HIGH winds, low cloud and pouring rain did not prevent a mountain railway from launching its summer service to the summit of Snowdon yesterday. The weather didn't bother TV personality and steam engine enthusiast Fred Dibnah either. He said: "As a steeplejack you get used to heights, wind and rain, but the cloud means you can't see anything of these wonderful views." The 64-year said he had been brought up next to one of Bolton's busiest railway depots. He now has five stationary steam engines rescued from Lancashire cotton mills and a steam driven tractor. Snowdon Mountain Railway general manager Alan Kendall is hopeful the summer season will be successful following last year's disruption caused by the foot-and-mouth outbreak. He said: "We have spent a good deal upgrading facilities at the Llanberis station and overhauling some of the rolling stock." Plans to upgrade the summit building are progressing. The Railway company runs the cafe but the majority of its patrons are walkers, some 250,000 of them each summer, and its about time they had a decent building." The Snowdon Mountain Railway is the highest railway in Wales and England, built in the 1890s at a cost of £76,000. Five coal-fired steam locos operate on the railway, four of which are originals dating back to 1895. They run on a rack and pinion track, the only one of its kind in the British Isles. The railway closes down each November when essential maintenance and upgrading work is carried out. | 
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