want to try your hand at quarry climbing.
I'm now in the hands of local climbing instructor Iona Pawson.
How difficult is it climbing on slate? It's...
Interesting is the way I put it.
It's very technical.
A lot of people come here to test their technical rock climbing,
as well as to test their mental ability to stay strong.
Well, I'm testing both up here today.
I know you may say this is one of the easiest routes or whatever.
I've got both here - technical ability, head game.
I've looked at it. We've talked about it.
Can we do it? Yeah. Course.
And with that, she was off, leaving me and instructor Alice to hold
the all-important rope below.
I'm watching your every move here.
It's quite a hard first move.
There's a big left hand hold here
and then a really little one up there.
Snowdonia has a history of attracting the very best climbers.
The likes of Mallory and Irvine and Edmund Hillary
all trained here before their attempts on Mount Everest.
What's going in there now? Those are called what?
These are the nuts. Those are called nuts. OK.
I'm very pleased I'm not having to put these in.
I wouldn't trust me doing it.
Safe, Rob.
Lovely.
So Iona's reached the top now,
and now all I have to do is climb up. This is easy.
Climb when ready, Rob.
Lovely.
So I'm quite side-on. Is that all right for this...?
Yeah, that's quite all right. Yeah.
That's it. Lovely!
If I can find another little... Oh, that's good.
Oh, some lovely holds here!
Yeah, it's lovely. This is great.
Really nice texture.
Now... And you went that way to get yourself into there.
Hm...
This is brilliant. I'm absolutely loving this.
Incredible views out across here.
I mean, this is beautiful Snowdonia, isn't it?
It is stunning.
We can see the back end of Snowdon coming down over there as well.
And that's where the railway comes down.
So...it's amazing.
That's where I'm hoping to end up - if this goes well here. Yeah.
Dozens of people have climbed this man-made rock face before me,
many for fun.
But not so long ago, folk did it without harnesses and helmets
because it was their job.
What's more, to go down,
they simply wrapped their rope around their leg
and descended like an acrobat.
That's something else.
I mean, that's proper bravery.
Yeah. I don't think I could do it. Absolutely.
That's it.
Hello! Nearly there.
HE GROANS Yes! You've made it.
King of the world! All right! SHE LAUGHS
High-five! Nice job!
Awesome! I've done it!
That's fantastic.
It's great fun.
But the whole time, I'm thinking about the old quarrymen
and just how different it would have been for them doing similar things.
But once you're there having to actually work the rock face,
it's just incredible. Yeah.
Coming up...
It's almost as though the train is walking up these toothed steps.
..I investigate a quite remarkable railway...
We're off!
..that's carried Victorians, Edwardians and me
to the roof of Wales.
I'm in Snowdonia, where railways have tended to mean
one of two things - Welsh slate or tourism.
In fact, some of the tiny slate lines around Llanberis
have escaped closure by turning to visitors.
But before I leave, I can't ignore a famous railway
that's been drawing crowds for generations
and taking them to the top of Wales' highest mountain.
Now, railway engines are notoriously bad at going uphill.
Anything more than a 1-in-40 incline can spell trouble.
When they're fighting gravity,
the wheels just can't get enough grip on the rails.
But this railway is different.
This can deal in anything up to a 1-in-5.5 slope,
which is much, much steeper -
and pretty handy if you're trying to get to the top of Mount Snowdon -
but it can do that because of something called
a rack and pinion system.
And I've been given permission to take a closer look.
Step down.
This tooth rail that runs all the way along the line
in the middle between the two wheel rails is called the rack -
and underneath the engine, there's something called a pinion.
It's a toothed wheel, like a gear.
And the teeth of that wheel, as it turns from the engine,
sits and run along the teeth of the rack here.
And it pulls the train along. And when it gets really steep,
it's almost as though the train is walking up these toothed steps.
Without this system,
there's no way this train could reach the top of Snowdon.
And the system's been working for 123 years now.
We're off!
As long ago as 1869,
when the passenger railway from Caernarvon reached Llanberis,
the idea of a railway to the peak of Snowdon was put forward.
But it was only when a rival line up the other side of Snowdon
was proposed that the landowner here relented
and construction got under way.
This railway opened in April 1896.
It took a labour force of 150 men with shovels and picks and dynamite
to lay about 8km of track.
And that only took them about 14 months.
To late Victorian tourists well used to railways
but not so well used to the great outdoors,
the country's only mountain climbing train was a major success.
Amazingly, three of the railway's original locomotives
are still in operation on the line today.
When you get onto these steeper bits, you can feel the rumble
and you can hear the rumble of the rack and pinion
working away underneath.
We're roughly about the halfway mark here, up the railway.
So we pull in and stop to fill the loco up with water.
Thirsty work coming up here for the engine.
And whilst the locomotive has a drink, there's a chance for me
to speak to Dewy Morris, my train's conductor.
This is still just as popular as it ever was.
Oh, yes, yes. It's more popular now than before. We're always sold out.
And what about the weather up Snowdon?
Is that a limiting factor for the railway?
Cos... I mean, it's changeable up here, isn't it?
Rain doesn't stop it. It's the wind.
If the wind's far too strong for us,
then we have to curtail our services.
So we can usually go up in quite poor visibility, really.
As you can see, the mist is over the summit.
So it may not be so fantastic up there.
It might not be the vistas that maybe I was hoping to get,
but it's a heck of a journey anyway, isn't it?
Yeah. I'm enjoying the ride.
On a clear day,
the views on the railway's upper section are spectacular,
making it clear why 130,000 people use the railway each year...
..and, in the process, make Snowdon the busiest mountaintop
in Great Britain.
And, believe it or not,
this is the top of Snowdon.
Well, this is it. I have reached the end of my journey.
I'm at the top of Snowdon.
I'd really hope to be rewarded with some kind of glorious view
back out over the northwest coast of Wales - but no such luck today.
But, hey - I'm a tourist and this is tourism.
You never know what you're going to get.
In that sense, nothing in North Wales has changed
since men battled the elements to keep the slate trains loaded.
And if it wasn't for those times, then this modern world of walkers...
..rock climbers,
and even zip liners would look very different indeed.
Over time, the railways and the landscape have transitioned
more towards serving people and visitors.
And while the slate economy may have suffered a sad decline,
it feels to me like tourism here is booming -
and the railways are still part of that.
Next time...
Bit of work to get here, but it is well worth it.
..it's the railway that opened eyes to the Scottish Highlands.
Balmoral Castle!
This line was packed with local industry...
She's beautiful.
..and with Queen Victoria firmly on board, it gave us Royal Deeside.
It was about the best bit of marketing a rural railway ever had.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media