Good afternoon everyone, and welcome to the last blog from Ty-nant. From Friday your's truly will be taking up residence in Pentrecagal. Only ten miles away, so it is not a great move, but it is a foray into another Welsh county - this time into Carmarthenshire.

Next blog will hopefully be from the new house.

Last week we met in a bubble at Colin's. I picked up Pat on the way through, and before heading on to Colin Pat invited me in to see his Christmas set-up. Hornby three rail going around a Christmas tree!

I took a video of the train running, but unfortunately the software wont allow 'portrait' movie, only 'landscape' which is bit of a bummer. I'll try and get a better video next week. In the meantime, here are a couple of stills:

 

 

Colin had set up his N gauge layout to show us some additions he had made, and also to provided an hour or so of operating.

The station has changed dramatically from when we last saw it, a year or so ago. It has an extra platform, with added canopies, the long one still work in progress:

 

 

 

Another addition is the gantry crane that you saw in it's very early stages of construction in the last blog. It has since been completed, and is now in place to do duty outside the engine shed in the middle of the layout.

Yet more exquisite work from the master scratch builder is a GWR pattern watering point. Fashioned from brass, plastic and bits of assorted wire and pins - it actually swivels...

The power was plugged in and Patrick took control, bringing a loco out of siding on to the main line to pick up a passenger train.

Two videos, because I wasn't sure how much memory they took.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sorry about the quality, but I'm breaking in a new camera, and still getting to grips with the settings. On to show-and-tell' Pat brought along some figures that his son Daniel had created using his 3D printer. These figures are 7mm scale, and computer generated and manipulated by Daniel from what were originally Wargaming figures.

The gentleman on the right is in scale, he's just closer to the lens... reading a tablet, and getting a bit cross about it!

Two lady hikers, and a workman. All beautifully painted by Pat, showing nail varnish, pendant, and o the workman, tattooed arms.

The only thing I had to contribute was a picture of the bookshop in Carmarthen, where I volunteer my services two or three times a week. Known as 'Freebooks' it is an education based charity where you can have three books completely free - extra books for £2 each. Donations go to the charity, and periodically books are packaged up and sent overseas.

Currently we have in excess of 10,000 books, fiction and non-fiction, and no duplicates, apart from classic titles. This is just a small corner of the floor:

We finished the evening with a couple of DVDs, after a welcome bowl of Mariannes home-made soup, garlic bread, sausage rolls, and an interesting Australian red wine from 'The Jam Factory'... Well worth trying - available in B&M stores.

Cherrio!

Shaun.

Good evening everyone - welcome to the Chufferduffers. We try to keep going during these remarkable times, but the 17 day lockdown here in Wales meant a three week break in our meetings.

We eventually met at Pat's, as I am still stuck in Llechryd, camping out as it were, with everything packed up just waiting for the word... waiting being the operative word. I sold/bought on the 8th of September. It now looks like things may happen in the first week of December. Christmas in Pentrecagal? Who knows.

Enough gloom! Tuesday at Patrick's, and first of all we climbed up the stairs to the railway room to see the latest 0 gauge developments.

More work had been done on the tunnel mouths and the village above:

 

 

And a tinplate water tower, complete with lighting had popped up at the end of the station:

Here is a view of the station itself. Tinplate ACE kit, which Pat had squirreled away for several years, waiting for the right opportunity for him to put it together.

Before leaving the Layout, we had a quick run around with the Duchess, and also at the same time a freight train in the opposite direction...

Into the annex then, to give Mary a bit of peace, where we had a 'show and tell' before settling down to the serious stuff. Colin produced a water tower for the new 2mm Cardigan layout that is going to be at Login:

 

 

The pound coin gives you some idea of the scale.

For his own layout he is making an engine hoist, very similar to the one that was at Aberystwyth. (I did have a picture of it from a magazine photo, but it didn't come out all that well)

Here is Colin's work in progress, with the prototype photo underneath-

For my contribution, I have been building the Cardi-Bach stations for the new layout at Login. So far we have Llanfalteg, Rhydowen, Login, Llanglydwen, Boncath and Cilgerran. Three of them were quite easy, as they are the same pattern.

Since then I finally finished Cardigan:

More about the new Cardi-Bach layout at Login Museum in  a minute. Back to the Chuffer evening. After a ten minute battle with  several pieces of visual entertainment equipment, lots of cables and four different remote controls, Plus the muttering of several words that I refrain from putting in this blog, we settled down for the evenings viewing.

Emyr had come across several VHS cassette videos that were railway related, and had passed them on to us - hence Patrick's tussle with the various machines, VHS not being the norm these days.

