Spectacular funiculars
In the second instalment of his two-part series on funicular railways, Dr JOSEPH BRENNAN turns his attention to examples in Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man
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Funicular railways served a desire that Britons had to scale steep ascents - especially along the coast of England, where these railways had their British start at Scarborough.
But funiculars were also popular elsewhere in the UK - especially in Wales, where they were used for reasons much more varied than the convenience and leisure of wealthy Victorian and Edwardian holidaymakers.
That‘s where we start, touring seven Welsh funiculars - at Aberporth, Aberystwyth, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Ebbw Vale, Llandudno, Machynlleth and Swansea.
Our tour reveals both familiar uses, such as at the resorts of Aberystwyth and Llandudno, as well as more distinctive applications for the railway design, such as to provide access to a missile launching platform (at Aberporth).
We then visit Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, where further funiculars and innovative, aligned applications are uncovered - including a few cliff lifts along the journey.
The histories and preservation efforts of each example is explored, as is the contribution of these railways to the specificity of funiculars outside England, as well as their place in the national story of Britain’s railways.
Wales
In Wales, there are two leisure-line funiculars that fit the popular picture and function of these railways. Unsurprisingly, these are found in the country’s two most significant Victorian seaside resorts - Llandudno and Aberystwyth.
Llandudno was the first to be described as ‘the Queen’ of Welsh watering places (in 1861, by one of the oldest weekly newspapers in Wales, the North Wales Chronicle). Its dramatic scenery, of mountain ranges rising in contrast to tranquil sea-bathing sands, made a funicular necessary for the climb up its famous Great Orme mountain.
The resort’s growth in the High Victorian period was aided by the completion of Robert Stephenson’s Chester & Holyhead Railway line in 1850 (and the Llandudno branch line that followed that same decade).
Initially, Stephenson’s main line served the essential government function of dispatches between London and Ireland. But towards the close of the 19th century, Llandudno’s status as the jewel of the Welsh resorts was proving a much-needed revenue reprieve, populating the coastal route with leisure-orientated travel along a line that (under its initial conception) had been monumentally expensive due to Stephenson’s goliath engineering accomplishments - the Britannia and Conwy
Tubular Bridges.
Great Orme Tramway (Tramffordd y Gogarth, 1902) opened in the Edwardian period and is vast, with the scale and complexity of a small branch line.
The ascent of one car is propelled in large part by its counter-balanced connectionby-cable with a descending second car - the backbone of the funicular system.
The great length of this particular tramway necessitates control of the cars from an engine house at its halfway point, where there are two winchmen - one in charge of the lower track, and the second in charge of the upper. The scale of the operation also makes the sightlines and signalling to the engine house of the two tram attendants vital.
Authority to build the railway was granted in 1898 with the Great Orme Tramways Act, with a directive that it should serve both passenger and freight requirements. Work commenced in 1901 and it was opened over 1902-03 (with the lower section completed first).
The tramway had seven cars. Cars 1-3 were the freight cars for the passage of parcels and goods, while the remaining four cars were for passengers (each car was named after a Welsh Christian saint).
In 1932 (having transported more than 3.75 million passengers), a lower-section tramcar broke free of its cable, derailed and struck a wall, killing the attendant and a 12-year-old girl.
The company went into liquidation as a result of the tragedy, and was sold, reopening in 1934 as the Great Orme Railway. Under later council ownership, its engines were electrified (in 1957) and it reverted to its original ‘Tramway’ name (in 1977).
Today, it is the UK’s sole-surviving cableoperated street tramway, taking passengers between Llandudno Victoria and the Great Orme Summit (with passengers required to transfer at the Halfway interchange).
It was closed during 2020, but at the time of writing had plans to reopen in 2021, operating seven days between late March and late October. Ticket prices range from £ 5.60 for children up to 16 years and £ 8.10 for adults, return. The tramway is also dog-friendly, with furry companions travelling for just £1 (assistance dogs, of course, travel free).
