RMweb Gold The Johnster Posted March 6, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2017 Before deciding to set my fictitious South Wales valleys blt in a real geographical location in order to set the mood of the precise locality I had in mind, I considered using the equally fictional location of a BBC Wales comedy drama and calling it 'Cwm Pen-ol'; there is supposed to be a circumflex on the 'o' but I don't know how to type it. It translates as A%*@hole Valley... The BBC series was, I believe, mostly shot in Maerdy, a good location to model but a bit north and east of what I wanted. It is set in an alternative version of the real Dimbath valley, a tributary of the Ogwr Fawr which joins that river just upstream from Brynmenyn (Butter Hill), the valley between Ogmore Vale and Gilfach Goch, one of the very few valleys to have not, in reality, been devastated by the industrial revolution and an example of the sylvan loveliness that all the valleys must have once presented. It is undermined for coal from collieries in the valleys each side of it, but my alternative reality is that there was a mine, not modelled, and a mining village needing a passenger station and goods siding in this very steep and narrow valley. I have loosely based it on the real Abergwynfi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium corneliuslundie Posted March 6, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 6, 2017 The (almost) translation of the well known layout Llanastr is "mess". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killian keane Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 'That dam railway', which by the way is one of my all time favourites! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Dagworth Posted March 6, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 6, 2017 The End Of The Line A very impressive small layout at Cotswold show at Eastcombe a couple of years back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CKPR Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Has anyone ever modelled any of the stations of Trollope's fictional Barsetshire, such as Winter Overcotes or Shearing Junction (change for Worsted and Fleece) ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Storey Posted March 6, 2017 Share Posted March 6, 2017 Belle End is the mainstay of my 16mm NG garden railway, under construction, from which it will take its name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ejstubbs Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 Nahhhh - Birnham Wood for Dunsinane..... Hardly any need to change trains. For Birnham Wood will come to Dunsinane... Folks, it's Birnam - no "h". The "ham" suffix meaning farm or homestead is Old English in origin, which suggests to me that it's probably not relevant in the etymology of Birnam as a place name. There is no named settlement shown in the location of present-day Birnam on James Stobie's 1805 map of the counties of Perth and Clackmannan, or John Thomson's 1832 Atlas of Scotland (both maps courtesy of the National Library of Scotland maps web site). Stobie's map shows a place called Burnbane around four miles roughly south-east of modern Birnam, on the south bank of the Tay opposite Caputh on the north bank. There's no mention of Birnam Wood. Thomson's map also shows Burnbane in roughly the same location, and an earlier map names the area as Burnbean. Only Thomson's map shows Birnam Forest, in more or less the area that the OS puts Birnam Wood these days. According to the local tourist association's web site the village itself is Victorian in origin, having arisen around the terminus of the Perth and Dunkeld Railway. It wouldn't surprise me if someone decided to name the new settlement as a romantic allusion to Shakespeare, in an attempt to drum up tourist trade. The station was originally just named after the nearby and much more ancient town of Dunkeld, but these days it's called Dunkeld and Birnam. By the way, according to the current OS map it's 11½ miles from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane Hill as the crow flies, and requires a crossing of the River Tay. Pretty good going if you're on foot and having to carry a chunk of tree as camouflage in addition to all your regular accoutrements of medieval infantry warfare! Actually, this makes me wonder whether Shakespeare's Birnam might have been a corruption of Burnbane, since there does appear to have been a crossing of the Tay there. (Dunsinane Hill is, of course, a tautologous place name.) My favourite place name in the area is Tullybelton. Whenever I see the signs for it as I drive up the A9 I always do a momentary double-take; for some reason my brain always registers it a Bellybutton for a fraction of a second... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted March 7, 2017 Share Posted March 7, 2017 No "h"? Sorry! Blame my faulty memory of Shakespear! As for the distance, sounds about right for a "Road" type station..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devo63 Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 I drew up plans many years ago for a layout set in the Mallee region around the South Australian / Victorian border. The line was to pass through a wheat and sheep property typical of the area called 'Uppson Downs' which would have given the name to the layout. Never did get built in the end as I sold the bulk of my SAR stock. Dave R. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signaller69 Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Our Club has a rather BACKWARD backwater layout - Llamedos. And slightly different spelling, but the "Upsan Downs Light Railway" has been on the Exhibition Circuit for a while I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
28XX Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Fictitious names or places which need a station but never had one, spring to my mind unbidden. Boldmere Cotteridge East Bromwich Brunswick Green Utterley Llan Droffar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Folks, it's Birnam - no "h". By the way, according to the current OS map it's 11½ miles from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane Hill as the crow flies, and requires a crossing of the River Tay......Actually, this makes me wonder whether Shakespeare's Birnam might have been a corruption of Burnbane, since there does appear to have been a crossing of the Tay there. (Dunsinane Hill is, of course, a tautologous place name.) My favourite place name in the area is Tullybelton. Whenever I see the signs for it as I drive up the A9 I always do a momentary double-take; for some reason my brain always registers it a Bellybutton for a fraction of a second... I'd imagine that Shakespeare's Scotland was like Conan Doyle's London; a place he had read about, but not (when the first tranche of Holmes stories were written) visited; containing half-familiar place names and urban myths aplenty. Shakespeare proverbially spelt his own name several different ways, after all.. I saw the "misread words" thing a while ago, in Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Couldn't find a Ripleys reference but I did find this. https://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/cmabridge/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Pelham Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 There was Gordon Gravett's, full named, "Half Term at Ditchling Green". I suggested a name, which was adopted, when we were planning an On30 logging layout at Crawley Model Railway Society; "Groenen Creek". I have always fancied building a small Southern isolated station, serving the two nearby villages of "Windy Bottom and Belching". