Good afternoon everybody.
Into the second week of isolation. It seems really spooky - I took a trip into Cardigan for essential shopping this morning, and there were only five pedestrians on the whole length of the town.
Aldi were very efficient, friendly and polite, and with only one person per trolley shopping was quick and easy. Plentiful supplies of everything (so far...)

On the way home I stopped for diesel at Robert Davies Motors, the garage in Llechryd - only £1.09 per litre. Petrol was £1.060. Trouble is of course we aren't allowed to drive anywhere...

I had a message from Llangadog to say that Lucky the cat was pissed off a little miffed to have been excluded from Mikes photo.
Sorry Lucky!

Staying in Llangadog, and taking a big step back in time, I found these old images of a trip we made up to mikes to give him a hand with one of his 3mm model railway layouts.
I have a feeling that these images have been shown on the blog before, but I'm sure Mike won't mind them being dusted off and displayed once again.



This is the rather pleasant view from Mikes house:

and just to the right of that picture Mike has converted the upper floor of one of his barns to create an office and railway room:

And here you can see the ChufferDuffers hard at work fettling the layout.

It had been mouldering away in storage up in North Wales for nigh on twenty years, so restoring it is a labour of love, particularly as Mike has other more important jobs that need his attention.
If only we lived nearer, instead of sixty miles away...


To finish, I've made a couple of videos describing the Teifi Gorge layout.
I must apologise for the commentary, it was off the cuff, and I have never attempted anything like this before!
They aren't high quality resolution, as we are limited to 100mb per video, so I had to adjust things to get enough time for each clip.
Here we go:

and here is the second part. I'm really sorry about the voice over - I didn't prepare a script, and made some glaring mistakes (unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, etc....)
Anyhow, it passed an afternoon if nothing else!

That's it for another week.
I'll delve into the old files and discs and see if I can find anything of interest for next week.
Stay well everyone,

Shaun.

Well. What a state we in, and no mistake! I hope all our members are keeping well, and I look forward to seeing everyone once we allowed to go out and about again.
News on the Cardi-Bach front is that due to the enforced lock-in, Pete Towns, our erstwhile treasurer has been able to do some sterling work in the Heritage Building.
He tells me he has put in cable trunking for the projector and sound system, and with the dry weather has been able to progress with the water ingress problem.
It is just such a shame that he has to do this unaided. Well done Pete!


On to Chuffer Duffers. Obviously we have been unable to meet, so we have missed out on Colin's homemade soups, Pats Chilli and garlic chicken, and Ty-Nant curries.
Maybe there has been some enforced modelling - we shall have to wait and see.

Mike, our long-distance Chuffer who lives up in the wilds of Llangadog (actually even wilder than Llangadog, but I have trouble spelling Llanduesant) Emailed me to say that they have started lambing.
Here is Mike, just to show you what a hard-working farmer looks like:

He attached a photograph of their first lamb:

Many thanks Mike,look forward to seeing you in a month or two.


On to other stuff.

As you probably know, I live in Llechryd, and Pat and Colin are in Cilgerran - just a mile and a half away.
At least, that was until the bridge was closed due to the havoc wreaked by the last storm. Now it's a fourteen mile round trip (or would be, if we were allowed out...)


The bridge is now firmly blocked off pending repairs - and seriously blocked off. When it was closed last year, people were just flaunting restrictions.
Now look:

The reason for the closure is damage to one or more of the supporting piers. The damage to one can be clearly seen, and there is possible scouring damage to the others.
Here are some shots of the damaged stone-work, and some of the timber that causes it:

I think it could well be closed for a while!



On to modelling.
A couple of weeks ago we set up Teifi Gorge to check it over prior to the Pembroke Dock Exhibition (sadly cancelled).
I took the opportunity to rewire a bit of the lighting circuit, and was struck by how unusual this view was:

The layout is still set up in the garage, so I put the curtain around it and took a quick snap to remind us of what it looks like:

Notice on the bench to the top left, there are some trees.
The result of a bit of an experiment passed on to us by a fellow modeller from Pembroke.

You start off with dried Sedum flower heads:

Dunk them in a solution of PVA and water, shake off the excess, and then liberally sprinkle the heads with flock powder of your choice:

Then spray them with a matt varnish. Bind some of the pieces together to make a bigger tree and make a trunk with hot glue.

Paint the trunks to suit, and you have a forest (that cost hardly anything!) Woodland Scenics eat your heart out...


Thats it for this post.
Take care everyone - hopefully back to normal soon.

Hwyl fawr,
Shaun. 

