Alexandra Palace 2015

One of the UK's biggest model railway shows is held each year just before Easter at Alexandra Palace in north London. It can be guaranteed every year that BRMRC members attend and this year, like last year this included a number of our Junior Members who went up as a party with our Children's Club Officer. They certainly enjoyed both the trip and the show.

They can be seen here gathered around the status of Sir John Betjeman at St. Pancras. He, of course was not only famous as a poet but was largely responsible for saving the Station and the Chambers from demolition in the 1960's.

At the show itself, amongst the many high quality layouts was Paul Hopkin's Modbury Torr, a 3mm scale (TT Gauge) masterpiece. Paul, of course, is one of our members and you can see more about some ofhis layouts in our "Member's Layouts" section. It was certainly well appreciated by the youngsters who can be seen here gathered in front of it. Much to engaged to bother posing for the camera this time!

BRMRC Open Day - 7th September 2014

The members of Bognor Regis Model Railway club are pleased to invite you to attend our Open Day on Sunday 7th September 2014 between the hours of 10am and 4pm.

The event will be held within our new premises comprising the newly refurbished 'Goods Shed' and the neighbouring ex Barnham Station signal box which is almost back to its former glory.  See the website for postcode/address of where we are.

As well as a number of layouts (various gauges) on show, there will all sorts of railwayana on show and a number of member exhibits plus teas/coffees and a BBQ to enjoy. Our new G Gauge layout will also be in operation so feel free to bring your stock along to give it a go.

One of the layouts on show will be our current project, Page Mountain and there will be some mountaineers on hand to show you how/describe the project to date.

There will of course be the obligatory club stall selling bits and bobs/second hand trains/wagons etc.

Children are also well catered for as our 'hands on / drive your own train' exhibit Aldingbourne Central will be in operation.

Entry is free, though donations always welcome.

We look forward to welcoming you to our club.

Adrian Taylor
BRMRC Chairman

Goods Shed Open Day, 20 Years+ at Aldingbourne

Well what a fantastic day.  Congratulations & well done to all who attended today and contributed/participated in the official opening of the Goods Shed (our new workshop and storeage facility) and our celebration of 20+ years on site at Olivers Meadow, Aldingbourne.

My thanks as Chairman go to Terry Lawrence (Cabinet Member of Arun District Council) and Dennis Leonard (ACSC Trustee) who carried out the opening ceremony. Both supporters of BRMRC and therefore very apt appointments. Indeed Dennis opened our old club building in 1994.

Thanks also to our following guests who helped celebarate the opening and in some part have played a part in our taking occupation of the Goods Shed;

Laurence Ward (Chairman of Aldingbourne Parish Council)
Tony Chown (ACSC Trustee & Aldingbourne Parish Councillor)
Rachel  Cornell (Clerk to Aldingbourne Parish Council)
Ben Heather (A B Heather & Son - Carried out the cladding work on the building plus built/installed the stairs) 

A massive thank you to Heidi & Jane who undertook the catering tasks and put on an excellent spread for us all to enjoy - as usual ,though we must not take them for granted. Well done ladies.

I must also make a special mention /a big thank you to Paul, who brought a lot of memorabilia and his show stopping layout to our celebration/opening as well as being the driving force behind a lot of what was put on show today.  Thanks also to Charlie who braved the early rain to set up a complete G Gauge circuit on the Signal Box bank (a fantastic addition to our club) and very much enjoyed by the juniors in the mid-morning sun that appeared as the last piece of track was layed - typical. Thanks also to Neil who helped out here.

Apologies if I have missed anybody out but my final thank you goes to our excellent committee & John McPeake who all mucked in and made sure we celebrated in style and made your Chairman proud to be Chairman of our club.

Well done all and here's to another 20+ years in our new building.

Adrian
Chairman BRMRC
19 July 2014

Official Opening of our New Clubhouse - The Goods Shed - Saturday 19th July

We are pleased to announce that the former barn, now "The Goods Shed" is to have its official opening as our new Clubhouse, at 1100 on Saturday 19th July 2014. Appropriately, this is almost on the anniversary of the opening of the old, now time expired, Clubhouse.

We will be opening at about 1000 and by way of celebrations, in The Goods Shed and the Signal Box we will have a couple of working layouts, outdoor model railway (weather permitting), numerous modelling exhibits and memorabilia relating to the Club's long history.

We expect to see all of our Club members there together with family and friends and any other supporters of the Club. Light refreshments will be available.

For those who don't know, the new Clubhouse is only 100 yards from the old - and clearly visible from there, next to the Signal Box.

BRMRC - AGM - 2014

Hi everyone

This is just a brief reminder that the AGM will be held on 20th May 2014.

Please log in to the member's Section for full details.

