The flood thankfully had subsided by the following day, and we were able to get out for a trip up to Mid Wales, where Annie was taking part in the R.S. Thomas Literary Festival in Eglwysfach (she won first prize...!)
I gave it a miss, and carried on up to Corris for an hours mooch around the village and a ride on the steam train.

The following Tuesday it was just Pat and myself for the Chuffer meeting, so we had a short evening, and sorted Crymmych Arms out ready for its next outing.
On the modelling front, I've been progressing the 16.5 layout, yet to have a name. The track has been laid and ballasted and electrically tested.
Wire-in-tube points, as there are only three of them.

 

The right hand corner is going to be a hill-side with a stream and tunnel - here the construction of the landscape can be seen using expanding foam from a rattle can:

 

The opposite side will have a road bridge - cardboard carcass covered in 'Lite' filler, and stonework scribed into it when dry. Yet to be properly painted.

 

 I've also made a station, using the same method as the bridge:

Yet to have a chimney pot, and a suitable platform.
And there we have it...

Watch this space, as they say (who are they, anyway?)
Shaun.

I thought I'd do an extra post between Chuffer meetings just to show you the effect of the recent weather.

Our house overlooks the river Teifi in Llechryd, and this was a picture taken from an upstairs window on the 8th of this month:

Everything looking fine - you can make out the bridge and its arches in the left background.
Since then, in fact only in the last two days, we have had quite a lot of heavy rain.

This morning just one week later at nine o'clock, I took a picture from almost the same position:

The arches have disappeared, and the lane at the bottom of the drive now impassable...

The same scene, just three hours later:

I just hope it goes down as quickly as it rose up!
Unfortunately I forgot to move one of the cars up to the car park behind us, something that is normally done when flooding is imminent...
C'est la vie, as they say.

Next meeting apres le deluge!

Good night at Colins house on Tuesday - no Charles, as he is still recovering from minor surgery that he had done last week. Hopefully he will be up and about in a few days.
Colin had set up his N gauge shunting plank, and we gave it a good exercise. No pictures, though I did take a couple of video clips - but I've yet to figure out how to post them on here!

I did take a couple of shots of Colins 009 locos, as they had just been fitted with brass name plates:

Not as clear as I would like - I hadn't realized that the camera had focused on the pound coin instead of the loco, but you get the idea...

As a change from railways, Col showed us a couple of Youtube videos of people making camping stoves from aluminium drink cans - fascinating stuff, but what was even better, Colin went on to show us ones that he had made himself. I didn't think to photograph them, but on just an egg-cup full of meths, you can boil half a pint of water in less than five minutes!
The whole idea of it is to reduce the load when backpacking - just a 2" can and a small bottle of fuel, instead of all the usual camping stove paraphernalia.

Here at home I'm having a bash at 16.5 narrow gauge, to make things easier on the eyesight, following Pats lead with the layout that he showed at the Woolen Mill last month.
So far I've got the track down:

and scratch built a couple of wagons:

Finally, just to prove we aren't joking about Colins Sunday hobby, here he is proudly showing off his mighty organ....

Ended the evening with an excellent snack of pizza, sausage rolls, and salad, prepared and served by Col's wife Marianne.