Hi everyone. We seem to be cutting down to one post a month these days, don't we. I guess it's the lethargy of winter, plus the continuing threat of Coronavirus hanging over everything.

Its not stopping the Cardi-Bach Society from having a small get-together next week though. 

Just a pub meal at the Bont in Llanglydwen to mark the passing of the year. Hopefully fourteen of us will be there, duly masked-up and tested!

Thinking of Christmas takes me back to my days in far flung countries working in the oil and gas industry. One Christmas in particular, 1977, I was working in Borneo, or East Kalimantan, to be pedantic. On the edge of the tropical forest, 120 miles from the nearest town - but this was the Christmas Day menu:

The roast turkey was cold, because we had had it hot for the lunchtime meal...

Mince pies were highlighted as sweet, to educate the Americans we were working with. They initially thought mince meat was ground beef (what can one say...)

It was tough in the jungle.

Seven years later Christmas 1984 found me in Saudi Arabia, and this time we had to cater for ourselves. Two men to an apartment - and as Derrick and I both liked cooking, we invited the others to join us.

(That's me at the back with the beard)

Happy days! Thank the lord for air-conditioning - the outside temperature was hovering around the low forties (centigrade, not Fahrenheit ) (and the beer was non-alcoholic...)

 

Enough of the reminiscing, back to the here and now, and the world of Chufferduffering.

Colin has been beavering away at his fairground attractions and the Steam Yachts are gradually taking shape

 

 

  

The steam engine that powers the yachts can be seen in it's ultimate position, with the canvas canopy covering it. Above the engine in the second picture you can see the box where the lady or gentleman who was in control was seated.

Next we have the steps and platform that will be going either side of the yachts for the public to gain access.

Patrick hasn't rested on his laurels, either. The wagons that you saw in previous posts have now been suitable weathered and lettered. The last pictured van was lettered by hand - quite an achievement.

 

Not only that, Pat ferreted through his cornucopia of various railway modelling stock, and managed to put together this 3mm layout (which will no doubt please a certain hillside dwelling Chuffer...)

 

 

 

and it works!

We finished Tuesday night at Pats with Chicken drumsticks and savoury rice, washed down with a suitable tincture of Chilean Merlot. A great evening all round.

Just as we were leaving I glanced at Pat's model of the Heritage Railway and Classic car meeting, and couldn't help but notice this little cameo...

Cheerio!

Shaun.

 Hello everyone - welcome to the blog. We are now well into November, and I've skipped past a couple of Chuffers meetings. Sorry! I shall try to catch up.

First though, we have had two Cardi-Bach Society meetings, the first for several months. Good to get together with members after all this time, and they were quite positive meetings. We are now on the way to Having a Cardi-Bach website. The template has been set up by John Ewart of PLANED in Narberth, and the youngest of our members, Thomas, has agreed to be web-master. More news as it develops...

In the Chuffers world, a little bit of progress has been made on the N gauge model of Cardigan, to eventually complete the layout in the museum depicting the line from Whitland to Cardigan. A much simplified rendition of  Cardigan with just a run-around loop and a siding off to the turntable.

Colin meanwhile has been beavering away at his 2mm scale fairground.

The moon-rocket ride is as good as completed, as can be seen in the following pictures:

The next attraction is going to be the 'Steam Yachts' - several pictures of this ride can be found ont'net - here is just one example:

So far Col has made the frame, basic yachts, and started on the steam engine that provided the power:

Here is a closer view of the start of the steam engine, together with a plan showing roughly how it was set up (Bic pen providing a scale)

My bad. The Bic pen is in this next picture showing the detail that Colin has put into this tiny engine:

Patrick, meanwhile has been busy making up kits of 00 gauge GWR wagons - in the last post I think I showed a picture of the white metal components - just to refresh memories, here they are:

And this is the wagon those pieces went together to produce:

Pat also put together a plastic kit of a similar wagon, and here we have the two of them on display:

For the Teifi Gorge layout, we have a rake of 3D printed slate wagons, purchased at a ridiculously low price on Ebay. Lacking wheels, but Colin found some spares, so we were able to get a rake of five wagons. Five more to go when we get wheels!

The bare wagon:

And here they are painted and fitted with rudimentary couplings:

 

That about winds up the chuffers activities for this month.

Thanks for following,

Hwyl fawr,

Shaun.

 Good evening all. First off, we had a Cardi-Bach meeting two weeks ago, the first in over eighteen Months. It was held at the 'Bont', as the Heritage Center in Login is still in a state of upheaval. The Bont was most welcoming - it was as if we had never been away!

