Monthly Club News
December 2020:
We have continued to work within
the constraints of Covid to
build the four baseboards for our new Norgrove
layout and finish the construction and wiring of our new
generic fiddle yard. We
finished the year by testing the fiddle yard with our
Chilcompton and Oakenshaw layouts to ensure
they all work properly. This left just our Dagnell End
layout to test in the new year. We have also been making more
improvements to the scenery on our Arrowmouth layout
November 2020:
We started the month with the start
of the testing of our new fiddle yard and we began the
construction of the baseboards for our new Norgrove
layout. Our club was invited to make a short film on our
club for use at the Warley online event over the weekend
of 28th and 29th November.
October 2020:
We have started the month with more
of the same. Wiring of the new fiddle yard is virtually
complete. Work has turned to improving the layout to
fiddle yard connections on our Oakenshaw, Dagnell End
and Chilcompton layouts. It is apparent that old generic
fiddle yard was little more forgiving but the
improvements we are making should make the layouts run
more reliably at exhibitions which is what it is all
about ! We have been installing the backscenes onto the Auch Ae layout whilst completing the
construction of the locomotive shed.
September 2020:
We have continued to make good
progress on the wiring of the new fiddle yard and the
full sized mock up of our new layout Norgrove. Building
the test boards is proving beneficial as we have already
made improvements to the design of the layout which will
be incorporated in the more permanent baseboards when
they are made. By the end of the moth we have got all
the point motors to work on the new fiddle yard with the
connection of the plug sockets between the baseboards
being the the final piece of work to complete before the
whole set up can be tested behind one of layouts.
August 2020:
We have continued our restrictive
and Covid 19 compliant club meetings which has resulted
in some good progress on the wiring of the new fiddle
yard which is now getting close to being completed. Work
this month has also concentrated on the construction
from otherwise scrap MDF of full sized mock up boards
for our new layout Norgrove. This is the first time we
have done this and will allow us to check all the
calculations, track configuration and baseboard
configuration before we commit to making the permanent
baseboards out of plywood.
July 2020:
This month marks the 21st
anniversary of Redditch Model Railway Club becoming a
.com and this website which now has over 250 pages. Work
restated in a limited way this month on our new fiddle
yard and the ongoing improvements to Arrowmouth. To help
speed up progress on our current layout projects and
ensure the new fiddle yard is completed we have
temporarily taken on some more club room space. This
also helps with the maintaining social distancing. On
the fiddle yard all of the point control servo motors
have been wired up. A start on the actual wiring for the
fiddle yard has been started. More scenic improvements
have been made to one of the corner boards on
Arrowmouth. We have also stared looking at how to
configure the baseboards on our new Norgrove layout.
June 2020:
Monday 1st June 2020 marked the
53rd 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 was to be on Tuesday 2nd June but
with the Covid 19 lockdown this had to be postponed
until latter in year. Sadly we have to report long
term supporter and former Club Member Martin Baugh died
aged 63 on Thursday 4th June 2020 following
complications after a heart attack. Martin was a Club
member during the 1970's and even after moving to the
south of France around 10 years ago he regularly visited
us on club nights and was a valued member of the team at
our exhibitions. He will be missed by us all.
May 2020:
The lockdown due
to Covid 19 has continued and the Club has now not met since
March. Our club members are still concentrating on their
railway modelling projects at home with Temple Bridge
and Auch Ae layouts both making very
good progress.
April 2020:
With the countrywide lockdown due
to Covid 19 many of our club members are concentrating
on their railway modelling projects at home. One such is
Temple Bridge that is now progressing very well. On club
projects all of the track is now laid on our new fiddle
yard. Completion will have to wait until the end of the
lock down.
March 2020:
Work is continuing on our new
fiddle yard with track laying well advanced. Much of the
track has been laid. A start has been made in assembling
the MERG servo motors we are going to use to power the
points. We have previously used this system to power the
signals on our Oakenshaw layout. Work is also continuing
to make improvements to our Arrowmouth layouts in
readiness for its exhibition commitments latter in the
year. As of Tuesday 24th March we suspended our Club
meetings in line with the Government recommendations due to
Covid 19 national emergency.
February 2020:
We started the month by taking our
Smallwood layout to the Stafford Model Railway
Exhibition over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd February.
As usual Smallwood was well received with both the
visitors and exhibition managers as we left the show
with three potential further exhibition bookings for the
layout in the coming years. Work has continued on our
new fiddle yard. The completed boards have been trial
fitted onto our Chilcompton layout and everything
appears to line up (the fiddle yard is also used behind
Dagnell End and Oakenshaw so these layouts will need
checking). We have made a start on track laying.
January 2020:
We start 2020 with work continuing
on our Smallwood layout and the new fiddle yard. We have
also been preparing our Arrowmouth layout for the Weston
Super Mare Model Railway Exhibition in January 2020. We
had another great weekend and were well looked after at
the Weston exhibition on 12th January where our
Arrowmouth layout was well received by the visitors - We
will be back next year with a different layout. A group
of club members spent an enjoyable Sunday morning on the
26th January visiting the home of John Tisi to view
progress on his
Temple Bridge layout
