picture 1 picture 2 picture 3 picture 4 picture 5 picture 6 picture 7 picture 8 picture 9 picture 10

2008 Monthly Club News

December 2008 : We started the month by successfully putting the whole of our Dagnell End layout together. Up to now we had not attempted to fit the fiddle yard to the layout. We have now also completed all of the legs for our Dagnell End layout. The legs fit in pockets on the underside of each baseboard made from aluminum box section. Other than the station buildings on the platforms and the signal box the only buildings not yet made are a pair of semi-detached houses. Many of the building however still require weathering. Nine out of the ten EMU's we will be using on Dagnell End, that were scratch built by Ken Bridger, have been re-motored using the latest Hornby motor bogie that is used in either the Class 73 and Class 101 DMU. This has also allowed each of them to be fitted with a DCC chip made by either Bachmann or Lenz making them all ready for use on Dagnell End. (The ten scratch built units are a 4TC, 4EPB, 2BIL, 2HAP, 4LAV, 4BEP, 4CIG, 4BIG, 4COR, 4BUF - the 4TC being the one that does not need a motor).

November 2008 : We have continued fitting DCC chips to the Southern Region EMU's that will run on Dagnell End and have now done 5 units. The layout is now sitting on it's own purpose built legs which has made it far more stable. The construction of the scratch built buildings from card is nearing an end though many still need detailing and weathering. The club had a successful weekend with our usual display stand at the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition. The stand had a number of buildings on show from our Dagnell End layout, which were very well received by many of the visitors to the exhibition.

October 2008 : We started the month by fitting the first DCC chips to two of the Southern Region EMU's that will run on Dagnell End. To our surprised the units a 2BIL and 2HAP still work and are now ready for the completion of the layout next year. The club had a successful time over the weekend of the 18th and 19th October exhibiting our Arrowmouth layout at the National Festival of Railway Modeling in Peterborough

September 2008 : The Club staged another successful Birmingham Model Railway Exhibition. The attendance held up despite some of the best summer weather that weekend and a local football derby. We have started experimenting with weathering a number of buildings on our Dagnell End layout as well as starting to make the legs to support the layout

August 2008 : We have now competed all of the track laying on our Dagnell End layout within the station area and a start has also been made on the construction of the station platforms for the layout. Joe Leyland died at home on Friday 15th August 2008 after a short illness and will be sadly missed by many model railway enthusiasts. Joe was actually born Brian Leyland and had supported the Redditch Model Railway Shows for more years than anyone can remember. It will surprise many he was never actually a Club Member and just turned up year after year to man the second hand stall.

July 2008 : This Club website is now nine years old. The Dagnell End layout has taken two major steps forward this month. Firstly all of the baseboards are now made and track has now been laid in the station area.

June 2008 : The Club's Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 3rd June 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 two years. Work is progressing well on the last of the baseboards.

May 2008: We started the month by running our first engines in DCC mode on our "Picheroak Sidings" test track layout. This test track layout is designed for us to experiment with before using the techniques on our much bigger Dagnell End layout. One of the corner boards for Dagnell End is now complete. A start has been made on the boards for the other corner. Once complete we will have completed the construction of all of the baseboards. Many of the buildings round the station area are nearing completion. The Club took our Arrowmouth layout to the Trainwest show over the weekend of the 17th and 18th May

April 2008: Work will once again continue on general construction of our new Dagnell End layout. Construction of the corner baseboards for this layout is progressing well with one end of the layout now complete. Over the weekend of the 12th and 13th April the club took our Arrowmouth layout to the Jarrow show in Tyne and Wear.

March 2008: Work again continued on general construction of our new Dagnell End layout. Construction of the corner baseboards for this layout is progressing well. These are needed to allow the remaining building to be constructed. Construction has speeded up in recent weeks as the Club gained four new members all very keen to contribute to layout construction after the Redditch show in February. Keeping up this pace of layout construction we will be soon onto the next project the much talked about 7mm layout. The Club rounded off the month with a successful weekend exhibiting Chilcompton at the York Show over the Easter weekend.

February 2008: Work has continued on our new Dagnell End layout with about 85% of the all the buildings now scratch built though may still need final finishing. Not content with building one layout we have started another called "Picheroak Sidings". The Club staged another successful Redditch Model Railway Exhibition over the weekend of 9th and 10th February. The attendance at the exhibition was some 9% up and was certainly the best we have had at a Redditch show for over 25 years!

January 2008: The Club will start 2008 very much like we ended 2007 by continuing the construction of our Dagnell End Layout. The club has decided to use DCC control for Dagnell End.