Not a big turnout, but enough members to make the evening worthwhile. Next meeting will be at the Bont once again, on Tuesday November the 9th, 7:30pm - theme for the evening will be Welsh Railways, on DVDs and any other media we can come up with.

On to Chuffer stuff...

A couple of pictures of the state of play down in Login at the moment showing a rough idea of how the new layout will look:

Two of the sections on the opposite side are Cardigan Junction and a cut down representation of Whitland, with just the Up line and the Cardigan branch depicted.

The signal box at the junction is missing its staircase, which Colin kindly made, but I have yet to attach!

Staying with Colin, he has made quite a bit of progress on his Fairground Moon Rocket ride, as can be seen below:

In the foreground you can just see the start he has made on a couple of the rocket cars that will be circling around.

Going back to the Heritage Center for a brief moment, Graham Ashton, of Jeffreyston in South Pembs sadly passed away some weeks ago, and his widow, Wendy, contacted Peter and Dawn to see if they would be interested in the model of a Victorian coach that Graham had built - ostensibly the Royal Coach, complete with Herself and Albert and the children.

Suffice to say it now has pride of place in the Center :

 

 

 

The roof lifts up to display the interior, with the Queen, Albert, and the children playing with a model train on a coffee table:

Lots more detail, but you need to see it for yourselves, rather than my pictures, which don't do it nearly enough justice.

Moving on to Chessboard House in Cilgerran, Pats Tudor terrace is now in place, with illuminated windows and Flowering Wisteria...

What isn't showing up too well for the camera are two of the windows, behind which are two ladies caught in the act of disrobing (I am led to believe... Though it looks to me like they are touting for some kind of nefarious business)

The wisteria shows up well though!

 

 

We'll finish with a quick video clip of Pat's layout in operation.

 

 

 

Thank you for your indulgence.

For those of you new to the blog, you can access all the previous posts (should you so wish), dating back several years, by going to the links on the right hand panel.

 Thanks for following,

The Chuffers.

 Hello, and welcome to our little blog.

Modelling has been a bit slow these past few weeks (past couple of years, if truth be told) but heyho, we soldier on.

Here at Pentrecagal I completed the Boncath board for the revamp at Login, and took it over last week - forgetting to take progress photos, so there is nothing to offer visually for my efforts. The other two however have been quite busy.

For the background to his Heritage Railway diorama/layout Pat has been constructing a Tudor themed row of houses, painstakingly cutting and placing the timber beams that typify the era.

Only one picture at the moment, but I hope to get more in the coming week of the buildings actually in situ.

Here is the row as it was last Tuesday when we met here for the weekly 'Chuffers'

 

 

 

No doubt lighting will also be installed!

Colin is continuing with his fairground building, as he has constructed so many showmans steam engines, he needs something for them to be seen in use!

Following on from his Helter-skelter which we featured in the last post, and his very detailed scenic train round-about he has now started on the peripheral side shows that no doubt we all remember - hoop-la, roll-the-pennies, fishing, coconut shy, and so on.

First one off the blocks, he has started on the hoop-la:

 

 

 

Behind that can just be seen a second attraction, yet to be designated:

Since taking the above picture, Col came up with the internals being a selection of prizes:

A small container has been made to transport a traction engine:

and as he was quite taken with memories of the ever-popular Moon Rocket ride:

He has only gone and started making his version of it!!

Mind blowing...

We completed the evening as usual with DVDs, curry (Beef Madras this week) and the usual bottle or two.

Chuffers next week will see us down at the 'Bont' in Llanglydwen, for the first Card-Bach Society meeting in two years.

The Society were invited to make an appearance at the Gwili Railway Gala day in Bronwydd on Saturday, so Emyr, Pat and myself went along with a small table and Photo albums plus pictures.

Martin Connop Price was there and he kindly signed our copy of his new updated Oakwood Press book:

Lots of scaled-down steam traction engines on show, which would have had Colin drooling (unfortunately he couldn't make it)

There were also a couple of real steam engines occasionally running.

 

 

This was my first visit to the Gwili, and probably my last. I was very underwhelmed by the whole set-up. Considering the number of volunteers and staff they have, the carriages and rolling stock could all have done with a coat of paint, half the coach doors were inoperable, and weeds were everywhere. And it can't be hard to keep to a time-table...

I wonder what everyone was doing for the last two years?

It would take four people half a day to spray weed-killer, and I'm sure there is more than enough in the kitty from Government Covid handouts to pay for a layer of tarmac. Would enhance the place no end. I guess everybody was too busy administrating... 

My views, I hasten to add, not necessarily those of the others!

Cheerio,

Shaun.