# A cold December day on the Tumbly Down Railway.



## grumpfuttock (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi folks,

I don't contribute so much here these days, life is quite, so not much to say ! I did start on moving earth and stone for the next extension of the TDR in the summer, but there is a long way to go before it is finished. Having recently fitted a "chuffer" to my Cheddar "Hercules" and seeing as it was a cold but beautiful afternoon last Saturday, with only a breeze instead of wind, I decided to venture out into the garden and try it out on 2% - 2½% grades to see how it sounded, having only run it on level track before. Here's 10 minutes from the afternoon's activities.



Memories from the late summer........... Here is my neighbours cat taken in the late summer, who is definitely a train enthusiast, and can spend 4 hours trotting after trains or running alongside the loco's, without even a thought of swiping at them with his paw. 










At the end of the session, he just lay on the track, despite having a train heading straight at him ! We have had the pleasure of his company for 3 afternoon steaming sessions.
His intense interest in steam loco preparation is quite uncanny!


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## Bruce (Jan 3, 2008)

Nice video and layout. Don't see to many Cheddar engines. Its a shame Cheddar went out of business they had really good robust products. 
I think the Cheddar locos has 5/8's cylinders if I remember. Didn't look like it struggled much up 2.5% grades. 

Bruce


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## dwegmull (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Bruce,
Some of the Cheddar range is now sold by Stuart: http://www.stuartmodels.com/news.cfm/archid/52


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## chooch (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice railroad. Fun to watch.


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## Larry Green (Jan 2, 2008)

Fun ride, and I felt like ducking when coming to that tunnel! Hercules is certainly a performer. 

Larry


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice layout. Friend of mine had a Cheddar, always ran well, not sure why he sold it.


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice layout Grump


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Great ride! Beautiful layout


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## Jim Overland (Jan 3, 2008)

My cat likes electric mice (n scale), so what are they in steam? steam rodents?


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## coyote97 (Apr 5, 2009)

oh what cute that cat!
LOL
And with time they´re becoming more and mor bold.
Laying down just in front of trains. Blocking 2 Switching tracks at once by lying in the sun.
Walking over driving trains.
and so on

But they are very good supervisors.

While drivingthe trains or working on the line, our cat leaves nothing out of eye.


Grettings

Frank


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## grumpfuttock (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Bruce on 13 Dec 2009 07:59 PM 
Nice video and layout. Don't see to many Cheddar engines. Its a shame Cheddar went out of business they had really good robust products. 
I think the Cheddar locos has 5/8's cylinders if I remember. Didn't look like it struggled much up 2.5% grades. 

Bruce *You are right Bruce, the Cheddar loco's had 5/8's of an inch cylinder bores. They are certainly very robust mechanically, and amazingly there still no sign of wear after many hours of running with "Hercules", during the past six years. One thing though, the steel footplate has begun to rust slightly, as has a couple of small areas of the cab, but hey, that is prototypical, right ?*








*It was me who was struggling to keep it running slow on the grades ! There was still plenty of movement on the regulator. It has done the same trip with 9 Bachmann bogie coaches (slightly weighted) on the back, giving a train weight of approx 24.5 lbs plus the weight of the loco approx 11 lbs.*


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## noelw (Jan 2, 2008)

Verrrrry nice video... and has a story to it by just watching.. Great steam plums to... Also the kitty kat... Tks for the post...


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