It was well worth it though. Besides some commercially produced films, there were two outstanding home recordings. One from HTV with Wynford Vaughan-Thomas taking a trip on the Bala line, and then the Welshpool NG. - circa 1987, but an excellent recording.

The second was taken from  an S4C Welsh program about the recovery from South Africa of the Bayer-Garrett locomotives for the Welsh Highland Railway - this had a Welsh commentary, but that didn't distract at all from the enjoyment. It might be an idea to get them both transcribed on to DVD.

Roast chicken joints and two bottles of Portuguese red finished the evening perfectly...

Today I called over to Login to catch up with Pete and Dawn, as I hadn't seen them for three weeks. Pete had done more wood-butchering in the museum, and the Login layout is now nestling in its own display area, complete with concealed lighting at the end of the re-vamped display:

A bit more fettling is required, but you get the idea. To the left of this is the media corner:

 

At least 12" radius in the corner for the track to go around, suitably hidden. A shelf is planned to go at the front for the computer and monitor.

To the immediate left (where the hammer is) we think we could have Crymych. Pete came up with a cunning plan... As the Crymych layout was quite complex, and a nice model to boot, it would be a shame to destruct it.  Could we not insert it into the existing boarding? Excluding the behind the scenes fiddle yard, Crymych scenics are 24". The new board width is 18"... Butchering is required!

I brought the layout home in the back of the car. This was it then:

 

 

And this is it now...

 

 

I just have to slice off the woodwork on the left, and we have an 18" wide layout that can slot into the new one! (He says, with gay abandon)..

Cherrio!

Shaun.

 Good evening everyone - it's evening here, at least. If you have picked us up in the colonies it could be anytime of day. But that doesn't matter - welcome !

Nearly four weeks since the last post. Back then we met here at Llechryd, but we didn't do a great deal. We got Cardigan up and running, and all ready for the town Council to take it over. Then it was just Youtube, a couple of bottles of red and  the big red pot which this time was full of Coq au Vin, with extra brandy because it was a cold night.

On to this weeks meeting.

We met at Colin's house last night, where Colin had set up part of his N gauge layout - I have shown pictures of this exquisite layout in previous posts, so I wont repeat things. we gave Patrick the controller and he spent a happy half an hour shunting wagons to-and-fro.

A quick video of a passenger train changing platforms ready to go into service:

A couple of the locomotives that were on the layout last night had been scratch built by Colin from bits of plastic, copper tubing and wire. He is very blase about his skill...

An 0-6-2 Prairie tank (I think) on a Farish 0-6-0 chassis with the trailing pony truck scratch built.

The second one shown I'm not sure about, but I'm sure those in the know will be able to identify it (sorry, Colin - I should have paid more attention...)

Bear in mind that these are in N gauge - near as dammit 2mm equaling 1 foot. That little engine is a mere two inches long.

More demonstration of Col's skills - A couple of months ago down at Login, the doors to the museum were open, and a gust of wind blew a display stand onto the Cardigan layout, unfortunately striking the water tower, breaking into a myriad collection of pieces of plastic.

For weeks peter and I  kept the incident secret - he collected the bits, and we fretted over what to do (and keep it secret from Pat). It became common knowledge eventually, as we had to move Cardigan.

Who else to trust the task to but Colin? Our Plasticard guru.

The water tower is now back up as if nothing had happened...

Pete, we can breathe again!

We ended the evening in the time-honoured fashion, with Marianne's now famous salad and pizza (with extra toppings) (and some French red laughing water) I had to make do with orange juice, 'cos I had to drive home...

Bit of information for everybody - Pete has been contacted by a very nice lady called Sharon from Scolton Manor regarding a Model Railway Exhibition next year (Covid 19 allowing, naturally) . She wondered if we would be interested... Does a bear, etc...

She has a link to this blog (hello Sharon) and I told her that we would be happy to exhibit three layouts:

(and Mr Browne is included as part of the layouts, of course)

So watch this space...

Cheerio.

Shaun.

 Good afternoon everyone.

We don't have a great deal to report on the modelling front, but things are happening elsewhere. It looks very much like Tynant has sold, so I have been busy packing stuff up and taking things into a storage container in readiness for a move. Hopefully to a smaller property in Pentrecagal.

I did manage to start building some stations for the new 2mm Cardi-Bach layout. C-B aficionados will recall that three stations were built to the same GWR pattern - Cilgerran, Boncath, and Llanfalteg.

Luckily I still had the plans for Cilgerran, so it was just a matter of scaling them down and printing the templates.

Results so far:

and a bit closer:

Still quite a way to go with detailing, but there is the whole of winter to get through...

