Our Club President has passed away

Sadly we have to report the last of our founder members and Club President Mick Clements lost his battle with dementia  on Tuesday 16th June when he passed away at the Alexander Hospital aged 87. Mick was one of the 12 people who founded the Redditch Model Railway Club on Thursday 1st June 1967. Mick became Club Treasurer a role he was to hold until recent years and with a tenure of over 50 years we believe he was one of the longest if not longiest serving model railway club treasurers. Mick was best known for his interest in anything to do with the former Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway (SDJR) but a small fact unknown to many his railway modelling interests actually started with narrow gauge railways - how things could have be different if he had not discovered the SDJR!  Mick was  the influence and drive behind construction of the two Somerset and Dorset based club exhibition layouts of Wincoleton and Chilcompton  Mick scratch built many locomotives and coaches that ran on the SDJR layouts as well as using them on other of our exhibition layouts. Many of the buildings on our exhibition layouts of Arrowmouth, Chilcompton, Dagnell End, Oakenshaw and Smallwood were scratch built by Mick and he was able to pass on his modelling techniques to many in the club who have gone onto create their own models. Sadly during the Covid pandemic it  become apparent Mick's health had started to deteriorate. Despite this he did continue to attend club meetings until he ended up in a nursing home as his heath continued to get worse  before he passed away on the 16th June. To Mick happy railway modelling wherever you are now and hopefully you get to build that last great exhibition layout you were planning before Covid. We know Mick will be missed by members of our Club and the wider model railway community.

Our Tribute to Mick

2027 marks the 60th anniversary of the formation of Redditch Model Railway Club which Mick was key to the formation back in 1967 and the subsequent development of the Club. As our tribute to Mick we will taking the Chilcompton layout to our 60th anniversary model railway show over the weekend of the 6th and 7th March 2027 at the Trinity High School. Mick was instrumental in the construction of this Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway based prototype of the same name.