Monthly Club News

December 2013: With the start of December we completed the fitting of the back scenes on Oakenshaw. Significant progress has been made on station areas of both Oakenshaw and Smallwood layouts.

November 2013: We have started the month by making significant progress on both our Smallwood and Oakenshaw layouts. On Smallwood we have completed the scratch built all over roof for the station from card and for Oakenshaw fitting the majority of the back scenes. We ended the month with the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition at the NEC where we had the usual club display stand.

October 2013: We have spent this month working on both our Smallwood and Oakenshaw layouts. Both layouts are making great progress. We now have laid virtually all the track on the lower level of our Smallwood layout and a start has been made on the buildings and retaining walls. The all over roof for the station has been scratch built from thick card found in a bin!

September 2013: We started the month by continuing to prepare our Chilcompton layout for our annual model railway exhibition over the weekend of the 21st and 22nd September. We had another very successful model railway exhibition over the weekend of the 21st and 22nd September 2013

August 2013: We started the month by making improvements to the underground section of our Dagnell End layout to improve the operation of the trains. Following some extensive reworking of the two underground trains by Metromodels we have now managed to operate the two trains reliably using the automatic sequence - something we have not achieved for a number of years. We had a successful weekend over the 17th and 18th August exhibiting our Buckshee layout at the Engine House on the Severn Valley Railway. Our former Wincoleton layout has been sold again and is now owned by Steve Williams who intends to use it as the basis of a much larger layout at his home in Leicestershire.

July 2013: The Club website is 14 years old this month. Track laying on Smallwood is progressing well. All of the track is being scratch built in situ on the layout creating a very prototypical appearance with correctly spaced sleepers. Scenically Oakenshaw is now very advanced and we are currently making a concerted effort to get this element of the layout completed as quickly as possible. We had a successful weekend on the 26th and 28th July exhibiting our Buckshee layout at the diesel gala at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway at Toddington.

June 2013: Saturday 1st June marked the 46th anniversary of the formation of the Club. The Club's Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 4th June once again provided few surprises and the Committee where re-elected without change for a further twelve months. We have started to lay track on our Smallwood layout.

May 2013: We have started track laying on our Smallwood layout. We had a successful weekend on the 25th and 26th May exhibiting our Arrowmouth layout at the New Forest Model Railway show at Brockenhurst.

April 2013: We started the month by exhibiting our Buckshee layout at the Cheltenham show over the weekend of the 8th and 9th April. We are continuing to work hard on both our Oakenshaw and Smallwood layouts. Virtually all of the building are now complete on Oakenshaw and

March 2013: We have spent this month continuing to work mainly on our Oakenshaw layout. However we have made a start in laying the cork track underlay on our Smallwood layout. Smallwood is going to feature scratch built track and virtually all of this has now been constructed.

February 2013: We started February by taking our Dagnell End layout to BRM Doncaster show over the weekend of the 9th and 10th February. We have continued to build our Oakenshaw layout which is now moved on considerably over the last few month

January 2013: We start 2013 on a low point after celebrating our 45th Anniversary during 2012 as our Club President (and founder Club Member) Mick Clements lost his wife of over 50 years Margaret Clements on 26th December 2012. We continuing to build our Oakenshaw layout which is now entering its 3rd year of construction and has moved on considerably over the last few months. In preparation for the Doncaster show we have been ensuring Dagnell End layout is ready. Our Club meeting on Thursday 24th January was cut short not by the snowy weather but the whole of the industrial estate we are based on was blacked out by a power cut.