Hunslet to the Summit

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 Supplies Loco to EMR

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. 

Hunslet Engine Company is back underground

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.

Hunslet Adds 08 to Fleet

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.