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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