Aberystwyth Cliff Railway (Rheilffordd y Graig, 1896) opened on a water-balance system and was the work of George Marks (famed as an engineer of funiculars and cliff lifts, including the English Saltburn Cliff
Lift and Babbacombe Cliff Railway). The funicular principle was necessary to conquer Constitution Hill, which rises steeply at the northern end of Aberystwyth promenade.
In line with the pleasure principle of seaside railway systems, the railway followed the formation of the Aberystwyth Improvement Company in 1895, which sought to develop Constitution Hill as a Mid-Wales leisure mecca.
This strategy involved turning the summit over to tourist attractions that included a theme park (named Luna Park) and a camera obscura. Arcades and a restaurant were erected at the base of the hill.
Sadly, poor weather in successive summers made the amusement park a short-lived endeavour, and in the first half of the 20th century the camera obscura and other Victorian features on the summit were abandoned and lay derelict.
But the funicular (at nearly 780 feet) prevailed. It was electrified in 1921, and one of its unique attractions for visitors is the deep-cutting at the mid-section, where 12,000 tons of rock were excavated to make way for footbridges zig-zagging overhead.
In fact, there is much for the leisured pedestrian to enjoy here, too. As the 1914
Gossiping Guide to Wales guidebook surmises: “A broad path ascends, on the right of
the Cliff railway station, passes near the summit station, continues above the sea, with a fine outlook, and descends to the Bay.”
The summit was redeveloped in the 1980s, including with a replacement camera obscura (closed at the time of writing, so best to check before you visit). In 2021, the railway is expected to be open and running seven days from April to October, with ticket prices ranging from £4 for children and £ 5.50 for adults, return.
The Welsh coast also had more practical funiculars, such as at Swansea on the south coast (also a Marks creation, although it was especially short-lived).
The Swansea Constitution Hill Incline Tramway (1898) had been scheduled to open in 1897 but failed its Board of Trade inspection. This had raised a number of serious safety concerns, one of which was that above and below the line’s passing loop, the cars ran on single track. This contravened an order of the line’s construction that the cars should operate on separate tracks, interlaced above and below the passing loop. Other concerns were also raised, such as around braking capacity.
Changes were made, although there is no indication that the layout was amended to an interlaced track, and it eventually opened the following year - only to be closed on its opening day when problems with its clutch mechanism were uncovered.
Ultimately, passenger numbers showed it to be unviable, not even covering wage costs. Its fate was sealed by a housing development at the summit, and the line was closed permanently, with its parts sold for scrap.
Its winding house remained throughout much of the 20th century, although it became derelict and was eventually demolished in 1980 by the City Engineer’s Department, which deemed it a danger to passers-by.
It was not all sea scenery and amusement pursuits for the Welsh funiculars. As has been the case for Wales itself throughout its history, especially during the industrial 19th and early 20th centuries, this corner of Britain has played a key part in industry and taken advantage of resources requisite to fuelling the growth of an empire. And this aspect of the Welsh story is written into four of the country’s funiculars, all of which have a more
recent tale to tell.
We start at Llechwedd Slate Caverns, near the old slate mining town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. At this popular visitor attraction runs the Deep Mine Railway, a funicular on a narrow gauge with a 30° gradient that opened in 1979. It delivers passengers to tunnels and chambers that they can explore within the historic site.
Before it was a visitor attraction, railways utilising funicular principles (including counterbalanced loads) were used here and elsewhere to transport the quarried slate.
Another example was the funicular erected at the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival in 1992.
This festival had its launch in Liverpool in 1984. Held every two years, it was an initiative of the Conservative government in office at the time and sought to be a symbol of rebirth for parts of Britain that had been hardest hit by a decline in heavy industry.
As a cultural regeneration project based on
Germany’s Bundesgartenschau horticultural shows (which continue today), it reclaimed contaminated ex-industrial sites (such as a steel works, as was the case here), as part of a mission to combat allegations of neglect of these areas of the country.
And it was wildly successful, drawing more than two million visitors to Ebbw Vale for the last of the National Garden Festivals.
