The ChufferDuffers met here in Llechryd again yesterday, but for a daytime session, as our affiliated member Mike was making the trek down from Llanddeusant in the foothills of the Brecon Beacons to visit.
As a rare treat Colin dusted off one of his N gauge layouts and brought it along to give us a demo of what I suppose would be described as a shelf layout. He has promised an extension, and that he would think about showing his larger Layout at one of the local exhibitions (we noticed a flight of pink hued porcine objects passing overhead as he said that...)

Anyhow, we convened in the conservatory, as there was enough room for Teifi Gorge and Colins N gauge, as well as space for a work table, as 'work' was theoretically the idea behind ChufferDuffers meetings.

This is Colins setup:

And three be-spectacled recedeing hairlined individuals poring over it (There would have been four, but I was taking the photo!) Strange how similar we are - all over sixty, all wearing glasses, and all follically challenged. Hey-ho. Ce's la vie, etc...

Moving swiftly on, Pat brought along some show-and-tell. The saddle tank which has been featured in the last couple of Duffer posts, now with a completed cab and sporting a smart red livery:

The '70' tram loco, which last week your saw in two or three pieces, now put together and sporting a bit more detail:

And Pat's last offering, which was constructed a couple of weeks ago, but had somehow avoided the camera, this rather fine scratch built tank wagon, beautifully weathered and distressed:

My humble contribution was another building for the St Dogmaels end of the Teifi Gorge - this time a loosely (very loosely) modelled representation of the White Hart public house:

Both buildings, the pub and the mill, are yet to be properly sited and bedded in, and the electricity connected to the Inn.
Finally another affiliated member, Login Station Master Pete Towns is in the proccess of building a layout depicting the Lynton & Barnstable Railway, in 009 and to prototype scale.
Here you can see one side of the embroyo layout, which eventually will run around three sides of the wagon that used to house the Cardi-Bach museum:

And zooming in, here is a closer shot of the station:

As you can see Pete has quite a way to go, but the speed at which he gets things done, it will pay to 'watch this space' as the old hackneyed saying has it.

Soup, rolls and cheese for lunch, and some delicious walnut and raisin cake that Mikes partner Judith had kindly sent along for us to enjoy.
Thanks to Colin Pat and Mike for making it a most pleasant day.

Nos da,
Shaun.

Wednesday January 9th - first week of 2019 gone already... We met last night at Colins, Colin, Patrick and myself. Charles is excused as he is committed to Pilates on Tuesday. We may try and reschedule - see how it goes.

No modelling done last night, but we did have a session of 'show and tell'
Back at the end of December Pat and I went to the annual Toy and Train Fair in Carmarthen, and amongst the other things that we bought, Pat managed to acquire a 00 gauge Fleischmann loco for a knock down price. He wanted it mainly for the chassis.
Last night we were shown the work in progress:

Pat had removed the Fleischmann body and replaced it with a part 'Smokey Joe' body and a scratch built cab. In the picture below you can see the chassis:

Quite an improvement on the original Hornby nether regions that the Smokey Joe sported. The motor is a bit more sophisticated as well, sporting both a choke as well as the usual capacitor. They help to improve motor start up as well as suppressing electrical interference : 

Pat has been  a busy boy since Christmas, because he produced yet another gem out of his bag last night - a scratch built GER J70 tram loco.
Quite a rarity, as only 10 were built for service with the LNER, and none survived into preservation.

This is Pat's version - the body is made out of Plasticard, and at the moment just resting on the body, and still to have a smoke stack and other paraphenalia added:

And this is what the body is concealing:

Colin, meanwhile, has finished his 009 engine shed:

Viewed from the other side, with one of his locos about to enter:

This loco has been named 'Mari'  - any longer name wouldn't fit on the boiler! The name plates and makers plate come courtesy of Narrow Planet, and painted by Colin himself.

Mari of course is yet another of Colins growing fleet of narrow guage motive power. We are still trying to persuade him to build a dedicated layout for them to go on!

After a  supper of pizza, sausage rolls and Mariannes delicious salad, we settled down to watch some old railway related DVDs and Videos ('Videos'... they were that old!) but then so are steam trains - over 50 years ago now. Two generations have grown up since the end of the steam era...

This elderly gentleman is feeling tired.
All for now, Shaun.

2019... Seems a while since the last post, but things were interrupted by some sort of holiday that a lot of the country appeared to celebrate... all back to normal now thank goodness. (Bah humbug etc)
We have had a couple of meetings since my last post, but unfortunately I had forgotten to take my camera along, so updates on modelling will have to wait until next Tuesday when we meet at Colins.

Yesterday I popped along to Login to catch up with Pete Towns, our Society Treasurer, and he showed me two of his Lynton & Barnstable locos that had finally arrived from Hattons - it had only taken more than three years from the initial order to them being delivered.

Here are Exe and Taw:

And some further pictures showing some of the detail close-up. The pictures lack crispness I'm afraid, but I was using natural light, and it was late afternoon. I don't like using the built in flash, as it seems too bright...
Anyway, here are the front, back and internal pics:

The detail is truly amazing, when you consider that the doorway onto the footplate is barely an inch high.
Peter is currently clearing out the converted railway wagon that used to be the Cardi-Bach museum, and when he has sufficient room to move he will be building a L & B layout around the sides of the wagon. Watch this space - I'll be posting updates!

Other modelling stuff - I scratch built a mill building to fill a space on the St Dogmaels end of the Teifi Gorge layout:

Thats about it for the first post of the year.
More in a few days.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda,
Shaun.