Back story

The Leather and Webbing railway. A micro layout in 42 ” x 15”

Reduced from 4,000 words to 3,158. The 'Eye' readers back story (or big story, tiny railway)

It all started in;

1070 ..... Geoffroi Skarffe was given lands in the Welsh Marches for his part in the 1066 invasion. Geoffroi was very grateful and asked the King if he could solve a personal problem. He was a widower his sons had been killed in the battle leaving only his daughter. The next day with much pomp, splendour and Trumpets a Royal Decree arrived at Geoffroi's lodgings.

1916 ..... Matilda Skarffe ran the estate in no nonsense military fashion with the practice and ease born of generations of her family’s attachment to the military. Major Hamilton Xxxxxx wounded in the Ypres battle had taken a commission in the Royal Engineers. Matilda finding that the War Office was asking for rural territory in order to set up Gov't Agency Factories had relinquished some of her estate.

Hamilton was billeted at Skarffe Grange and it was love at first site. Matilda explained that there was a Royal Decree, which stated that should a female be the estate beneficiary and wish to marry, the suitor must change their name by applying to the Monarch. They were married in Skarffe village Church.

The main line was a couple of miles away and Hamilton oversaw the construction of a railway to a site within the estates boundary. He wanted it done quickly knew nothing about railways and more or less let the workers (who didn’t know much either) do what they wanted. The small Agency factories would be making webbing and leather goods and the Army would manage the production.

(Synopsis rejected by Mills & Boon. Ed.)

1931 ..... Skarffe Grange had a visitor a dapper clerk like gentleman who had insisted in a letter on arriving in the late evening. He had with him a document case from which he extracted two lots of papers and asked Matilda and Hamilton to read and sign them.

Briefly, the DtD (Dirty tricks Department or Mi19) had been secretly re-established with an over arching brief and a very limited budget. The rise of dictators in Europe and our government of appeasers was a matter of great concern to some. (redacted names)

The document explained that new factories must be set up away from the cities again and knowing that the estate had such a factory would the owners agree to use it. Furthermore it could not be managed by the government as an Agency but would be called a Shadow Factory managed by the owners.

Matilda and Hamilton signed the documents and the dapper gentleman walked off into the night.

(Who gave you this it's classified! You’re fired!! Ed.)

1933 ..... In the last two years Hamilton using some of the very limited funds had got both the webbing and the leather workshops in working order. Another problem had been a suitable loco the previous one owned by the Army had been scrapped.

Hans Entzminger was an estate worker his family was from Alsace, he was an ex POW and a former U Boat diesel engineer pressed into service by the Kaiser’s navy. He was one of those people for whom metal did what he wanted and defunct engines mysteriously sprang back into life. Hamilton knew this and set the Royal Engineers grapevine to find what was available. News filtered back of a little loco in a quarry to the north and Hamilton and Hans went to look at it. What was left of it after a rock fall looked somewhat derelict to Hamilton but Hans was quite impressed and said that in one of the estate barns there was a 1908 BSA 18/23HP engine that would be ideal.

Letters were exchanged Hamilton struck a very hard bargain; the Shadow Factory could be in production soon. The railway with its sharp curves was in reasonable condition the little wagons bought from a colliery in Moxley in 1916 were not too bad either having been tarpaulin’d at Matilda’s insistence.

(Continued on Page 94)

Cheers