Monthly Club News
December 2011:
We started the month off by taking our Buckshee layout
to a Christmas Fare event at Kings Norton in South
Birmingham on Saturday 3rd December.
We are continuing work on the construction we are
on our new Oakenshaw layout. We have also had two new
members join us in recent weeks - we still have space
for more !!!
November 2011:
We are continuing to work on our new Oakenshaw layout/
We had our Club display stand at the
annual Warley
National Model Railway Exhibition where we caught up
with many old friends. Over the weekend of the 25th to
27th November we took Dagnell End to the 50th Wakefield
Model Railway Exhibition. As always we had a great
weekend and the Society provided their top class
hospitality.
October 2011: We
have spent the month continuing to improve our
Chilcompton layout and the construction of our new
Oakenshaw layout. We took Dagnell End to
the 21st
Rail-Ex show at Taunton over the weekend of the 22nd and
23rd October and the layout was voted best in show by
the visitors. It was up against stiff competition from
other layouts like the Taunton MRG's model of Bath Green
Park.
September 2011:
We have spent much of the month preparing for our
exhibition. We took Buckshee to the Peopleton Village
show on Saturday 10th September. The layout was well
received by many of their visitors. However we did have
a problem with parents who were reluctant or unable to
control their children with their wondering hands. The
Club had another successful model railway exhibition
over the weekend of the 19th and 20th September. After a
few teething problems Chilcompton worked well.
August 2011:
We started the month with some preparation of our
Arrowmouth layout before we had a successful weekend
exhibiting at the Southwold show over the weekend of the
6th and 7th August. The layout was as ever well liked by
the visitors especially as the venue was in a seaside
town and the layout obviously has a coastal theme. We
have made allot of progress with Chilcompton this month
with some major improvements in the scenery.
July 2011:
The Club website is 12 years old this month. Work
continues on both our Chilcompton and Oakenshaw layouts.
On Chilcompton all of the track that needed relaying has
been completed and all of the new back scenes
have been fitted. A start has now been made on the total
rewiring of the layout.
June 2011:
The Club's Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 7th June
once again provided few surprises and the Committee
where re-elected without change for a further twelve
months. The Club has been in been at current base for
five years. Work continues on refurbishing Chilcompton
and constructing Oakenshaw layouts.
May
2011: We have started the month working
on both our Chilcompton and Oakenshaw layouts. With
Chilcompton we have re-examined our collection of
prototype photographs of the real station and we have
identified a list of improvements we can make. In
addition to these scenic improvements we intend to
relay some of the track work and rewire the layout to make it run more reliably.
April 2011: We
have started April by continuing the improvement of our
Dagnell End layout in readiness for the Sutton Coldfield
show which proved to be another successful weekend. The
underground part of the layout ran particularly well.
Work has now started on improvements to our Chilcompton
layout ready for the Club's show in September.
March 2011: We
have started March by the Club becoming a formal Company
that is limited by guarantee. Back to layout
construction we are continuing work
on our new Oakenshaw layout and preparing our Dagnell
End layout for it's forthcoming exhibitions. We did have
a slight crisis when one of the wheels fell off our tea
trolley. Being such a key part of Club life the trolley
was quickly repaired and we can report is now in far
better condition than ever. We had a successful weekend
exhibiting our Dagnell End layout at the Nottingham
Model Railway Exhibition.
February 2011: We
have started February much as January finished with work on
our new Oakenshaw layout and preparing our Dagnell End
layout for it's forthcoming exhibitions. We have started
making a new lighting unit suitable for all of our layouts.
You can now find us on
Facebook. On the tenth anniversary of the creation of
the web site counter we had had nearly 26,000 hits to the
site
January 2011:
We started 2011 with the completion of
our new Club Room following the application of the fifth
coat of floor paint on the 1st January.
We have spent the month getting back to building our
Oakenshaw layout. Around 60% of the buildings for the layout
now exist as at least a basic card carcass. Much time has
been spent on working to complete the canal area which is at
one end of the layout so that the rail bridge over the canal
can be fixed to allow the remainder of the track in this
area to be laid. We have also installed the required layout
fixing points to the fiddle yard boards. The fiddle yard
boards themselves (which are also used for the Dagnell End
and Chilcompton layouts) have also seen some refurbishing
of the wiring. Also when boxed up for transportation
the fiddle yard boards are now on wheels to make
moving it to/from exhibitions far easier.
