Hello fellow inmates! Welcome back - it's blog time once again, and unfortunately still nothing to report on the Cardi-Bach Society.

But the Chuffers have been active in their own quiet way.
If you remember Patrick was beavering away at building an Airfix Railbus in the last blog. I made a slight mistake - the seats were not part of the kit as I first thought, but ones that Pat had to make.

Since then he has fitted the 'bus out, complete with passengers; sent it to the paint shop, and got it up and running; albeit on a short length of track. Photos below.
Getting the pictures was quite a procedure, involving a clandestine exchange of files at the Berlin Wall Llechryd bridge, away from the prying eyes of PC plod.

Here they are:

A full frontal:

And an atmospheric evening shot:

Colin meanwhile wanted a Churchward Mogul engine for his N gauge layout.
(This is a real one....)

As there wasn't a reasonable kit available, and not wanting to waste valuable 'French Laughing Water' pennies on a commercial model, our lad decides to build his own...


Starting with the boiler,

Adds a body and a footplate:

Then all the necessary bits and bobs:

Makes a tender for it:

And after running it through the painting booth and adding transfers, it can be seen gently simmering outside of the layouts' engine shed...

Meanwhile I got on with preparing the extension to the Teifi Gorge layout, cutting out the contour for the river, and lining it:

and today I started making some of the hillsides:

I can't do much to it until we finalise a track plan, and the Gandy Dancers can get together and lay track.
And when, we wonder, in this current state of affairs will that be???

No movies this week, so I'll leave you with a picture of Colin spinning away at his lathe...

Cheerio for now,


Shaun.

Welcome to this weeks blog, and the fourth week of enforced incarceration. It does look like it is starting to tail off a bit. Lets hope it ends fairly soon!

Our little gang have been active - well, to a certain degree, anyway.
I have another GWR engine build from Colin, but I shall save that for another blog. Meanwhile he passed on another of his little camping stoves for me to try - made out of a very small Schweppes tonic water can...

It is filled with fibre glass wadding, with a mesh top.
Gently pour in 30ml of methanol, and then hold a lighted match or gas lighter over the top. Within seconds you have a good flame:

put a container of water (or soup...) on the stand, and within 5 - 10 minutes you have boiling liquid.

It doesn't leak, so you can just pop it into a plastic bag and tuck it in your knapsack and off you go (when you are allowed to, that is. At the moment just use it in the back garden and pretend)



Patrick, meanwhile, had acquired an Airfix kit to make a rail bus like this one pictured here:

Pat added roof lights and a motor (not sure what source the motor came from)

Also with the kit were a set of seats to go inside:

Here is the almost completed model complete with the interior lights switched on. The seats and doors have yet to be fitted, together with a suitable selection of passengers, and then everything painted.

Across the river in Llechryd, I put the 7mm layout together, cleaned all the track and had a trial run to check that all was well.
The loco and stock passed with flying colours, and I let it have a good fifteen minute run.
I took the opportunity to take a quick video of it:

I also put Teifi Gorge up in the garage again, as I thought I might do a bit of tidying up on that. It could do with a bit of care and attention after a couple of years of use!


Thats it for this one - see you in the next...

All the best,
Shaun.

Hello!

and welcome to an extra blog, a couple of days early, mainly because I'm bored. Can't do much gardening because a bit of rain has made things wet, and a shortage of track prohibits starting on the Teifi Gorge Railway extension.


So to pass the time away, I thought we might take a peek under a rather large bushel that conceals Colins work. Not too many are aware that Col has an exquisite N gauge layout. He very occasionally sets it up on a chuffer night for us to have a play operate it.
Couple of pictures below:

One of Colins locomotives is a model of a large GWR Prairie tank engine, specifically number 6106 (seen here in Didcot after restoration)

The model that Colin had was an old Graham Farish cast metal metal version that lacked some of the finer detail. As you can see it looked a bit coarse.

Paint was stripped off, various parts filed down or removed, and the missing detailing was added, using wire, brass pins, and pieces of plastic:

After this fettling, it was repainted, relined, and the appropriate transfers added.

The next loco to feature was one of the 56xx class GWR engines. This time Col was going to build from scratch, as he didn't have a suitable model, only a donor chassis.
This is an example of a proprietary N gauge model of a 56xx class:

The chassis/motor was given a footplate:

and extra pickups added underneath to a new collector board:

A body and cab was constructed from Plasticard:

And a boiler/smokebox added using some copper pipe:

A few more bits and pieces made from wire, brass, copper and plastic:

And then it was off to the paint shop for a final finish.
Here is the end result gently simmering away outside of the layout's engine depot:

Hope you enjoyed our little tour of Herrington Light Industries.


