Saturday, 15 September 2018

45th REDDITCH MODEL RAILWAY CLUB EXHIBITION 2018 15-16 SEPTEMBER

45th REDDITCH MODEL RAILWAY CLUB EXHIBITION

Saturday 15th September - Sunday 16th September

LOCATION:
Trinity High School, Grove Street,
Redditch, Worcestershire B98 8HB

OPENING TIMES:
SAT 10am - 5pm SUN 10am - 4.30pm

ADMISSION:
Adults £5.50 Concessions £5.00
Children £2.00 Family £14.00

The 45th Redditch Model Railway Exhibition held in September will provide a variety of quality layouts in the popular scales plus trade support. Venue is on access one of the town centre ring road and is 15 minute drive from either junction 2 or 3 of the M42. It's within a 10-15 minute walk of the railway station with direct links to/from Birmingham New Street - every 20 minutes on Saturday and every 30 on Sunday (journey time around 35-40 minutes)

The following layouts are confirmed;

BRYNLLWYD -- 7mm Welsh Narrow Gauge (above and left).

BUCKSHEE -- 4mm Scottish Highlands.
CHARLTON THE STRAND -- 4mm Western Region.
EU (le Treport) DEPOT -- 7mm French loco depot.
FARMERS DROVE -- 2mm Modern Image.

HOUNSLOW SIDINGS -- (Above and Right) 4mm BR Southern railway. Hounslow is located on the Twickenham and Brentford loop service from Waterloo, and has Barracks at Hounslow Heath this is a local station to me and I believe the station was used as a military vehicle loading station during WW2.

MORFA MAWR -- 4mm Welsh line circa 1970s (left). The layout is situated in West Wales on the coast of Cardigan Bay, based on a small country station, about 6 miles to the north of Aberaeron along the Cambrian Railway line from Aberystwyth to Newquay. Layout consists of a single platform station with runaround, there are sidings for local goods and a small coal yard.

OAKENSHAW -- 4mm West Yorkshire mill town.
SMALLWOOD -- 4mm Modern Image.
STUDLEY AND ASTWOOD BANK -- 4mm Midland Railway.
SU AND ST PAUL -- HO Scale American Modern Image.

TRINITY DOCK STREET BRIDGE -- 4mm Dock Yard (above) Trinity Dock Street Bridge is a fictitious location based on Railway Street in Hull, where the road and railway crossed the channel between Humber and railway docks in the ‘Old Town Docks’ in the city.
TUNNEL CUTTING -- 7mm layout.

Nearest Railway Stations :
Redditch [0.45 miles]
Alvechurch [2.95 miles]
Barnt Green [4.34 miles]
Wood End [4.44 miles]

MAP

Saturday, 8 September 2018

THE WESSEX WANDERER TOUR -- SATURDAY 8th SEPTEMBER

Saturday 8th September, 2018

FROM THE MIDLANDS AND SEVERNSIDE SOUTH TO THE JURASSIC COAST FOR AN AFTERNOON BREAK. OUT ONE WAY AND BACK ANOTHER, HAULED BY BRITISH BUILT LOCOS.

This coming weekend there is an opportunity to enjoy a rather unique day’s rail-cruise, offering a large circular itinerary, passing through many of England’s historical counties en-route to the destination of Weymouth, set on its own bay along Dorset’s Jurassic coastline.

The outward journey is via Bristol, Bath, Westbury, Castle Cary, Chetnole and Dorchester before arrival into Weymouth at around 13:30. There then follows a break of several hours to enjoy the invigorating sea air and attractions before the estimated departure time of 15:45.

Weymouth’s popular sandy beach is backed by Georgian houses, behind which sits the commercial area and railway station. With level walking for easy exploration one side of the town is bordered by the River Wey, with many boats tied up in its sheltered waters. Attractions include The Revolving Viewing Tower, Victorian Nothe Fort and a Sealife Park, plus a good range of eateries and watering holes.