The festival funicular was extensive at 3,020 feet, although it had a relatively short rise of only 236 feet. It was intended principally to offer passengers views over the site.
With two trains, each with three 26-foot cars, and a journey time of four and a half minutes, it was able to move up to 1,000 passengers each hour. It had a conventional layout with a central passing loop and cost approximately £1.5 million in today’s money to build.
It was offered up for sale at the end of the festival, but no buyer was found and it was scrapped on site. Little evidence remains of the festival today, with the summit of the funicular now absorbed by a retail park.
Ebbw Vale also has an inclined elevator
(with a single car, not a funicular), dating from the present century. The 187-foot Ebbw Vale Cableway (2015) rises 79 feet and has been targeted by vandals since its opening.
At Machynlleth, we find a funicular serving a similar visitor-assisting function - built at the Centre for Alternative Technology (in Powys), an eco-centre devoted to the promotion of sustainable development.
The centre is on the site of the Llwyngwern Slate Quarry, and the funicular there today - water-balanced and built on a gradient of 35° in 1992 to transport visitors to the centre from the car park - is on the site of a twin-track Victorian quarry incline, used to carry slate. A lake at the top provides the water to power the railway, and it is open from Easter through to the end of October. Prebook your visit to the centre.
We conclude our Welsh tour with the most unusual funicular on our outside-England itinerary, at Aberporth. This returns us to the coast - not to a resort, but to a Royal Air Force station and a triple missile launching platform, the Clausen Rolling Platform.
Built in the 1950s on a plateau atop 450-foot cliffs, the platform consisted of a 750-ton circular caisson floated in a diamond-shaped pool designed to simulate the roll of a ship at sea.
The funicular made it possible for the missiles to reach the platform - each missile was 20 feet and weighed in at two tons.
The platform and its funicular were decommissioned in 2004 and much evidence of it removed, although the pool remains.
Northern Ireland
Although our funiculars are best preserved today as tourist leisure lines, in the resourcesrich corners of the UK they were often the most practical solution to the geographical challenges of transporting materials - especially in quarries.
One example of this can be found across the Irish Sea, in the Mourne Mountains of Northern Ireland. The Bogie Line (1824) used a pair of cable-attached, counterbalanced iron trucks ( bogies) to carry dressed Mourne granite from a quarry at Millstone Mountain to King Street, Newcastle.
This funicular provided the infrastructure required to carry the granite to a pier at Newcastle and onto ships. It was built by John Lynn and was diverted to a second quarry (at Thomas’s Mountain) in the 1850s, where it continued its vital granite transport work.
Scotland
Given its status as the craggy capital of Britain, it’s surprising that funiculars did not play a bigger role in Scotland’s railway past. The concept has, however, had a role to play in its present.
Cairngorm Mountain Railway opened in 2001 as the highest railway in Britain.
The more than one-mile funicular scaled the northern ascends of Cairn Gorm, near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands. It replaced the White Lady Chairlift, which had occupied the site for 40 years.
It was an electric, single-track, broad-gauge line with a passing loop above the middle station and a maximum gradient of 1-in-2.5. Its summit station (Ptarmigan station) was approximately 3,600 feet above sea level.
Structural issues closed the funicular in 2018, and at time of writing its future was unknown - stuck, up on the slopes.
Isle of Man
Our final stop takes us to the Isle of Man and a return to familiar tracks.
The Douglas Head Funicular Railway (1896) was in the capital, Douglas. Like the line at Aberystwyth, its terminus (at Douglas Head) was near a hilltop camera obscura - in fact, the Aberystwyth and Douglas Head funiculars opened the same year.
The funicular coincided with the growth of Douglas as a fashionable resort, buoyed by visitors crossing from the mainland by steamer.
This rope-worked line transported passengers from the harbour up the headland. A penny amusement arcade was at its base station, although that has been lost and is now a car park. The funicular was closed in 1954 and today only the track bed remains as a reminder.
