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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.