I never thought I’d join a model railway club.
A friend belongs to the N-Gauge Society and although I loved going to exhibitions with him over 19 years (TINGS is an annual pilgrimage) I never felt like taking part in regular meets. Too shy, too anxious, too self-intimidated to stand up amongst my peers – maybe a combination of all three?
Having moved halfway across the UK and wanting to take part in my new community and make new friends and acquaintances, it was about time to investigate the opening of a new model railway club that is virtually on my doorstep. It would be self-defeating not to.
To set the scene(ery). I’ve always been a scale aero-modeller in balsa and plastic and a 1970s childhood spent playing with Grandfather’s Marklin HO Era3. In 2006 I got introduced to N-Gauge and built myself a 48″ x 15″ shunting puzzle with DC and manual rod-in-wire points as a way to test my liking for the scale. My recent house move though gave me the space for a full size ‘tail chaser’ in a space of it’s own. That meant that I was going to have to learn some new skills for the scenery and wiring that would be a bit more complicated than the shunting puzzle.
Time to try this club malarkey out then, especially as ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’ told me there was a new club starting up just a handful of miles down the road.
“Hello, I’m Barry and I like trains!” said I, as I stepped into the club’s first open evening.
Handshakes, smiles, fresh cuppa pressed into newly free’d up hand and then a discussion of what scale(s) I favour, what do I like/dislike about model railways, and what would I like to do or achieve as part of the club?
This article is actually about that last question and I’m writing it because that question is fundamental to your expectations of the membership experience. I guess its the same with any club, but they can write their own articles – this one is mine.
For me the answers were;
“N-gauge but I’m not prejudiced against other scales”
“I like doing scenic modelling, I’m not really into prototypical sticking to a timetable operations and I can generally turn my hand to most things however….”
“I want to learn more about layout electrics, especially point control”
Well, a year has gone by now and I’d like to summarise how that experience has been, how that learning desire has faired and what else I’ve gained from being an NG34MRS club member.
Have I learnt more about layout electric? Oh yes, most definitely.
The second half of 2024 was a huge planning exercise for one of the club’s new layouts, with lots of time spent on research including an excellent visit to the RAF Cranwell College library to pour over their records and confirm details for the assembly of the baseboards (our grateful thanks are given to the RAF, our appointed security chaperone and library staff). During the first part of 2025 we had a “bit of an issue” getting the electrical gremlins out of that new Cranwell Express club layout. Basically, we had a motorised double slip on analog control with dual controller feeds that was throwing short circuits that just didn’t make sense. After a mammoth session of diagnosing, it came down to a combination of 2 transposed wires on the Seep switching units combined with the need to switch the distant frog in the pair, not the one directly under the point motor. (That may sound simple to those who know about these things but we learned the hard way and it was a valuable experience)
Recently I used an article on our club Blog pages along with the DCCEX website instructions to build my own DCCEX Arduino based controller complete with Wifi for mobile phone hand throttle control. That has saved me about £300 so has more than covered my membership and attendance subs for the first year. I have since added the 16 channel point motor relay assembly and reprogrammed the DCCEX controller, which should save me another £150 not having to buy accessory decoders for each point.
So yes, I really have gained knowledge and confidence with layout electrics that I may never have begun to understood without the benefit of experienced mentors. (Thanks Colin & Shaun)
What other benefits have their been?
I never thought I’d enjoy working a layout at an exhibition. Wrong…its actually quite nice to answer questions about the layout, how it has been built and how some of the items are constructed. There’s always going to be the odd rivet-counter who will never be satisfied but they can go…..count rivets elsewhere. If they don’t then they’re fair game for a wind up (there’s now some poor chap out there who thinks the Class 08 shunter was secretly developed and tested by the MoD at Cranwell in the late 1920s before being released to BR after WW2. Thomas and Percy might have given the poor fellow a meltdown)
The club acquired some secondhand locos that needed TLC. I opened them up and resolved some issues with bent pickups and far too much oil that had got inside the motors meaning they needed a solvent washout to get them functional again. I got to work on and learn about more loco types than my own limited stable would otherwise allow.
I’ve painted some backscenes and produced some carriage decals for other members.
Why mention that? Because it is another aspect of club membership. I learn layout electrics from others and give back knowledge and skills in other areas that I am already competent in. Surely that is the part of the aim of a club – likeminded individuals, sharing knowledge, skills and time to help each other provide something we can all have a bit of pride in. And if we can entertain others along the way with a good exhibition experience, then even better.
So here’s my challenge if you wish to accept it:
If you’re a novice/beginner and aren’t sure – step outside your comfort zone and give it a try. There’s no shame in at least trying it.
After all, we can’t help you if you aren’t telling us what you’d like help with.
Come and say Hello, or even “my name is [insert name here], and I like trains” – I’ll be there to greet you with a fresh cuppa, especially as I volunteered to be the club’s membership secretary.