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Monthly Club News

December 2023: We have gone back to making the buildings for our Norgrove layout. On Sunday 10th December we held our Christmas lunch event which was hosted by Club Member John Tisi. As well as the lunch members had the opportunity to run John's permanent layout and his new exhibition layout Temple Bridge. A great day was had by all and we plan to repeat this event again in 2024.

November 2023: We started the month by taking our Smallwood layout to the Spalding Model Railway Exhibition over the weekend of the 4th and 5th November. As usual the layout was well received by the visitors. We took our Club display stand and Barrie Island to the Warley MRC NEC show over the weekend of 25th and 26th November. As usual our stand was well received.

October 2023 : Following our exhibition in September we have been catching up on some maintenance items on our Oakenshaw layout including making more of the signals actually work. In addition we have been refurbishing our two club display cabinets ready for their outing at the Warley show in November. We have also continued making building for our new Norgrove layout. We took our Auch Ae layout to the Wombourne Model Railway Show on the 21st October. The layout was well received by the visitors.

September 2023 : Work has continued on the building for our new Norgrove layout together with preparing for our annual model railway show including pricing up items for our club second hand stall that will be at the show. The Club staged a successful 50th Model Railway Exhibition over the weekend of the 16th & 17th September 2023. We had a great weekend over the 23rd and 24th September at the Stafford show with our club display stand. We managed to give out many leaflets for our 2024 show to the event visitors.

August 2023: Work during the first part of the month was centred around  preparing our Smallwood layout for exhibition. We took Smallwood to the Loughborough Model Railway show over the weekend of the 12th and 13th August where the layout was well received by the visitors.  We staged our first Summer Club Party at John Tisi's house on 20th August which was was enjoyed by around 20 members where we treated to loads of food and the operation of various layouts including Temple Bridge. We took the Auch Ae layout to the Avonvale Miniature Railway open day on 27th August were it was well received by the visitors. ]#

July 2023: Work continues on the building for the new Norgrove layout and finishing off the preparations of our Dagnell End layout for the Exeter Show at the end of the month. We had a successful weekend exhibiting g our Dagnell End layout at the Exeter Model Railway Show over the weekend of the 22nd and 23rd July 2023. Following all the improvement work we have done on the underground section of Dagnell End it ran faultlessly all weekend with only one minor derailment. One of the other exhibitors at the show was John Polley the former proprietor of Metro Models who back in 2012 re-motored the underground trains for us and he was really impressed to see the trains still running on Dagnell End.

June 2023: Thursday 1st June 2023 marked the 56th 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.  Work has continued on the building for our new Norgrove layout as well as making further improvements to our Dagnell End layout ready for its forthcoming exhibition outings These have included relaying some short sections of track and modifying how the layout packs up for transportation to speed up the process. The Club's Annual General Meeting took place Tuesday 27th June once again provided few surprises and the Committee where re-elected without change for a further twelve months.

May 2023: Work has continued on making improvements to our Dagnell End layout ready for the forthcoming show booking. In readiness for the event at the Severn Valley Railway we made successful use of our new cliff railway in the club room to get the Dagnell End baseboards from the first floor storage room down to the ground floor. We had a great weekend i at the Engine House at Highley at the Severn Valley Railway exhibiting our Dagnell End layout on the 6th and 7th May. Sadly long time supporter and former Club Member Ken Bridger  lost his battle with cancer on Sunday 14th May when he passed away at home aged 76. Ken was the inspiration for the construction of our Dagnell End exhibition as he had scratch built a number of Southern Region electric multiple units that still form the basis of rolling stock used on this layout   

April  2023: We have continued to make modifications to our cliff railway to refine the operation. Work has continued on making improvements to our Dagnell End layout. These are currently centred around the London Underground section of the layout where we have revamped the station area. Again we are also continuing the construction of buildings for our new Norgrove layout.

March 2023: Work is continuing on the construction of our cliff railway in the club room which ran for the first time on 7th March. Again we are also continuing the construction of buildings for our new Norgrove layout. We started the month by taking the Temple Bridge layout to the Wombourne Model Railway Show on Saturday 11th March where the layout both ran well and as usual as well received by the visitors.

February 2023 : We completed making the new storage boxes for the Dagnell End underground layout boards and have also modified the shelving the layout is stored on the club room to make more productive use of space. We are also continuing the construction of buildings for our new Norgrove layout. With all of our exhibition layouts stored on the first floor of our club rooms when not in use the issue of having to carry the layout parts up and down the stairs has always been occupying a number of club members to find a solution. Work has now started on our very own narrow gauge cliff railway to move the layout boards up and down the stairs. Aluminum rails are being added to the sides of the staircase and a trolley is being made to run on these rails. This will be hauled up and down using a hand operated winch. The gauge of our new railway is just over 2ft 8ins.

January 2023: We start 2023 making improvements to Dagnell End ready for its shows later this year. This has concentrated on the underground section of the layout where the control box has been rewired. Keeping with the London underground section of Dagnell End we have been making some new much over due storage boxes to transport these layout sections to exhibitions. We are also continuing the construction of buildings for our new Norgrove layout.