Page 58 - WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE DISCOVERING ENGLAND

At one station, the thirsty engine was serviced with
a long fill-up of water from an overhead pipe. Engine
138 had been converted to an oil-burner, saving the
fireman the strain of shoveling a ton and a half of
coal into the firebox during the run. However, coal
has returned to power some of these steam mam-
moths as oil prices soar.
The tracks run through the heart of Britain’s Snow-
donia National Park. One of the stops, Snowdon
Ranger Halt, is next to a youth hostel and a path
leading to the summit of 3,560-foot Mount Snow-
don, the highest peak in Wales and England. (A sepa-
rate narrow-gauge line, the Snowdon Mountain Rail-
way, runs to the summit from the town of Llanberis,
Wales.)
Along the way, the trains run across the tidal flat-
lands next to the River Glaslyn and then along the
rapids of the river through the Aberglaslyn Pass.
There are tunnels and villages springing out of no-
where, the most pretty of which is Beddgelert, which
offers cafes, shops and paths along the river.
“It’s the only way to go,” my wife, Sharon, said as she
rode in the Glaslyn, an extra-fare observation car
with stuffed armchairs and a large curved glass win-
dow at one end. Indeed, she was sitting on the very

58 Wine Dine & Travel Winter 2014