Trenau Bach Yn “Y Gwyll”

When Mathias drove to Devil’s Bridge rather than taking the narrow gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway in the first episode of Y Gwyll I was very disappointed. In my other favourite Aberystwyth-set Cymru-Noir, it plays an important role (see The Day Aberystwyth Stood Still by @exogamist). But in the final episode, Y Gwyll made up for it: using Borth station as a location, having Matthias correctly identify a Bachman model of an 00 gauge GWR City Class, and featuring a large and beautiful 4mm scale model of Borth and the surrounding area.

I forgot to mention it when I posted about the show yesterday, but I came across some information on RMweb concerning that layout: it was constructed especially for the show (at great expense), track-wise it is – as it appears to be – a simple continuous loop (with a Bachmann Class 158 running round it), and at around 4m x 5m it is too large to go on permanent display at Borth Station Museum (@BorthStation) to which it was donated at the end of filming. It may be displayed on 5th July for ‘Steam Saturday’… hopefully I might be able to get up there to see it! There are also a couple more pics on RMweb from last year’s open day.

Image Borth Station © Copyright Ben Croft and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

About Simon Wood

Lecturer in medical education, lapsed mathematician, Doctor Who fan and garden railway builder. See simonwood.info for more...

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