It has been quite a few months since I posted anything on my Skaleby blog. With my attention firmly focused on the organising of the school's model railway show, and on the building of my show layout "Skaleby West", the larger layout has had to take a back seat modelling wise. There has been no progress on the scenics whatsoever, and even the tidying up of the board has not happened. That does not mean that the layout has been ignored however.

Sharing the spare room with the pet house rabbit may have its problems. The national network may have leaves on the line, the wrong kind of snow and even recently a guard taking a statutory break but these pale into insignificance next to Skaleby's challenge of rabbit fur. The little feller's white hairs get everywhere! Much of my time is spent "defurring" the layout and the locos which run on it.

But it is not all bad. The need to give the rabbit his daily exercise does give me an excuse to play trains. And so whilst the scenic work has taken a back seat I have enjoyed a daily bout of playing trains and Skaleby has seen a regular service.

As Skaleby is essentially modelled as a preserved line, passenger trains are very much in the majority. Up until recently these have been operated using a pair of midland surburban coaches. Now these trains operated using an ex GWR autocoach as this prevents the need to run the loco round the train, important time saving when I am combining my railway operating with rabbit watching and paper work. A three coach B.R Eastern region set of Mark 1's is also used and often visits during busier days hauled by a larger loco from my collection.

At present the operation of the line is shared by a fleet of three locomotives. These are:

Hornby Railroad SDJR "Jinty" 3F number 24

This is the workhorse of the fleet. It was bought for Skaleby's previous incarnation at our old house when the line was plagued by "cat attack" as our pet cat delighted on jumping onto the layout. It is robust and easy to maintain. Despite some problems in February it still gives good service on the two coach surburban set and is seen here on shed at Skaleby.

Bachmann B.R Standard class 3 number 82020

My favourite loco of the current fleet. It also runs with the two coach surburban set. It is seen here on shed outside Skaleby goods shed. This is being used to temporarily house locos whilst the main shed ares is under construction. Locos are moved out when freight trains run. In this picture you can see the rabbit hair problem!

Bacmann B.R Ivatt tank number 41324

This loco is currently in service on the autocoach trains. It runs well although sometimes doesn't like travelling forwards over the point work. Care is needed when driving it. It is seen here in the goods yard at Skaleby.

Up until recently a fourth loco was part of the fleet.

Hornby B.R "Terrier" number 32636

This loco was also used on the autocoach trains and has been in regular service over the last three weeks. It is seen here with the autocoach in a photograph which is being used on the publicity material for my school's model railway show.

The loco has just been taken out of service for "defluffing!!!".