Keeping on the new C-B theme, over in Login Pete the wood butcher has been doing sterling work in the museum alterations.

The left-hand side is now starting to take shape, as these three shots bear witness:

 

 

 

It just needs the Gandy dancers to set to and start the new Whitland to Cardigan layout!

A quick visit to our Chairmans garage last week to see what progress has been made on the Series I Land Rover.

The front wings and outer panels were out in the sun to harden off the first undercoat prior to getting a second:

While inside the garage it was really impressive. The grill yet to go on, and the bonnet still to be tackled, but all the mechanics are working, and it is really looking the part:

 

Finally, this week's Chufferduffers - this week we met at Pats, and before settling down to DVDs and refreshments, we were treated to half an hour of 0 gauge operations in Pats new railway room.

Great strides have been made on the scenic corner:

 

 

And below the village are the tunnel mouths:

 

 

 

We'll finish this post with a couple of unedited video clips of Pats trains strutting their stuff:

 

One of a working snow-plough (without any snow, unfortunately)

That's about all for this week chaps...

Cheerio,

Shaun.

 Hi everyone.

Not a great deal to report on the Chuffering front, as we are only meeting once a fortnight until this virus thingy sorts itself out.

We last met ten days or so ago here at llechryd, when we put in a constructive hour or so working on the Cardigan layout. Fixing the turntable, which was acting up a bit, and tidying up the wiring and connections between the two boards.

Colin sorted out the T/T whilst Pat and I got on with the wiring. We also were able to box the nethers in when we had finished to protect the circuits and connections when the layout gets moved around.

Colin produced a turntable that he had made in N gauge ready for the re-vamped Cardi-Bach display:

While I rehoused the doohicky that Charles had made to control sound effects, and also gave it a better connecting harness:

As is our usual practise, after an exhausting hour of labour we repaired to the dining room for DVDs, Youtube nonsense and a plate of pasta.

Pat has just tried a pickled jalepeno pepper...

I told you in a previous post that we had plans afoot to change things around in the Cardi-Bach Museum, over at Login. Last Thursday I went over to see Pete, and together we got stuck in...

We took the tops off of the units, and then emptied them prior to re-locating them against the right hand wall - not the easiest of tasks, as they were all screwed together...

In the end we separated them into ones and twos and eased them across:

 

 

before putting the plywood sheets back on top and then securing everything firmly in place.

After a little bit of tidying up, we were quite pleased with our four hours labour:

Next week we tackle the other side!... (he says glibly)

Thats it for this one - next Wednesday we are meeting at Pats, so there could be some 0 gauge action!

Keep your masks on,

Shaun.

Hi everybody.
Been a bit tardy lately where Chuffers are concerned - I've been busy three days a week at the charity bookshop, and then having to show prospective house-buyers around Ty-nant, which has involved hoovering and polishing and generally tidying up.

I did find time to call in at Pat and Mary's for coffee on Tuesday morning. I took along the usual pot of clotted cream, on the off chance that Pat had made scones...

Even better, as well as scons (skones?) he had made some strawberry flans as well!
My goodness me...

The colesterol has gone off the scale!

More from Chessboard House later on in the blog.
I don't know if I had mentioned previously that Chuffer Mike, up un the foothills had grown a beard?
The similarity to Father Christmas is striking. On a trip up to the village of two saints this week I caught this picture of Mike during a tour of the house extension:

The resemblance is uncanny...



Back in Pat's railway room, Mary had been busy with an old set of Bayko building bricks - who remembers them? come on own up!
Anyway, Mary constructed these two buildings to go on the 0 Gauge layout:

Which Pat duly put through its paces.
No sound on the first clip - I managed to mute the original recording but never had time to find a suitable soundtrack to dub on to it. Here we go_

The second one is noisy! some of you may remember it as being part of the working display that used to be a feature of the Castle Kitchen Restaurant a couple of years ago.

The final clip of the 0 Gauge layout is a freight train trundling around the inner loop whilst the express continues a circuit of the outer ring.
Again, this is muted, but nothing dubbed yet (it does take some time to do)

We end with Llechryd.
Last week Emyr and I went to Login with Emyr's van and collected the Kilgerran and Cardigan layouts, to free-up room in preparation for the big re-vamp.
Kilgerran is now in Cilgerran Village Hall waiting to be set up, whilst Cardigan is here in the garage set up on a support stanchion displaying its nether regions for a bit of tidying up.
That will be our project for the ChufferDuffer meeting here tomorrow evening.
Chicken, fennel and pepper have already been prepared to go with pasta...

That's it for now - comments welcome, as always


Cheerio,

Shaun.