Monthly Club News

December 2014 : On Thursday 4th December we completed the wiring on our test track layout and we had two train operating on it. We are planning a busy work plan over 2015 with improvements to Chilcompton and generic fiddle yard we use on a number of layouts as well as going a long way to completing our Smallwood layout which will be done as a tribute to our Club Member Mark Clarke who died earlier this year and had spent many hours making the track for this layout.

November 2014 : We continuing to prepare our Dagnell End and Oakenshaw layouts for exhibition in November and construct another totally new "layout" a as yet un-named test track for members to run and test their locomotives on which is now being wired up following all of the track being laid. We had a successful weekend over the 15th and 16th November exhibiting our Dagnell End layout at the Spalding Model Railway Exhibition. Significantly on Thursday 20th November we had the first trains moving on our test track layout. We used it to give final testing to locomotives we planned to use at the Warley Show. we had a successful time over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd November exhibiting our Oakenshaw layout at the Warley National Show at the NEC.

October 2014 : We started the month with the sad new of the sudden deaths of Club Member Mark Clarke and former Club Member John Parker. Despite the bad news club members are continuing to prepare our Dagnell End and Oakenshaw layouts for exhibition in November and construct another totally new "layout" a as yet un-named test track for members to run and test their locomotives on

September 2014 We had another very successful model railway exhibition over the weekend of the 20th & 21st September 2014

August 2014 : Preparation are well advanced for the September show and we are busy adding even more detail to our Oakenshaw layout

July 2014 : The Club website is 15 years old this month. We have reached the final stages of the construction of our Oakenshaw layout with trains moving and the detail being added. To prepare for the feature on our new Oakenshaw layout in the October 2014 edition of Hornby Magazine Trevor Jones from the magazine visited our Club rooms on Sunday 13th July 2014 to take some pictures of the layout. We had a successful weekend on the 25th and 27th July exhibiting our Buckshee layout at the diesel gala at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway at Toddington.

June 2014 : Sunday 1st June 2014 marks the 47th anniversary of the formation of the Redditch Model Railway Club. On the evening of Thursday 1st June 1967 a meeting was held at the White Hart Public House in Headless Cross in Redditch which resulted in the Redditch Model Railway Club being formed. The Club's Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 3th June once again provided few surprises and the Committee where re-elected without change for a further twelve months. We  are on the homeward straight with our Oakenshaw layout with all the ballasting and wiring now complete. After a bit of testing it will be down to adding all the detailing bits and pieces.

May 2014: Work is speeding ahead on Oakenshaw. all the back scenes are now completed as is much of the track ballasting. The layout is starting to look very complete

April 2014: Work is continuing well on both the Oakenshaw and Smallwood layouts. On Sunday 6th April we took our Buckshee layout to the Aston Transport Museum at Aldridge. The layout worked but we did have a few electrical issues which now need sorting out

March 2014: March begins very much as February ended with work continuing mainly on Oakenshaw layout to meet our exhibition deadlines latter in year. On Oakenshaw around 50% of the wiring is complete including the manufacturing of two brand new control panels which include the switches for working semaphore signals. Track laying is now complete on Oakenshaw and the scenery and other detailing is progress very well. Wiring is all now complete on the lower section of Smallwood and is ready for testing.

February 2014: Work has continued mainly on Oakenshaw layout and we now have a project plan on to make certain we meet the exhibition deadlines later in the year. Work this month is concentrating on getting the remainder of the track laid on Oakenshaw and the point motors fitted to our Smallwood layouts.

January 2014: We start 2014 continuing to build our Oakenshaw layout which is now entering its 4th year of construction and it has moved on considerably over the last few months. Work this month has centred around modelling the retaining walls required on our Smallwood layout and making improvements to the genic fiddle yard we use for our, Dagnell End, Chilcompton and soon to be completed Oakenshaw layouts