4mm The Saga of Skeetsmere & The South Norfolk Railway

Herb Garden

Western Thunderer
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')

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

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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.

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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.

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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 'South Norfolk Railway' alongside all the scenic work being done on the doyen of that system.

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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

Western Thunderer
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
 
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