Tuesday 22 November 2016

BRMRC at Warley National Model Railway Exhibition

Don't forget the biggest model railway show in the UK this coming weekend - Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th December.

Come along and see our members John Wakeman and Paul Hopkins with their lovely TT Portsea layout as featured in Railway Modeller in December 2015. You will find it on Stand C51.

Introduce yourselves. They will be only too pleased to tell you about this unusual project.

Tuesday 27 September 2016

More exhibition notices and model railway press

Last weekend saw our member Chris Davis's layout Slindon Vale attending the Bursledon Brickworks "Trains, Trains, Trains" event supported by a number of Club members. The layout ran well and was well received.

Another item which should have been posted previously but which was not owing to internet connection problems will be of interest to those of you who get BRM (British Railway Modelling) magazine - or can find last month's issue.  On the cover CD of that issue is included Redford Junction with its new extension and an interview with its owner, long standing member Paul Hopkins.

Additionally, Paul Hopkins was at Amberley Museum Bus gathering last Sunday with his model of the Bus station and his Chichester Basin road layout. This was to mark the Diamond Jubilee of the
Chichester Bus Station on the 30th September.

In the meantime watch for us at a local event on 22nd October.  We will be taking a slightly truncated version of our newly acquired Midhurst layout at the Chichester Lions annual model railway exhibition at Chichester High School for Boys,  PO19 8AE an event well worth attending.

Chris Davis

Tuesday 9 August 2016

BRMRC at Tinker's Park and the Weald & Downland

Last weekend BRMRC was proud to put on a good display at Tinker's Park in East Sussex. This is an interesting venue which consists of a substantial display of railway, vehicular and general industrial and military equipment much of which has been restored and more is under way or awaiting. Set in a number of fields it also includes several exhibition halls and a 2ft Gauge narrow gauge railway. Every year they run an event called "Model Railways Plus" which includes a large number of layouts in addition to all the above and, on the Sunday, a bus rally. You can see other of their events listed at http://www.tinkerspark.com/.

At the request of the organisers we took Aldingbourne Central (a regular attendee much appreciated by the kids in particular), Trenance Downs and (jointly with the South Downs Area Group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association) Slindon Vale. All of the layouts proved popular and well received and compared favourably with the other model exhibits. We are already in discussions with them regarding next year which, all being well, should see us putting on an even equally impressive display.

In the meantime, it is now only a couple of weeks to the annual Vintage & Steam event at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum (http://www.wealddown.co.uk/) on 20/21st August. This is another great location with 40 acres of ground including many permanent displays, many historically fascinating and, on this weekend traction engines, fairground rides, miniature railways and much more. Working with our friends at Chichester Model Engineers (http://www.cdsme.co.uk/), we will be presenting two layouts - Aldingbourne Central and (again jointly with the South Downs Area Group of the 7mm Narrow Gauge Association) Slindon Vale.

Come and visit the event and at the same time see some examples of the kind of thing we can offer. And don't forget to check out our Show Diary (http://brmrc.co.uk/diary.php) to see other locations and exhibitions where we will be exhibiting

Chris Davis

Wednesday 25 May 2016

Paul Hopkins makes his mark again

Paul Hopkins has been a BRMRC member for many years and has a number of layouts, mainly in TT scale, which he takes around the exhibition circuit on behalf of the Club and of the 3mm Society.

At the recent 3mm Society AGM held in Burton upon Trent, Paul was judged runner-up in the Tony Birch competition for Steam locomotive models with his LSWR D15 locomotive, and he also won the Broad Green trophy for non steam locomotive models with his Southern Electric 2-NOL multiple unit. His colleague Dennis Bunge from the South Downs and Solent Group of the 3mm Society who accompanies Paul at the majority of exhibitions he attends, was also recognised for his model of a Wickham railcar.

Well done Paul and Dennis!

Friday 15 April 2016

AGM and a fantastic new acquisition for the Club

We have important news about the forthcoming AGM and about the Club's acquisition of a superb finescale OO gauge layout which we have acquired and which is based on Midhurst.

AGM

Firstly, although every attempt has been made to ensure that all members of the Club have been advised of the forthcoming AGM we will again remind you. It will be on Tuesday, 24 May 2016 at 7.45 pm in the Signal Box, Oliver’s Meadow, Westergate. An agenda will be issued prior to the meeting and should any member which to have something included in the Agenda please ensure both that you formally propose it to our Secretary, Graham Hignell by no later than 4 weeks prior (by 24 April) and that it is also seconded by another Club member.

