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.