The world’s first preserved railway in Mid Wales is flushed with success after receiving Platinum Awards in the 2019 Loo of the Year Awards for toilets at two stations.

The awards go to Talyllyn Railway’s toilets at Abergynolwyn and Wharf Stations, the latter having recently been ‘twinned’ with latrines installed in the village of Kabindi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

By donating £60 to the charity Toilet Twinning - toilettwinning.org – businesses, shops, organisations and private households can twin their toilet with a project in a poor community. This twinning enables families to build a basic toilet, have access to clean water and learn about hygiene.

The average cost of installing a latrine facility in a Third World country, where previously there was little basic sanitation, is £60.

Tywyn Baptist Church members have twinned all four of the church’s toilets and makes regular donations to extend the twinning to other facilities in the town, including the Victorian Slipway pub, Pebbles Tea Room and the Magic Lantern Cinema.

Eleven publicly accessible toilet facilities in Tywyn have been twinned and the church hopes to boost that number to 20 to give the town ‘Toilet Twinned’ status.

Talyllyn Railway’s general manager Stuart Williams agreed to twin Wharf Station toilets when approached by church member Phil Malin, twinning co-ordinator in Tywyn.

Stuart received twinning certificates from Phil in the same week as the Loo of the Year Platinum Awards for the two stations were announced.

A further donation has enabled the composting toilet at Dolgoch Station to be twinned and the railway is appealing to members and friends to help twin Abergynolwyn Station’s toilets, the only ones left on the railway that are not twinned.

Anyone wishing to donate is asked to contact railway on 01654 710472 or Tywyn Baptist Church on 01654 711752.