Midhurst Layout



Now, we have another very important piece of news. Like most, if not all model railway clubs, we like to build and display our own layouts - and, indeed, there are already plans afoot in this regard. But, once in a while, an opportunity arises which is, simply too good to refuse. In this case, we were offered a truly superb model railway layout in OO finescale which is based on, for us geographically appropriate, Midhurst.

This layout has spent most of its life in the South west or the North West and, as a result has very seldom appeared in the South-Eastern corner of the country. We plan to rectify this before too long although firstly we have to learn how to operate it! But there is no doubt that our members will rise to this challenge with great enthusiasm. We have to express our gratitude to our colleagues at the Leyland Model Railway Club and particularly Tony Bates for this wonderful opportunity and, indeed, even delivering it to us when it made one of its rare south-eastern appearances.

For those who have not already seen the layout then please follow this link to the Leyland Model Railway Club's website where you will find not only a description but also a couple of video clips and THEN you will see why we are so enthusiastic.

Chris Davis
Vice-Chairman & Webmaster

Wednesday 23 March 2016

Ally Pally and BRMRC

Although the Club didn't have any layouts at the Alexandra Palace exhibition this year we were more than ably represented by one of our members, Paul Hopkins with his lovely and newly extended 3mm scale Redford Junction layout which starred in Hornby magazine in late 2013.

Naturally, this being the closest of the large National Exhibitions, quite a few Club members visited over the two days with, as usual, a contingent of our junior members (and quite a few not so junior ones!) on the Saturday.

In the photo below you can see Paul proudly (and it has to be said, happily!) showing his layout with some of our junior members who were enjoying it, and, indeed, the Show as a whole.

Friday 1 January 2016

HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2016

Dear All,

I trust you and your families had a lovely Christmas and may I be one of the first to wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.

2016 promises to be a very exciting year for our club and your continued help and support will go a very long way to making that so.

We start the year with our own Annual show at Felpham over the weekend of 9th & 10th of January and I urge you and any family help you can gather to play a big part in this by fully supporting our Show Manager. There is a saying that many hands make light work and this is very true. The show is our chance to not only show off our own club exhibits, but to build on an excellent reputation in the South of putting on an excellent weekend exhibition. It is also our best opportunity to raise much needed funds for the club, our new premises and to ensure we continue to grow by attracting new members.

As I said, 2016 will be a very exciting year for the club. Once the excitement of our show is over we then start to look forward towards the official signing of our 25 year lease (January) and formal opening of the Signal Box (June).

As your elected Chairman I have tried to lead from the front and have devoted much of my time since the AGM to developing further facilities that will allow us as a club to expand and develop our love of modelling. You will recall that I said it was time to play as a club particularly as the prior years have been spent on restoring the Signal Box and making the Goods Shed truly fit for purpose. Well our new 'test track'/'layout' is making very good progress and I am thankful to my crew (You know who you are guys) for helping me to drive this project forward.

We also have a very good G Gauge track that will/has provided fun this last Summer and further additions in the coming year will ensure we have most gauges catered for now.

We have a fab club that I hope ticks all your boxes as members, but if it doesn't you know I am a very good listener and I would welcome any constructive comments and ideas that will help the club move forward. Talking of moving forward, I hope you are all enjoying our new club room now...how lovely is it drinking tea and enjoying being in the Signal Box? Fantastic and well done to Mike and all his volunteers.

Our junior members have also been a real credit to our club this year and the dioramas' they have produced will I'm sure receive excellent feedback at our show. They have really risen to the Chairman's challenge and all have made a real contribution to our club - well done lads.

Finally I would like to thank all the officers of the club for their hard work and support given this last year. We need to remember that without their support and voluntary time given that we could not continue as a club. Thank you; Dave; John, Chris, Philip, Graham; James and Stephen. A big thank you also to Jane who has been a fantastic support to the club and who has produced fantastic minutes.

There are more thank you messages to come, but I don't want to spoil the awards part of our AGM so will keep these under cover till then.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Adrian

CHAIRMAN
BRMRC & BOGNOR REGIS MRC LIMITED