Mornin' all. October 30th - almost another month gone. In fact almost another year, and another government. Or a feeble excuse for one. Cleisthenes must be spinning in his grave...

However, all of that is beyond our control. The Cardi-Bach has new lights!
The old tubes are gone, and in their place are bright LED fittings. I was there last Friday when the West Wales Modellers came to the Station for afternoon tea, and took a couple of pictures before they descended on the museum:

Also included is a picture of Ronnie Howells uniform that he kindly donated to the museum. Peter and Dawn managed to source a mannequin torso to hang it on. No legs, so the trousers stay neatly folded!

On to ChufferDuffers.
After missing a week due to Patrick venturing to the North of the Principality for a short break, we met last night at Chessboard House.
I had tasked Colin to make a couple of level crossing gates for the new layout, and as usual he came up trumps:

Made from balsa wood, all I have to now is to find some mesh, and make some gate-posts.

Colin had also finished the Hunslett Quarry style loco, and it is just left to Patrick to paint it!

It runs superbly, as can be seen in the video below:

Also captured on video is this clip that Colin and I took last week of the Railbus running around the new layout:

We settled down for the evening to watch several DVDs, accompanied by home-made pizza and home-made garlic and chili pork sausage rolls.
Yet another enjoyable Chuffer evening. No modelling done, but that's not the point...the intention was there!
Colins next week, but before then there is the Carmarthen 0 Gauge exhibition at Bronwydd Arms to visit on Saturday.

Hwyl fawr,
Shaun.

Hi everyone.
Starting with the Cardi Bach Society - as one of our members pointed out, having meetings at the beginning of the week and the beginning of the month is not the best idea, as that is the favourite time for most organisations to have their meetings - which is a fair point.
With that in mind, I polled the membership by E-mail for their views... the response, I have to say is underwhelming. Oh the joys of being a secretary.


On to happier matters.
We met here at Llechryd last night - little bit dark in the conservatory, so we put the lights on on the new layout:

It wasn't that bad really! I had the lighting gantry above the layout, and spot lamps over the work table, so we managed (after a fashion)
Starting with Colin - with his departure from the Dark Side, as 'Station Master' would have it (not sure who Station Master is, but I think he might reside in Login) he showed us the progress with his 7mm scratch build of a cabbed quarry Hunslet.

This is built completely from scratch using plasticard, brass and copper tubing and bits of wire. The only proprietary component is the chassis, which came from a Hornby 'Smoky Joe'.
The chassis cost in the region of £10... disregarding Colins time and the cost of the rest of the materials, it compares quite favourably with a commercial model, which would be in the region of £180 or more.
Here is another view:

Not only looking the biz, it actually runs!

We are impressed!

Patrick meanwhile was busy correcting the Kaydee couplings on some of the rolling stock, but he brought along the latest waggon load that he had put together:

I just hope the bumper is man enough for the restraining chains...


He also secured a bargain on Ebay of a period taxi, which we see here parked up in the station forecourt:

You have to appreciate that the layout is still in the early stages of construction, and a lot of what you see is just plonked down to create the overall effect.
The scenics have been started, but just colour-washed to give us an impression of what is needed.
We ran all the stock around the site to highlight glaring mistakes (lots) which I will have to try and corrrect before the next meeting here.
But to give you a quick preview of things, here's a short video clip :

By half past eight we had enough, so repaired to the dining room for entertainment with Youtube and a home-brewed Chicken Dhansak that I had prepared the day before, with the usual accoutrement's.

I think Patrick just bit on a clove...


No Chuffers next week, as Pat and Mary are off to Criccieth for a couple of days, with the highlight being the Welsh Highland Railway (and the Lloyd-George Museum) (He knew my father...) 

Thanks for your indulgence - all comments welcome.

All the best, Shaun. 

Chuffers at Col's last night, but first an update on last week - no Chuffers, if you remember, as it was a Cardi-Bach meeting.
Very enjoyable meet, with an interesting DVD on the GWR, and a couple of clips of the C-B, commentary provided by Emyr in his own inimitable style.
A disappointing turnout of members though - there was only eight of us, which included Rob John from St Clears, a potential new member.
Hopefully with will get better attendance at the next meeting, Monday November 11th, when Phil Hawkins will be giving a presentation on the Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways.

On to last nights Chuffers.
As usual we started with Show-and-Tell, with Patrick coming up with the little boat we saw two weeks ago, but now painted and partly covered with a tarp'.
(Apologies for the out of focus pic)

This is followed by an updated shot of the mourners carriage, which now sports internal lighting, which can be operated remotely via a magnet and reed switch.

Again I'm sorry about the quality of the photo. However, I got it sorted for the next collection of pictures which show Colins 'Scenic Railway' fairground gallopers and traction engines:

Everything you see is completely scratch built, and to a scale of 2millimeters to the foot. Some close-ups of the traction engine(s):

A twenty pence coin for comparison...


And here are a couple of shots of the fairground ride itself, duly painted and decorated:

To finish Colins 'Show-and-Tell' he is in the proccess of moving up a couple of scales, and is building a 7mm engine for the new layout.
Here is the chassis and the start of the cab:

And the layout in question - a little bit of progress was my contribution to the evening, shown in the form of a short video clip:

Our evening was rounded off with the usual selection of Youtube clips and railway related DVDs, and one of Mariannes excellent pork pie salads, washed down with a Merlot. The salad was all the more interesting with the inclusion of 'Orzo' pasta, something that was new to Pat and myself.

Next week we will be here in Llechryd, hopefully to do a bit more on 'the layout'...

Bora da,
Shaun.