Totalkare Ltd
Snowdon Mountain Railway Invests in Lifting Jacks
This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine Issue 3 2023.
Visitors to Mount Snowdon in North Wales can continue looking forward to one of the most scenic railway journeys in the world after the Snowdon Mountain Railway invested in lifting jacks from rail depot equipment experts Totalkare.
The Snowdon Mountain Railway operates both traditional diesel services and heritage steam experience trips to the summit of Snowdon between April and October each year, the latter pushed by an original Swiss steam locomotive from 1896.
To ensure continuation of service, timely and efficient maintenance of the locomotives is essential and the investment in a set of railway lifting jacks from Totalkare will help to facilitate this by providing access to the underside of both the locomotives and carriages.
Totalkare’s railway lifting jacks are made to order and are available in lifting capacities from 5,000–50,000kg per jack. While a set of four lifting jacks is sufficient to lift a single carriage, the jacks can be connected in series up to 128 jacks, enabling an entire train to be lifted at once if required. They feature a computerised control unit, providing easy synchronicity, and carry an IP55 level of electrical protection.
The 5,500kg railway lifting jacks for Snowdon Mountain Railway replace a previously supplied solution from Totalkare, based on the company’s road vehicle mobile column lifts with bespoke anvil attachment, which has reached end of life. The new lifting jacks will be supported by a Totalkare service package which includes two field service engineer visits per year as standard.
“Our previous locomotive lifting equipment served us very well but was nearing the end of the line,” commented Hugh Jones of Snowdon Mountain Railway. “We’ve always been pleased with the quality-of-service support provided by Totalkare, so it was a natural choice to return to them for our new rail lifting jacks.”
Brian Young, National Accounts Manager and rail specialist for Totalkare, said: “Our railway lifting jacks are a versatile and effective way of raising rail vehicles into the air for the purposes of essential repair and maintenance. We are delighted to continue supporting such an iconic rail service at one of the UK’s premier tourist destinations.”