Remarkably, the 1892 Grand Union Camera Obscura survived and has been lovingly restored. Standing high as a landmark for
visitors arriving by ferry, it is open to the public during the summer months (but best to check for a flag flying before your visit, which signifies the attraction is open).
Still on the Isle of Man, there are two funicular footnotes - in the form of cliff lifts with a shared purpose - that are deserving of attention.
Falcon Cliff Lift (1887), also in Douglas, was a single-car lift built to transport patrons from the white castellated Falcon Cliff Hotel to the promenade. It closed in 1896 and a replacement counterweight lift with an electric motor was constructed in 1927 and operated until circa-1980s. The hotel closed in 1990 but the lift remains today, unmoving and fixed at the top station.
Meanwhile, having arrived at Douglas
Head via the funicular, passengers could once connect with the stunning Douglas Southern Electric Tramway, which ran along the cliff to the nearby hamlet resort of Port Soderick, four miles to the south.
This tramway included a number of viaducts and imposing toll gates, the latter of which survives today (you will pass through it along Marine Drive). But the rest is now lost (and given over to road traffic). The tramway ceased operation during the Second World War and never reopened.
At its destination stood the Port Soderick
Hotel, with its private beach and (in a rare instance of railway rejuvenation) the original Falcon Cliff Lift of 1887. This had been relocated to Port Soderick in 1897 and renamed the Port Soderick Holiday Beach Lift, carrying visitors down the cliff to the hotel.
The site has lain derelict since 2002, after celebrity chef Kevin Woodford’s Anchor Pub venture folded.
There were once plans to return the area to its former Victorian-resort glory, but this seems unlikely following its sale and with redevelopment plans under way.
Unfamiliar pieces in a national picture
In an 1895 treatise, with a title - The Climates
and Baths of Great Britain - that encapsulates the eccentric obsessions and sentiments of the age, a description of an English funicular (Devon’s Lynton & Lynmouth Cliff Railway, 1888) reads: “At Lynton the funicular railway on the face of the cliff or steep hill-side allows those who find Lynton too cold to secure warmth and shelter (in two minutes) at Lynmouth, or when Lynmouth is found to be close and airless, the same mountain line lifts one 500 feet to the elevated valley of rocks.”
It is a description that captures the convenience and thrill that funiculars offered the Victorian and Edwardian leisure-seeker, and the dominant rendering of these railways in the popular imagery today.
However, as our tour of funiculars outside England has revealed, there is much more to the story of funiculars and their role in Britain’s narrative - even the Lynton &
Lynmouth example began life with a more practical, transfer-of-goods modus operandi.
Yes, there are leisure lines to be enjoyed - in the Welsh ‘Queen’ resorts of Llandudno and Aberystwyth, or the steamer jewel of Douglas on the Isle of Man, where dramatic mountain and hill inclines were overcome and bookended with amusements and culinary amenities for the enjoyment of visitors.
This is the familiar function of Britain’s funiculars, which hold a special place in a shared affection (together with preservation and rejuvenation campaigns) for the UK’s seaside towns.
But the varied and less familiar applications of the funicular concept are just as important to British social, industrial and cultural history, and no less intriguing.
Our tour has included funiculars that came before pleasure palaces were being built by the sea, built instead to carry the rich natural resources that paved the way for Britain’s conception of travel-for-leisure (such as in the Mourne Mountains of Northern Ireland).
These functional funiculars included ones used in Britain’s defence (at the Clausen Rolling Platform), or most recently ones used to traverse the natural environment on a path of least resistance, allowing the focus to remain on a celebration of Britain’s past achievements (at Llechwedd Slate Caverns) as well as more sustainable futures (at the Ebbw Vale Garden Festival and the Centre for Alternative Technology).
In particular, those funiculars built in the 20th and 21st centuries display the most diverse application of the funicular principle. And together with the rest of the examples visited outside of England, they provide a fuller understanding of why funiculars are worth remembering, preserving, and continuing to construct across the more picturesque parts of Britain’s rich landscape.