Regards
Chris

In the Model Railway Press again

It seems like barely yesterday that BRMRC received a mention in Hornby magazine thanks to Paul Hopkins with the article on Redford Junction.

Now, this month, in Railway Modeller for March 2014, one of our members has done it again! Richard Rundle (our Exhibition Secretary) has a 5 page article about his O-16.5 layout, Northchapel - with some beautiful photos (including a bit of my kit built/kit bashed/scratch built locos, stock and buildings - I just had to get MY plug in as well !!)

Originally built by Keith Smith of Middleton Press fame, this layout was passed to Richard, with whom considerable work was done to convert it from a thoroughly fixed in place home layout to a (fairly!) transportable layout for exhibition purposes. He was aided and abetted in much of this work by fellow BRMRC members.

This is a superb layout catching the atmosphere of both Colonel Stephens narrow gauge and portions of the Sussex countryside.

So .......... don't delay, buy your copy of Railway Modeller today and see it for yourself!

Chris

Chairman's New Year Message

Dear All,

I trust you and your families had a lovely Christmas and that you had a relaxing period spent with loved ones and friends.

2014 promises to be another milestone year for our club and your continued help and support will go a very long way to making that so. The latter is something that your Chairman is very proud of, the help that many of you give freely and I look forward to seeing this help and support in action as we start the year with our own Annual show at Felpham over the weekend of 10th, 11th and 12th of January 2014.

Richard Rundle has stepped into the vacancy left by Paul Hopkins and he promises that this year's show will be our biggest and best show to date. I urge you and any family help you can gather to play a big part in this goal by fully supporting our new Exhibition Manager. 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, old & young.

Before looking forward, I would like to write a few lines looking back at 2013 highlights.

1. Mike Burton and his team, of which a number are members of our club, have continued to make excellent progress over the past 12 months to get the Signal Box looking wonderful and the subject of much plaudits from the passing public. I would encourage all members to do give any help they can to Mike and his team going forward so that this project is complete in 2014 and we as a club can start to benefit from such wonderful premises as a meeting room.
2. Our 2013 show was to be Paul's final go at this mammoth but essential club task. A great show and a great start to the year. These events don't just happen and Paul with John's assistance demonstrated why we need to be grateful to them both. Audrey and her family also made 2013 her last show and I'm sure we will all miss her crumble nad bread pudding.
3. 2013 was also most notable for the gigantic effort put in by the volunteer team working on the Barn. Norman, Jock, David  to name but a few who helped out making a tired old building into the very good looking and useful space we now have. Still a little way to complete but it has now become a very good space to operate, particularly when you see how tired our old club building is now looking.
4. This last year also see us join with the other user groups on the Community Centre site to participate in Aldingbourne Alive 2013. We opened the Barn door to show off our work and put on a mini exhibition. Thanks to all who helped out, particularly John M, Neil & Dennis who were recipients of praise from the event organisers and a Chairmans thanks to Jane, Heidi & Cliff who put on some really good refreshments for the club volunteers - this proving to be a really good practice run for our 2014 exhibition!
5. Finally the club was lucky enough to benefit from some fantastic publicity earned by Paul Hopkins. Paul and his wonderful layout Redford Junction made it into print via the Hornby Magazine and the following month's DVD compilation. Congratulations Paul.

2013 has been a great year for your Chairman and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at the helm.  It's hard pleasing everybody, indeed impossible but I hope you agree that the club has taken a big step forward and is well placed for us all to enjoy our hobby going forward.  Last year my message mentioned a target desire to have a club that we could all be proud of and one where we could all, whatever our leaning and favour, enjoy.

I think we are fast getting there.

 

2014 promises to be just as interesting and exciting for the club. We look forward to moving into new club meeting rooms once the Signal Box has been completed and we should have achieved a fully functioning and fully equipped Barn to work from and store our exhibits. We have a growing junior section and Stephen and now Steve Shrubb have some exciting challenges for them this year. Steve has agreed to work with the older 'juniors' to build the raffle layout for 2015.  We continue to exhibit our layouts and have a first invite to Canterbury MRC show this year. We will also be exhibiting at Midhurst, Shepton Mallet, Brighton, Patching, Alton and many other venues. Thank you to all who will be journeying and flying the flag for BRMRC.  

 

Finally to;

 

1. 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.
2. John & Paul for putting on an excellent 2013 show
3. Stephen for fronting an exciting year for the junior members
4. Cliff & Bob for carrying out refreshment duties throughout the year
5. Jane, for some great minutes, great cakes and a lot of support throughout the year.
6. Norman, Jock & Dave as my right hand men working on the Barn
7. SITA, ACSC Trust and Aldingbourne Parish Council for grant funding

THANK YOU.

Happy New Year everyone.

Adrian
Chairman