New Skips in Service (1/35)

I received new 1:35 skips shortly before packing for the Gauge 1 exhibition. That meant that very little testing could be done. I brought my new skips to the exhibition anyway, thinking I could perhaps get time to fiddle with them if necessary.

Loco 23 with a train of Hesketh & Snoodyk skips emerging from under the road viaduct. Despite the skips being unpainted and the coupler chains still bright metal, I think the little train makes a rather good impression. So thought many visitors at the Gauge 1 exhibition.

I can report that the skips ran very well without any need for major adjustments. I bent the cradles that takes the skip bucket a bit on a few of the wagons. That helped the body to stay upright during travelling over Nystrup Gravel's uneven track. Otherwise I didn't need to fix anything. The skips keep the track well and manages the gap between modules (where there is bound to be some distance between the rail ends) without problems. I had very few derailments - none of them due to the skips themselves.

Real skips rock and sway as they travel over uneven track. Here skips loose a little gravel as they pass through a point. Hedelands Veteranbane, March 2014

No one at the exhibition commented on the skips being unpainted (they are only blackened) and one visitor even commented that he thought I had been really good at weathering the skips. I had to tell him that they were in fact not even painted - which he found hard to believe even after taking a closer look.

In my opinion the skips passed the test. Not only do they run well they also look good. Some of the visitors (obviously as fascinated by skips as myself) had no trouble distingushing between the different types of skips in service and had very favourable opinions on my new ones. I like them too!

See info on the skips and assembly instructions here.