Aerial view of Great Orme Tramway, 2006

Description

Great Orme Tramway, Llandudno. Taken on 14 August 2006.
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.