This is Great Britain’s only remaining cable operated street tramway and one of only three surviving in the world. Operation of the tramway differs from the San Francisco system in that, like the Lisbon lines, it is a street funicular, where the cars are permanently fixed to the cable and are stopped and started by stopping and starting the cable.
The line was incorporated by the Great Orme Tramways Act of 1898 with authorised share capital of £25,000. Construction began in 1901. The line starts at the Victoria Station in Church Walks, Llandudno. The line is in two sections and passengers change cars at the Halfway Station. The lower section climbs the very steep Old Road and then via Black Gate and Ty Gwyn Road to the Halfway Station and has a maximum grade of 1 in 4. The line climbs 400 feet in about half-a-mile. It was opened for passengers on July 31st 1902. The upper section, opened in 1903, is less steep and climbs 150 feet in about the same distance.
info thanks to the Great Orme Tramway web site
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30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Car 4 in the lower Llandudno city terminus at Victoria Station in Church Walks. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Car number 4 on The Old Road after leaving Victoria Station. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Car 5 on the Old Road passing the Kings Head Inn. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Car 4 on the Old Road approaching the five-way junction at Black Gate on Ty Gwyn Road. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Car 4 on the five-way junction at Black Gate on Ty Gwyn Road. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Car 4 on the Old Road. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Numbers 4 and 5 pass at the Old Road. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Number 6 and 7 on the upper section. -
)22708′ 30 Sep 1985 Great Orme Tramway at Llandudno car 5 at Half Way station. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. The tramway used to have a on board telephone and the overhead wire only surving this communication device. Nowedays the wire in gone and a digital cable paved in along the line. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Number 6 on the upper section of the line. -
30 September 1985 Great Orme Tramway Llandudno, North Wales. Number 6 at the summit station.