Initially climbing the long Bincombe Bank away from the coast our special train is routed by way of Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton, Reading and Oxford before taking the Cotswold Line via Moreton-in-Marsh to arrive back into Worcester to complete the days circular routing.

CLASS 50's lined up at Severn Valley Railway

Motive power for this rail cruise, from and back to Worcester, will be a pair of popular class 50 diesel locomotives, courtesy of the Class 50 Alliance, and normally based on the Severn Valley Railway. A GBRf class 66 locomotive will feature north of Worcester.


Estimated Timings
Joining Stations	Depart	Return
East Midlands Parkway	0530	2300
Loughborough	0540	2250
Leicester	0600	2230
Nuneaton	0630	2200
Birmingham New St.	0700	2130
Stourbridge Jn	0725	2100
Kidderminster	0735	2050
Worcester Shrub Hill	0825	2000
Cheltenham Spa	0850	2100 ^
Bristol Parkway	0930	2145 ^

^ Return by road coach from Worcester Shrub Hill.

Saturday, 25 August 2018

HILLINGDON RAILWAY MODELLERS 2018 OPEN DAYS -- SATURDAY 25TH AUGUST

http://www.hillingdonrailwaymodellers.co.uk/

Welcome again, it's time for another Open Day at Hillingdon Railway Modellers, these regular events are very popular and the next one will be held on Saturday 25th August 2018.

Haven't attended here for a little while so this is a good opportunity to get myself over there and give a few of my Dads O Gauge models a bit of a run out since I've no room for a layout at home and I don't want them to live in boxes forever. I aim to hopefully get there for the afternoon with a few items in my bag to try out and also update a few pictures too. It's always a popular day and doors open to the public at 10:00am.

Club Events For 2018
Date	Description
25 August	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)
3 September	Committee Meeting
6/7 October	Grindley Brook to Wigan Finescale Railway Modellers exhibition.
27 October	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)
15 December	Test Track Open Day (confirmed)

Address

Yiewsley Baptist Church

74 Colham Avenue
West Drayton UB7 8HF

* the entrance is at the side of the church down a path and the doors at the end should be open, don't try and enter the main doors of the church.

Owing to rental costs of the hall there is a cover charge of £4 but there will be two extensive O Gauge and OO Gauge Test Tracks available and have recently added a three track N Gauge circuit too (Pic Below) all up and running so if you have anything you wish to see get a good run do please come along.

N GAUGE TEST TRACK

There are always plenty of refreshments available, Tea, Coffee and cold drinks for the youngster, in addition the freshly made bacon rolls are highly recommended. (just don't scoff them all before I get there!!)

It should be stressed that these ARE NOT exhibitions, so please bring your own locos and rolling stock to run. At busy times we may have to introduce time slots so that everyone can get a chance to operate their stock. Here's a short clip of one of the earlier open days YouTube LINK

Below you can see a busy picture of their 8 road yard in O Gauge it's a very extensive track and will give your models a very good run. A few photo's taken from the previous open days are below, if you read back to some of the earlier postings in this blog I have tried to show the variety of excellent models on show, these guys are truly experts in their craft I only wish I had some of their talents and skills.

People will bring a wide variety of stock to run, nearly all are kit built though and the skills / detail is incredible.

Everyone will get their turn I promise.

I hope that these pictures give a good indication of the size of the O Gauge test track, you can give your models a really good work out here. This formation can also transform into an exhibition layout called Grindley Brook a scenic section replaces the long straight down the back.

This layout was shown at the Warley show at the NEC Birmingham in November 2017 and will be making an appearance at the Wigan Show in October 2018 so well done to all concerned getting this large layout out there to be enjoyed by people far and wide. Will aim to update on that exhibition later in the year.

Grindley Brook O Gauge Exhibition Layout

A few more pictures from some of the previous Open Days, though they mostly focus on the O Gauge track there are also Test Tracks available for OO and N Gauge too. There are many society members on hand who are both extremely friendly and knowledgeable too so if you have any problems with modelling or questions they will be more than happy to try and help i am sure.