It’s 4 p.m. on a summer day and the Celtic weather gods looking down on the Snowdonia region of Wales are in a fine mood. The sun is shining, and except for the traveling puffs of black smoke dotting the mountainous and coastal landscape, there’s barely a cloud in the sky.

This is narrow gauge railway country, where a series of routes that once carried slate, copper, gold and silver from mines and quarries in the Welsh hillsides have reopened to allow tourist and rail enthusiasts to relive some of the glory days of steam in this part of the U.K.

One route, run by Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, has taken enthusiasm for steam one step further. At the end of each Saturday, the keen, curious and bold can take to the footplate — or cab — and try their hand at driving a train. They can hook the engine up to carriages, pull them, disconnect and shunt the engine around to the other side. By the end of the experience, and despite the heat and dirt, many are so entranced they even offer to help clean the engine or prepare it for the next day.

After weeks of anticipation it was my turn to get acquainted with "Gelert," the tank engine.

Driving the train has been called "like controlling a car using the taps on your bath." Once on the footplate, you’re confronted by a series of dials, wheels, levers and, in Gelert’s case, oily rags, coffee mugs, sun tan lotion and the beaming faces of David Pritchard, the driver, and David Ruston, the fireman.

After getting acquainted with the regulator (speed control), reverser (direction), air brake, hand brake and whistle chain, you are ready to gently coerce Gelert out of the station and smoothly up the track.

Reverser set forward, check. Hand brake off with three or four rotations, check. Blow the whistle — very satisfying — and look out on both sides of the track to confirm that no one has spotted who is now in control and is about to leap off in panic. Then open the regulator to trundle forward, keeping a watchful eye on the pressure gauges.

Almost immediately 16 tons of huffing engine slowly rumbles away from the platform and sets off at 8 kilometers per hour away from the Irish Sea toward the mountain-dominated horizon. We chug to the next station, which also houses the line’s museum and workshop, and it’s time to un-hook the carriages and shunt the engine to the other side for some reverse pulling.

Unfortunately, once back on the other side of the carriages it becomes apparent that I’d parked them on a slight bend in the track, making hitching any locomotive up to them almost impossible. To complicate things further, Gelert then decides the day has been long and hot enough without some amateur making it worse. She refuses to budge from the spot. I’ve broken her.

Through a series of gentle coaxing and mumbled curses, Pritchard and Ruston eventually manage to persuade her to move again, shunt the carriages onto the straight and pull them for one last time that day. The incident backs up what Stephen Williams, a local historian who on this day is also helping with the train’s operation, had said earlier in a tongue-in-cheek manner: "Steam engines are like women, temperamental. If they don’t want to play, they won’t, which is why they are always called ‘she.’ "

Having repaired Gelert and gently persuaded her that the man in control didn’t mean any harm, we return to the platform and part company — exhausted but on friendly terms.

Leaving Pritchard and Ruston to deal with the hard labor and dirty business of putting Gelert to bed for the night, I set off to get high in Wales.

The Snowdon Mountain Railway offers a ride to the tallest mountain in England and Wales, Mount Snowdon. Built in 1896 for tourists unwilling or unable to make the three-hour hike from Llanberis to the summit, a train makes the round trip in 2½ hours and includes 30 minutes at the peak to drink in the glorious views.

It’s also possible to get into Wales’ deep basement by train. The Llechwedd Slate Caverns offer tramway tours with former miners as guides into the subterranean heart of darkness where once 19th-century men and boys worked in appalling and dangerous conditions digging out slate to roof the industrial and domestic world.

The steam trains of Wales are now busier than they were during their heyday, and 2010 is a particularly special year. Talyllyn Railway, one of the lines, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as the world’s first preserved heritage railway.

While the excitement of taking control of one of these beasts in action doesn’t rouse everyone’s spirit, the sight of families milling around the various platforms and cramming in to carriages clearly shows that the affection for steam travel remains strong — especially when puffing through gorgeous scenery.

David Cawley is a U.K. freelance journalist specializing in travel and history.

Know and go• For those who want to know more about Gelert, its works number is 3050 from W.G. Bagnall Ltd. in Stafford, England. It was built in 1953 and fitted with a 0-4-2 wheel arrangement to occupy 60 centimeter gauge rail. It comes with a 480-gallon tank on the side and has a heating surface of 298 square feet. Originally Gelert spent its working life in the platinum mines of South Africa before being semi-retired on the Welsh coastal town of Porthmadog to pull tourists and wannabe train drivers up and down the line.

• All steam train journeys, including those run by Welsh Highland Heritage Railway, get very crowded, particularly in summer, so it’s always advisable to make reservations. Those who want a chance to drive must book in advance, and only adults are eligible.

• You can get to northern Wales via regular connections by modern trains from all Britain’s major cities. See www.arrivatrainswales.co.uk or www.virgintrains.co.uk.

• It never gets very hot or very cold in Wales. The best time to visit is during the summer months. May, June, July and August are generally the sunniest and driest months. During the winter it can rain quite a bit, but temperatures rarely drop below freezing and normally fall between 40 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Sygun Fawr Country House is a charming, affordable hotel well located for all Snowdonia’s attractions. including its steam train and mine attractions: www.sygunfawr.co.uk

• Useful sites on the Web:

Migrated