Cardi-Bach meeting next Tuesday, March 17th - as Mentioned previously, this will be a general meeting, no specific agenda just a get-together to discuss the coming year.
Following that, the next meeting will revert to our original plan of holding meetings on the second Wednesday of the month - so we will meet on Wednesday April the 8th. Hopefully Sue Allen will be able to attend the April meeting to tell us about a permissive walk that she is able to arrange.
Unfortunately a family bereavement means she will be unable to meet us next week.
Correction to this post - April's meeting will now be WEDNESDAY APRIL 15TH

On to the Chuffers report.
As the annex at Chessboard House is in use at the moment, we met again here at Llechryd, with Pat kindly providing the food for the evening instead of me having to cook... two curries in succession would be gilding the lily.

Our task for the evening was to get the Teifi Gorge layout up and running after its winter storage, to check that everything was working in readiness for the Pembroke Dock Exhibition.
Hopefully this will still take place, despite the current health issues that the country seems to be experiencing.

We set up in the garage, as the 7mm narrow gauge layout is occupying the conservatory at the moment.
Here is a shot of Pat and Colin, suitably clad for the chilly venue cleaning track and generally titivating:

Despite having been stored in the cold garage for the past six months, the layout has survived very well. Minimal cleaning was required, and only a couple of spiders had to be ousted from the undergrowth.
We left the quarry section in it's box, together with all the bits and pieces, as this was just an operation exercise. 30 minutes to unpack and erect, which was pretty good.

All locos ran extremely well, and both turntables behaved as they should.

Colin had brought along two new engines to test run - both scratch built, the first a L & B look-alike, complete with hand coach lining done with a bow pen.
Seen here languishing alongside the platform at Cilgerran:

The second loco, 'Parrog' we may have seen before, but it didn't feature much as the pony truck was giving a bit of trouble. It has since been in the Workshop  at Herrington Light Industries for sprung pick-ups to be fitted to the bogie, and on test ran impecably.

Having established that everything was operational, it was movie time!!



Here is 'Parrog' on its test run:

And for the second video, we put the Lynton and Barnstaple look alike through it's paces(we did have problems with an over enthusiastic turn-table operator...)

Back into the house for an hour or two to warm-up, watch a couple of DVDs and tuck into Pats chicken pasta (and the obligatory glass or two) (which seems to have affected the focus somewhat...)

Also this last week I had a visit from Mike, our Chuffer-Duffer from woolly back country, with a box full of railway books and assorted DVDs. We have shared these out, and when read and digested will be available to Card-Bach members at the Heritage Centre.

No Chuffs next Tuesday, as we will be at Login for the Society meeting.


Regards to all,
Shaun.

Good evening everybody - Cardi-Bach...
Next meeting is in two weeks time, Tuesday the 17th of March (Saint Patricks day, and the day before I officially become an 'old person' - or so I am informed. But we wont dwell on that...)
Nothing planned specifically for the meeting, just a general discussion around the table regarding the year ahead, and what ideas we can all come up with for future meetings.
At Login, as usual, and the computer/projector etc. will be available should anyone have anything visual to share with us on the night.

On to Chuffers.
Storm Dennis blew through a couple of weeks ago, and this was the view from your bloggers front window - compare it with the heading photo.

The waters rapidly receded though, without divine intervention - although I was marooned for two days.

But thats all by-the-by.
We haven't done a lot of modelling - at least, three of us haven't, which can't be said for our honourary member Pete, the Login Station Master. But more of that later.
Colin has been busy with other things, namely making camping stoves from aluminium cans.
He gave me a couple to try out, and here they are, fired up.
Using methanol fuel, obtained from B & Q, and a baked bean tin to boil water in (I didn't have a suitable saucepan), each of these little stoves boiled enough water for a full mug of tea in less than 5 minutes.


And here they are:

The larger of the two, I was able to sit my tin of water straight on top:

Whilst for the smaller one, Colin had provided a small wire trivet:

There are a host of Youtube videos all about constructing these stoves, and a whole variety of designs. The amount of fuel required for a ten minute burn amounts to less than an egg-cup full.
Not only for camping, but an idea to keep in mind for winter power cuts !


Now on to the Station Master. As you may have gathered from our little blog, Pete has more than a passing interest in some obscure narrow gauge railway that once ran somewhere down in devon...😉


Looking through his collection of books on the iconic line, one of the pictures of the Lynton and Barnstaple showed a coal lorry at one of the stations.

 Intrigued with this, Peter trawled around the internet and found this:

And made this!!!

Not only that, he has progressed with the scratch building of more of the periphial buildings around the L & B stations:

and the platform name boards for Woody bay:

We find it all very embarrassing!
All we did last night was lounge around in the sitting room watching DVDs and then indulge in a home brewed Lamb Bhuna...

What can I say?

Must try harder...

Tarah,
Shaun.