In the September 1963 issue of The Railway Magazine, major repairs to Snowdon Mountain Railway locomotive No. 4, Snowdon, were reported following work at the Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd., of Leeds. The article detailed the locomotive’s unusual Abt system features, its rebuilt components and its return to Snowdonia.
“Snowdon” rebuilt
THE recent major repairs effected on locomotive No. 4, Snowdon, of the Snowdon Mountain Railway, are of more than usual interest because of its unusual design on the Abt system, for adhesion and rack operation. Built in 1896 by the Swiss Locomotive & Engine Works, of Winterthur, works No. 988, the contractors, the Hunslet Engine Co. Ltd., of Leeds, were faced with the combined problem of a lack of drawings and the necessity to replace parts originally made to metric dimensions. The finished appearance of the locomotive is indicative of the success of the work, which included the fitting of a new boiler, smokebox and chimney, sidetanks and cab, wheels, leading hornblock assembly, buffer beams, trailing bogie, rack pinions and under-footplate injectors. Distinctive features of Snowdon are the unusual positioning of the outside cylinders, the linkage to the road wheels with unequal radii for connecting and coupling rods, the inclined boiler and, of course, the Abt rack equipment.
Livery and return to Snowdonia
The engine’s livery comprises green sidetanks and cab with red lining, green boiler and wheels, red buffer beams and rods, and black chimney, smokebox front and frames. On July 18 a gleaming Snowdon left the Hunslet works on a low-loader to travel to Llanberis by road, and visitors to Snowdonia and the S.M.R. will now have the opportunity to see it in operation. The sister engines, No. 2, Enid, No. 3, Wyddfa, and No. 5, Moel Siabod, previously underwent general repairs at Leeds. These are the surviving original locomotives of the five-mile long 2 ft. 7½ in.-gauge S.M.R.; three more were supplied in 1922-23.
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