Back with a regular ChufferDuffers next week.
Stay well.

Shaun.

Hello, and welcome to the blog!
Week four of the lock-in, and I imagine folks are starting to get a bit frustrated, especially with this bout of fine weather we are experiencing. Lets all hope we all come through unscathed.

To start off this blog, some nostalgia:

Ferreting about in my hard drive, I came across a video that I had taken in I think 2015, when we exhibited Cardigan/Kilgerran in Whitland.
Here for your delight is a short clip of a pannier tank on the turntable at Cardigan, and then picking up a passenger train to take down to Whitland. (Excuse the sound - I couldn't erase it...)

On the modelling front, Pat has been quite busy converting I think an 'Oxford' diecast model of an old GPO van to run on rails - with quite a degree of success.
He sent me some pictures of it, reproduced here for your delectation:

And to prove that it does actually run, Pat sent a video clip of it racing around Maes Y Gof...

Here in Llechryd, in between butchering the shrubbery gardening, I rooted around in the garage and found some timber crying out to be made into a baseboard... so I did.
The embryo

 extension to the Teifi Gorge layout, from Cilgerran to Newcastle Emlyn...

It will sit at right-angle to the main board, and is attached by the tried and tested split-hinge arrangement.
The track plan has yet to be decided after consultation with the board of directors.

one hinge at the front

and another at the back.....











The 'new' layout, tentatively called New Quay has been lying neglected in the conservatory for some time - I just haven't seemed to be able to drum up much enthusiasm for the 7mm scale.
I did however make a bit of effort, and build the water tower and coal staithe for the engine servicing area -

It was supposed to be finished ready for the Bala exhibition at the end of May - that obviously is not going to take place. Fortunately Pat was able to get our accommodation booking cancelled.




When we attended the Bala expo last year, there was a very impressive model of the Forth Bridge. It was mainly 3D printed, with both sides of the estuary modelled to scale. It was done in 'T' gauge, which is roughly 1:470 - the track is only 3mm wide...

Here to finish this weeks blog is a movie of that bridge, complete with a train crossing it:

Thanks for following the blog,
Stay healthy,

Shaun.

Good morning everyone, and a lovely one it is, despite the problems the World is undergoing at the moment.

No Cardi-Bach Society news, naturally, as all that type of activity has been put on hold. The ChufferDuffers however have been out on the duly allowed exercise.

I take a daily walk alongside what is historically referred to as the Llechryd Canal - actually it's a sort of mill leat that runs alongside the Teifi and was used to feed the tinplate works at Castle Malgwyn.
Dried up in most places, there is a short stretch, 100 yards or so, that stays wet for most of the time.
Ducks frequent it, and I managed this shot yesterday - mother mallard and ducklings in 'line ahead':

Colin e-mailed some pictures through that he and Marianne had taken at the weekend when they took their walk along the Teifi Gorge.
You may recall a section of our Teifi Gorge layout that passes through a quarry section - this is it back at the turn of the century when production was in full swing:

Colins walk took them past the remains of the old quarry workings, and you can see the slate slabs quite clearly in this picture Colin grabbed:

as well as the spoil that was left at the base of the cliff, also apparent in our model rendition, which you can see in the small picture above.

As they progressed further along the path that followed the old line, they came to the remains of the building that the quarry workers had used all those years ago:

Turning back and walking down in the opposite direction, Colin and Marianne followed the path that our Teifi Gorge Railway would have taken after it had left Cilgerran and carried on to Newcastle Emlyn. We have yet to model that section of the line - that is yet to come!

Many thanks to Colin for those images. Meanwhile Chuffer Pat has been rootling about in his cupboard full of railway ephemera, and blew the dust off this old gem:

Being rather tired of the continual repeats on offer on the idiots lantern in the corner of the lounge, Pat and his wife Mary sorted out the 1000 pieces, and in no time at all produced this:

And all without looking at the box lid once... ( yeah, I believe you Pat...)


Pat is also the only Chuffer who has been productive on the modelling front - he had these 3D printed figures from his son Daniel and also Merlin Models, and has painted them ready for posing on the 7mm layout.
The leg had broken off from one of the figures so Pat very cleverly adapted it:

Finally a couple of images taken at the West Wales Modellers Exhibition last summer - one of Login, and one of the Bronwydd Arms Layout:

And to finish we have a quick video of drone footage courtesy of Wicked West Films taken of Llechryd Bridge showing the flooding experienced during Storm Dennis, a couple of months ago.

Thats it for this week - hope you are all well, and coping with the trials and tribulations that this pandemic is putting us through.

Bye for now,

Chuffer blogger Shaun.