Return to the Vale of Rheidol
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- Опубліковано 15 січ 2025
- The Brock Rail cameras return to the Vale of Rheidol in the first week of September 12 months after our last visit. Two lovely days being followed by pouring rain on the day we wanted to travel on the train - good job we'd shot some aerial footage during the good weather! We ride behind No.8 from Aberystwyth to Devils Bridge with a couple of shots of 1213 too and some combined aerial and on board footage between Rhiedol Falls and Rhiwfron showing just how the line clings to the valley sides.
Beautiful and enjoyable. Thank you
Thank you George, glad you enjoyed it
Great video. Brings back memories. Interesting 9 renumbered 1213 which it bore a century backalong before GWR built 7 & 8 after the 1922/3 Grouping. But sad the ;locos now without their names which need restored: Llewellyn, Owain Glyndwr and Prince of Wales.
Super video and sound effects, thanks.
Glad you liked it Martin
Very nice video. The view of the train off in the distance was great
Marty Jeruzal thanks , glad you enjoyed it
Really enjoyed this one. Well done. Luv the sound too.
Thanks Geoff. Yes the loco is working pretty much all the way from Aberystwyth to Devils Bridge so the Canon external mike gets a good work out! In the other direction it's more like coasting down hill pretty much all the way!
A lovely reminder of my trip a few years ago. Thanks.
Glad you liked it Brian
Magnificent video of a magnificent narrow gauge railway! I must go to Wales 🏴!
Many thanks, yes Wales has some great little railways to visit although travelling can take up quite a bit of time - I was at the Llanfair Gala before the VoR, only about 40 miles apart, but well over an hour by road. Also don't forget that the VoR is very much in the tourism business so it pays to check in advance that trains are running and on what timetable - I was lucky for the three days I was there it was the two train timetable.
Nice shots through the portals. That crossing signal sounded like bagpipe notes
A number of people have asked me about this footage ....
I went back this year in particular to try and get some aerial shots of the section around Rhiwfron which I found that I could do flying from the valley bottom near the old Cwm Rheidol mine, but then I climbed up to the station (an interesting experience as the footpath isn’t exactly obvious!) and the footage I’ve used was actually shot flying from the end of the platform. This also meant I could set up my video camera in a static position to catch 1213 coming through the station at the same time as being filmed from the air.
The onboard footage was taken on the following day when the weather had reverted to typical mid-Wales torrential rain, but as I knew what I’d got from the air it was a case of running the camera for the length of that bit of the line, then in the editing software (Final Cut Pro) I marked the point at which the loco passes the end of Rhiwfron platform as this can be seen in all the clips and used this to synchronise all three clips - fortunately the drivers are pretty consistent despite the issues we were having with slipping on the Thursday! The audio track is taken from the on-board footage.
I did think about just cutting between the different shots, but I decided that the weather and the view from the air just showed off the valley and the train in the landscape so nicely that I’d go for the picture in picture option instead.
I enjoyed it. Thanks for posting! Great little railway. Impressive hang time and range on that drone shot; DJI?
Glad you liked it, yes I was lucky to get a couple of nice days for flying (then it poured the rest of the time!) and this was before all the current regulations in the UK and in pretty deserted countryside so I risked flying a bit further away than I would usually. Yes an original DJI Mavic Pro, with a ND filter on the lens, think I was getting about 25 minutes flight time maximum, 1000 - 1500 metres range and return to home to pretty much on the landing mat at the end of the station platform.
Unbelievable footage, how did you organize all of that! Multiple trips?
Thanks John. I was staying at Devils Bridge so was able to catch trains there on a couple of occasions, then I was lucky that for the three mid-week days I was there they were running the yellow two train timetable. Having visited last year I particularly wanted to get some aerial footage around Rheidol Falls / Rhiwfron and was also lucky to get two nice sunny days for this, then a combination of static cameras on the platforms and the DJI Mavic.
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