4mm The Saga of Skeetsmere & The Norfolk Central Railway

[Herb Garden]

What's this? a new thread?

Well for some time now I've been thinking that my Skeetsmere project has outgrown itself on the Canary Sidings thread and it was time it branch(line)ed out on its own. It felt like the first trip out to workshop wise was a good point to make the change.

For those worried.... All loco, carriage and wagon matters will continue to be delt with by the CME at Canary Sidings...

For those who don't know (where have you been the last 12 months) Skeetsmere is my attempt to capture the essence of the Mid Suffolk Light Railway in it's 'heyday' (maybe that should be more like 'notlowday')


Anyway I won't repeat the wheres and whyfors of the history of this project they can be found on my Canary Sidings thread.


The layout is now back home. And although it worked really well at workshop wise, given how little testing was done before hand by the end of the day issues were beginning to show with the reliability of many aspects of the project and now it's endured a second car journey home some of those faults are more pronounced than before. Time needs to be taken to fix those.


I do have time though but not unlimited. Skeetsmere has allready got bookings to return to Workshop Wise next October and then potentially Workington next November in a preferably more complete state. I'm certainly hoping for a more finished item by next year but this time I've been clear from the outset that I will do what I can do but won't push myself against really hard to hit deadlines. Having built the current layout as it stands today in a year was a considerable feat and I'm impressed with myself for doing so but I'm not going to put myself under such pressure again unnecessarily.


Skeetsmere was designed from the off as both a standalone exhibition layout and for home use, but also as the start of a larger home system and over the next few months I also intend to start laying some of the foundations for the 'Norfolk Central Railway' alongside all the scenic work being done on the doyen of that system.


And there you have it... A starting point for a continued modelling journey. There have been points in the last year where I have loathed this layout project but since it's top notch performance at workshop wise I have found new heart for the project so let's see where it goes...

 

[NHY 581]

Excellent stuff. I could do with a bit of inspiration, George.
My own RTR based, Mid-Suffolk inspired plans for forum domination are having to take a momentary pause whilst I sort out a couple of other pressing matters ( mainly getting next year's SWAG Members Day off the ground ) but I'm hoping to commence Flaxfield before Christmas ( this year ! ).

That said, Blackwater Pier lies brooding above the book shelf, therefore, Great Eastern thoughts at my end as well.



 Rob

 

[Herb Garden]

Right... New year let's get cracking!

You will have thought by the radio silence regarding the layout that nothing has been happening with Skeetsmere. However, you would be wrong.

I've been playing trains!

The aim of this exercise is not just to have fun but to find the operational issues with the layout. I found a fair few at workshop wise but the last 2 months I've found a few more and fixed a few minor ones. The good news is the layout still works but much improvement is needed before it goes on tour again in October and November.

So the issue is are as follows:


Stock and couplings. by the end of WW I had one loco running and 2 wagons neither of which were appropriate. So those of you who follow canary Sidings will have noticed that a plethora of GER stock has been appearing and with a refined assembly process for sprat and winkle couplings we now have a fleet of useful wagons and some coaches on the way. Hopefully by WW 25 we will have enough to run a proper timetable. #151 has also been joined by newly DCC fitted #407 and #510. Although there is an issue with the latter which I will come to shortly.


There's a very sharp bend on the track from the fiddle yard which although the bucks can get over #510 can't... It just rides up and shorts.


There's another kink in the track when you exit the slip I to the loop. #being an 2-4-0 #151 copes most of the time but #407 nose dives the ballast.


Ground subsidence in the river bank means the signal is leaning alarmingly


There's a short somewhere on this point to access the rear siding


The merg servo 4 points controllers are proving a bit rough and hard to program


The fiddle yard cassettes are too short


The fiddle yard itself is sagging really badly. The main layout was level when this was taken.


And there is a massive step where the fiddle yard joins the layout. What ive created inadvertently is an uncoupling ramp!

Obviously the other thing is scenery that needs doing. Going to be a busy year!

 

[Osgood]

"Oh man - well at least the leaning signal is well-observed modelling of fenland subsidence"