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2007 Monthly Club News

December 2007: The Club started the month with a Club display stand at the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition over the weekend of the 1st and 2nd December. As always this event was busy with visitors having the opportunity to view photographs showing the progress we have made with our Dagnell End layout

November 2007: The Club took our Arrowmouth layout to the Wolverhampton Model Railway Show over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th November 2007 and we came away with some more silverware when the layout was voted best in show. Our new Dagnell End layout took a major step forward when we bolted all of the baseboards (except the corner boards that have yet to be made) together.

October 2007: The Club took the Buckshee layout to the Evesham Model Railway Show on 6th October 2007. The layout was well received and ran very well. Work on Club nights have this month involved building baseboards and the scratch building of the many building required for the Dagnell End layout. Mike Wild editor of Hornby Magazine visited our club rooms once again on Sunday 14th October 2007. This time he photographed our Chilcompton layout for it to be featured in either the February or March 2008 edition of Hornby Magazine.

September 2007: The Club staged the third Birmingham Model Railway Exhibition over the weekend of the 15th and 16th September. It proved to be a very successful show which was well received by exhibitors, traders and visitors.

August 2007: Much of the work on Club nights is centered around the construction of building for our Dagnell End layout. Some of the timber has finally arrived for the main baseboards for Dagnell End and a start will now be made on their construction. A group of club members had a very enjoyable day out despite the rain on Sunday 19th August when we traveled on the main line steam hauled service "The Shakespeare Express" between Birmingham and Stratford on Avon.

July 2007 : The third edition of the new Hornby Magazine was published on July 13th and it has a seven page feature on our Arrowmouth layout. This Club website is now eight years old. We are still waiting for the timber for the main baseboards on our Dagnell End layout. However, we have seen much progress on the construction of the many buildings that are required for the layout.

June 2007 : The 1st of June marks the 40th Anniversary of the Club's formation and so members who attended the Club night on Thursday 31st May 2007 were treated to chocolate cake in celebration. The Club's Annual General Meeting once again provided few surprises and the Committee where re-elected without change for a further twelve months. The Club has been in it's new Club Room for twelve months. Due to a delay with the order we are still waiting for the timber for the baseboards. Work on testing the electrics on the Underground layout has continued and the automatic train operation is about 80% reliable. Work is in hand to make it as near to 100% which will be needed under exhibition conditions.

May 2007 : Over the May day weekend (5th to 7th May) the club took our Chilcompton Layout to the Didcot Railway Centre 4075 event. Whilst this was a general railway gala our layout was well received. Access is a problem on the Didcot site because Network Rail lines surround the site. To speed our departure on Monday evening our Chilcompton layout and the other layout at the gala Warley MRC's Ward Road were transported across the site in a former GWR sleeper wagon hauled by GWR Pannier Tank 3738. Construction of the underground section of our new Dagnell End Layout has continued with many of the buildings on this section of the layout now complete. The timber for the baseboards of the main layout has been ordered and after cutting to size should be with us shortly. Work on testing the electrics on the Underground layout has continued. The second edition of the new Hornby Magazine was published on May 11th and it has a two page feature on our Club.

April 2007 : Over the Easter weekend we took our Arrowmouth layout to the Barrow-in-Furness Model Railway Exhibition where the layout was once again a winner being awarded a trophy for the most entertaining stand. Work on the London Underground section of our new layout is at a stage that we have now had trains moving up and down. The trick is now to make this operation automatic for which we have a bespoke control unit.

March 2007 : On Sunday 25th March Mike Wild editor of the new Hornby Magazine visited our Club Room to both take general pictures of the club and our Arrowmouth layout for forthcoming articles in editions 2 and 3 of the magazine. Photographs of Club Members at work showed them working on buildings for our Dagnell End layout. These photographs should be featured in edition 2 of Hornby Magazine 

 February 2007 : The Club staged it's 40th Anniversary Model Railway Exhibition over the weekend of the 10th & 11th February . The whole of the Midlands was hit by the worse snow fall for 25 years over the Thursday and Friday before the show. Even with the snow exhibitors battle their way through the bad weather from as far away as Bedfordshire and Leeds. Even with the snowy conditions on the Saturday the visitor numbers slightly exceeded those of the May show last year. The Club had a very successful day exhibiting our Arrowmouth layout at the Ilkeston (Woodside) Model Railway Club Model Railway Exhibition on Sunday 18th February. To our surprise the layout was voted the best layout at the show by the visitors. After the fun of the show we will go back to constructing our new Southern Region Dagnell End layout.

January 2007 : Work is still progressing well on the new replacement fiddle yard for our Gorcott/Chilcompton layouts as well as continuing with the construction of our new Southern Region Layout. The new fiddle yard needs to be finished for the Redditch Model Railway Exhibition in February 2007.