Evening everybody.

Only a week since the last post! The Cardi-Bach Society are putting on a film show at the Theartr Mwldan in Cardigan this coming Saturday, but unfortunately the Theatr are putting on so many conditions that it is not going to be the event we hoped it would be.

They have stopped taking bookings, capping it at the 65 already booked... no entry on the day, and negative flow testing required. Makes you wonder if it's worth bothering.

On a happier note, we had a good Chufferduffers meeting last night here at Pentrecagal - the only flow testing was two vintage bottles, both 5 year olds, a Rioja and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina. Equal points for both. They washed down a chicken Madras, and the obligatory sausage rolls (prior to the curry)

Show and tell from Patrick is remarkable this week. He had acquired an 00 gauge white metal kit of a horse and cart, but really wanted it in 0 gauge. This are the white metal parts:

Without further ado, Pat painstakingly measured all the components, doubled the dimensions, and then created the pieces out of plasticard.

This it what he brought along to show us last night:

 

 

 

 

The horse was bought as a separate item, and has yet to be painted and have the harness detailed.

Several more pieces yet to be made, including the two front wheels, which Pat admits he is not looking forward to doing!

 

 

Colin has added some more detailing to his latest 009 project - it now sports a sand-box and spectacle frames for the windows - these are minute slices of brass tube inserted into holes drilled in the cab body.

 

 

We now turn to our latest layout, the one that we started a couple of years ago, back in the conservatory in Ty-nant, at Llechryd. When I moved, it was stored at the back of Pats lock-up garage for a year until we resurrected it a month or so ago.

 

 

 

 

 

We are still unable to come up with an appropriate name - I'm tempted to call it 'Tref Ddienw' which loosely translates as nameless town - but we are open to suggestions...

I took a quick movie of one of Pats locos pulling a freight train around the layout - in fact Pat made all of the locos bar one, which Col made. Pat also scratch built all of the carriages and wagons. Come to think about it, very little has been actually purchased, apart from the track!

There you have - last nights Chuffers. We played trains, watched Mark Williams on a DVD talking about old railways, and enjoyed a drop of wine, bit of food, and each others company.

'Til the next time,

Cheerio,

Shaun.
 

 Noswaith dda.

Two Chuffer meetings since our last post - March is nearly over, clocks spring forward... time really marches on.

Two weeks ago we met at Colin's, where we had a small show and tell. Colin is making steady progress with his latest 009 loco build - you may recall we showed pictures of  the re-motored chassis in the last post.

Here we have a shot of how far Colin had got a couple of weeks ago:

It now has the footplate and rudimentary body. Construction is not being taken at his usual speed as Col is picturing and documenting the stages of work for an article to be published at a later date in the 009 Society's monthly journal. He has already made over half a dozen contributions so far - but you have to be a member to read them, and copyright conditions forbid showing them here... Sorry!

Colin's perch at the top of the scratch-building is being hotly contended by Patrick, who brought along his work-in-progress of a small Lister petrol driven rail vehicle.

The chassis is made from a bogie taken from an old coach, with the motor cunningly fitted in the frame:

This is topped by a footplate and cowling made completely from scraps of plastic, with a cast metal figure for the driver to add weight.

Pate on toast, cheese rolls and a potato and leek soup together with some Portuguese red laughing water helped pass the remainder of the evening whilst we watched quite a long Youtube video about a Bayer-Garrett loco being shipped all the way from Tasmania to make guest appearances at Ravenglass and the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch narrow gauge railways.

Another enjoyable ChufferDuffers evening!

Last Tuesday saw us at Chessboard House aka Castle Kitchen Restaurant, several years ago.

Pat hosted the evening, and as always we kicked off with our usual show-and-tell.

Colins 009 build is coming along quite nicely with the side tanks and boiler now in position:

Back at home in Pentrecagal, I did a little bit of work on the 0 gauge narrow gauge layout, yet to have a name, and currently residing in one of the spare bedrooms.

A couple of pictures showing the village end of the layout:

Pat has finished his Lister loco, with a detailed engine and front and rear lamps, as well as an excellent 'Lister' on the front radiator.

(and a leather jacketed drop-out from a Seventies pop group as a driver)

And it really runs...

After that we had homemade lasagna and salad. (and Colin fell asleep...)

Finishing this post with more life in the petroleum industry - I spent a few years in the Irish Sea producing and processing natural gas.

This is where we worked and lived for two weeks out of four:

and this is how we got there - just twelve minutes from Blackpool flying time, but a world away...

Cheerio.

Shaun.

 Good evening all... Now how many of you remember that? Jack Warner, Dixon of Dock Green. 1960's...

This is the ChufferDuffers, 2022, sixty years later.

First of all, a reminder that there is a Cardi-Bach Society meeting at Y Bont public house in Llanglydwen next Tuesday, March 8th. Hope to see everyone there - a presentation on Glogue, and a discussion on the upcoming Cardi-Bach event in April at Theatr Mwldan.

On to the Duffers. We met a couple of days ago here at Pentrecagal. On Sunday Pat, Mary and myself brought our 7mm Narrow guage layout out of Pats lock-up garage in Cilgerran and unloaded it into the garage here.

Over the next couple of days, I packed up Teifi Gorge ready to take to the show in Pembroke Dock, and carried the 7mm layout up into the spare bedroom and set it up.

Tuesday evening Pat and Colin arrived and we cleaned up the layout, plugged in the electrics... half an hour later, with some delicate soldering by Colin, we had an operating Layout.

You may recall it from some pictures three years ago, but just to refresh here it is:

After cleaning the track, we ran a couple of trains around, and despite the three year layup, it performed very well.

I shall try and up load a video of the goods train, hauled by No II diesel:

This was followed by a passenger train in the opposite direction:

The locos and stock have been built by Patrick, in 7mm to the inch, whereas Colin much prefers the more diminutive 2mm - seen here on a revamped Penllyn

He had also recently purchased a minitrix chassis, but wasn't happy with the motor it was originally fitted with, so changed it for a better 6 pole motor. Here you can see the chassis with the new motor, the original one alongside:

Back to 7mm, Pat has now painted up the engine crew:

and brought along some logs and wood-cutting tools to show us:

After a very satisfactory 90 minutes of playing trains, we repaired to the dining room for a chicken vindaloo and the necessary liquid to cool the throat.

The laptop is hooked up to the TV so we can all enjoy Youtube!

Finally to end, further exploits in the overseas oil industry. 1982 I was in the middle of Nigeria, at Kaduna, commissioning a refinery. Crude oil was pumped up from the coast, and most of the finished product went out by road tanker. Several hundred queued for days at a time.

All work and no play? we had the requisite swimming pool:

and unfortunately a bar... not my finest portrait!

Cherrio,

Shaun.