The Snowdonia National Park Authority has for several years been
planning and raising money for the redevelopment of the building on
Snowdon Summit. The current building was built in 1935 and is in very
poor condition.
With the generous support of the Welsh Assembly Government and a public
appeal, the work on re-developing the Summit of Snowdon has begun.
Demolition of the old building will start in September 2006 and the
building of the new Visitors Centre will take place during 2007.
As part of this prestigious project Snowdon Mountain Railway have
recently taken delivery of the Summit Truck from the Hunslet Engine
Company. This Summit Truck will be used throughout the project,
initially to remove the spoil from the demolished building and then to
transport the materials and pre-fabricated sections of the new building
to the summit.
Although in appearance this looks to the casual observer as a flat
truck, this vehicle is fitted with all the safety systems needed to
operate on this unique and challenging railway. Hunslet engineers have
taken proven braking systems and combined them with the latest
electronic control and monitoring systems, giving the railways
operator’s full awareness of the status of the system.
The summit truck will be operated in conjunction with any one of
the four Hunslet Diesel Locomotives currently working on the mountain.
All four locomotives will be modified to accommodate the monitoring
system for the summit truck, giving full flexibility to the operation of
the railway.
Once the summit project is complete the truck will be used as a
permanent way vehicle. A personal accommodation module will be fitted to
one end of the vehicle and provision will be made for the fitting of
modular units i.e. cranes, hydraulic power packs etc.
Full details of the Summit project, Snowdon Mountain Railway and Hunslet Engine Company can be found at: www.snowdon-summit.co.uk and www.snowdonrailway.co.uk
Hunslet Engine Company has recently supplied a 56 tonne 0-6-0 diesel
hydraulic locomotive to European Metal Recycling Limited, at their
Sheffield site. Originally manufactured by English Electric Vulcan
Foundry as D1137 in 1966, the locomotive was recently acquired from
Castle Cement’s Clitheroe site.
The locomotive has been through a minor refurbishment program at Hunslet’s parent company’s LH Group Services, Barton site.
As with all Hunslet products, the locomotive was supplied with a warranty and driver training package.
After almost 10 years, Hunslet Engine Company is supplying
locomotives to Tunnelling contractors across Europe; including recent
orders for two 25 tonne diesel hydraulic locomotives to Gama Nurol in
Turkey and three 12 tonne diesel locomotives on hire to J Murphy and
Sons Limited for the tunnelling phase of the Lower Lea Valley
regeneration project.
Originally manufactured for the Jubilee Line extension, the two 25
tonne locomotives will be refurbished at the company’s LH Group Services
manufacturing facility in Staffordshire. The three 12 tonne locomotives
are on hire from preservation societies and private individuals and
will be refurbished to their original condition to meet the requirements
of operating within a tunnelling environment.
Both comissions are possible with the full backing of parent
company, LH Group Services and allow Hunslet to re-enter this very
competitive market and establish itself as a key supplier of tunnelling
locomotives.
After a long and well-established history of supplying industrial
locomotives to various locomotive operators Hunslet Engine Company is
pleased to announce the addition of the first class 08 locomotive to the
companies hire and lease fleet.
08-873 is working for Manchester Ship Canal Company between
P & O Roadways Containerbase and Trafford Park exchange sidings.
The Locomotives duties include, marshalling container trains within
the container base and hauling the 24 bogie vehicles approximately 2
miles to the national network exchange sidings. The locomotive is
operated 24 hours a day and usually handles 10 full round trips in this
period. As with many other Hunslet contracts this locomotive has been
supplied with full service and after sales support including 24 hour
call out and guaranteed attendance of engineers in the case of a
breakdown. In support of the class 08 an additional locomotive is
provided on site as a standby, which in this case is a 350 HP 0-6-0
Barclay 660 (Emily) of 1982.
Hunslet Engine Company is actively seeking to expand its current
fleet of hire locomotives, acknowledging that to do this we must move
away from solely supplying Industrial type locomotives in order to meet
the requirements of several potential clients. With the backing of its
parent company LH Group Services Limited, Hunslet Engine Company has
purchased this first 08 and we are currently establishing a support
facility for this and future locomotives. LH Groups Engine Overhaul
division has a wealth of experience overhauling the 08’s English
Electric Engines and with the other companies within the group such as
LH Group Wheelsets the main of the support is already in place.
In setting up the support facility for our own locomotive we will
also be able to provide existing users of the Class 08 an alternative
supplier for procuring spare parts and the overhaul of major component.