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 A while ago, I was trying to find a definitive text of the Dubliners' song "MacAlpines Fusiliers". Considering that this is a much-recorded song, written by a known author within living memory, and still in copyright, it was surprisingly difficult! The spoken monologue varies widely between versions, and is sometimes omitted altogether given its late-1930s context. The "pincher ladies" referred to, have defied consistent interpretation. It is sometimes described as being "to a traditional air" - the tune "The Jackets Green" in fact - but I've heard it set to several different tunes. "Shuttering" is often rendered as "shuddering" and the JAMB of a shutter, is a section of the shutter which forms a structural key, enabling it to be struck (dismantled) in the right order. The "hydro dam" referred to, is most commonly attributed to the Alwen Dam, part of a reservoir system which was built by Sir Robert MacAlpine between 1909 and 1921. There WAS a programme of building hydro-electric dams in Scotland between 1945-65 but the great Dinorwic project, much hated by a generation of construction workers for its remote location and bleak conditions, came later. "The Isle of Grain" references pre-date the notorious power station project. The song itself was first published and performed in the late 1960s, but seems to have continued to evolve ever since... If all this can be found in a short popular song still in copyright, we need hardly be surprised at errors of fact in a play written by a man five centuries dead, about a place he never visited! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Titan Posted March 8, 2017 Share Posted March 8, 2017 Then there were the names of my old clubs two layouts - Chatwell, and Lower Mandible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
45568 Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 A group of like-minded friends of mine were going to build an exhibition layout based in South Wales featuring colliery etc. workings. Someone? came up with the tentative name of 'Pant-Y-Snyffyn'. We never did get anywhere with it! Cheers from Oz, Peter C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PaulRhB Posted March 9, 2017 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 9, 2017 I think there's a difference between unusual names intended in the op and the common puns mentioned a lot above. Nothing wrong with the puns and backwards names but they aren't unusual on the show circuit Like the OP said something that's not a real or made up place name, of whatever source. Names like Gresley Beat, Holiday Haunts or First Sunday in June evoke a feeling for what it's like to be there rather than just a name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJS1977 Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 <<< My 009 micro layout's official title is 'The Seaside Layout', I don't know whether that's ungeographic enough to count, but its unofficial subtitle certainly is - 'Where Seagulls Dare'! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Signaller69 Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 <<< My 009 micro layout's official title is 'The Seaside Layout', I don't know whether that's ungeographic enough to count, but its unofficial subtitle certainly is - 'Where Seagulls Dare'! If they are anything like the seagulls in Rhyl, they certainly do dare!!! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hroth Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 Fictitious names or places which need a station but never had one, spring to my mind unbidden. Boldmere Cotteridge East Bromwich Brunswick Green Utterley Llan Droffar We have a game we play in the car when driving about on holidays, spotting curious place names and making them into a continuous melodramatic story.... As for Brunswick Green; "Here is a box, a musical box, wound up and ready to play", with Sam Tyler holding his head in his hands as Gene Hunt gives a couple of unco-operative villagers a good kicking.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Ian J. Posted March 9, 2017 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted March 9, 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djm6k-GGIBk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APOLLO Posted March 9, 2017 Share Posted March 9, 2017 Belle End is the mainstay of my 16mm NG garden railway, under construction, from which it will take its name. Isn't one of the signal boxes on "The Gresley Beat" named "Belle End Up" ? (as the real one was Belle Isle Up). Brit15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
28XX Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Hampton Rise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
br2975 Posted March 10, 2017 Share Posted March 10, 2017 Before deciding to set my fictitious South Wales valleys blt in a real geographical location in order to set the mood of the precise locality I had in mind, I considered using the equally fictional location of a BBC Wales comedy drama and calling it 'Cwm Pen-ol'; there is supposed to be a circumflex on the 'o' but I don't know how to type it. It translates as A%*@hole Valley... The BBC series was, I believe, mostly shot in Maerdy, a good location to model but a bit north and east of what I wanted. Great minds. . Yours truly is also currently building industrial South Wales, circa 1971 . "Twll Cach Exchange Sidings" (an amendment to the correct translation ? 'Twll Cachu' , to 'sound better') . Work out the English version for yourselves. . Ewan McColl wrote a song about Twll Cach; http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=you+tube+pogues+dirty+old+town&qpvt=you+tube+pogues+dirty+old+town&view=detail&mid=F9C0FBF69F246631E5F4F9C0FBF69F246631E5F4&FORM=VRDGAR Brian R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Andy Kirkham Posted March 10, 2017 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 10, 2017 Before deciding to set my fictitious South Wales valleys blt in a real geographical location in order to set the mood of the precise locality I had in mind, I considered using the equally fictional location of a BBC Wales comedy drama and calling it 'Cwm Pen-ol'; there is supposed to be a circumflex on the 'o' but I don't know how to type it. It translates as A%*@hole Valley... The BBC series was, I believe, mostly shot in Maerdy, a good location to model but a bit north and east of what I wanted. Speaking of Welsh comedy programmes, does anybody remember Ryan & Ronnie (I'll lampoon you, Phyllis Doris!)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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