GREAT ORME TRAMWAY, LLANDUDNO

Site Details

NPRN
34664
Map Reference
SH78SE
Grid Reference
SH7729483108
Unitary (Local) Authority
Conwy
Old County
Caernarfonshire
Community
Llandudno
Type of Site
STREET TRAMWAY;TRAMWAY
Broad Class
Transport
Period
Modern;20th Century

Site Description

The Great Orme Tramway is the UK's only surviving cable-operated street tramway and one of only three remaining in the world. It is a street funicular, where the cars are permanently fixed to the cable and are stopped, started and regulated solely by the speed of the cable.
The railway has a gauge of 1067mm and runs between Llandudno and the summit of the Great Orme; it is in two sections each some 750m long and passengers change cars at the Halfway Station. The lower terminus of the line is at Victoria Station (NGR: SH 77844 82718) in Llandudno, from where the lower section climbs to the Halfway Station on a maximum gradient of 1 in 4; it was opened for passengers in 1902. The upper section, opened in 1903 and with a maximum gradient of 1 in 10, connects Halfway Station and the Summit Station (NGR: SH 76593 83305).
Prior to the recent introduction of radio control, the cars' trolley poles were used to maintain a telegraph link with the controller at the halfway winding house, which was powered by steam until conversion to electrical operation in 1958.
B.A.Malaws, RCAHMW, 19 May 2008.