Ingatestone’s back from its holidays

The summer is often a down time for modellers, as family holidays, the gardening and BBQ’s take over. But we have been continuing with work on Ingatestone mostly on Board 6 (the big corner board that goes into the fiddle yard) with what in the photo looks like a complicated amount of wire and points is …read more.

Bulletin 493

The November / December 2016 edition of The Bulletin is on its way to members, featuring a range of interesting articles all written by members, including: A preview of our forthcoming special event on 20th November, with articles on “Koindu and Moa Crossing” and “Trowland” – both S-scale There’s a look back at early S-Scale modelling A …read more.

Bulletin 492

The September/October 2016 edition of The Bulletin is on its way to members, featuring a range of interesting articles all written by members, including: Andrew David previews his November lecture at Keen House, exploring the connection between the Great Central Railway and Quintinshill Ian Lamb writes about the Borders Railway Three book reviews Reminiscences of the prototype …read more.

Skills Transfer Days 2016/7

One of The MRC’s aims is to ensure that modelling skills are passed on to the next generation. It’s perhaps easy for experienced modellers to forget how daunting it was to take some of those key steps in developing techniques, and all too easy for the less experienced to put something in the ‘too difficult’ category.

So we’re continuing our series of ‘skills transfer’ days, to allow a small group of people to try out something they may not have tried before with more experienced modellers on hand to help them. During the day each attendee will work on the kit/parts supplied to learn the techniques and hopefully take home a working model. These courses have been running successfully since 2009, and have been popular with positive feedback. Space is limited on each course, so please book early.

The courses take place at Keen House, 4 Calshot Street, London N1 9DA, and generally start at 10am and run until 4pm with a lunch break.

We’re pleased to confirm the following dates:

Empire Mills Summer 2016

As we indicated in May, we have an exhibition in Peterborough in October, and so the summer has been focussed on getting ready for that. As we started to fiix some problems with the track with (including some damaged track ends at board joints, the fiddle yard and some unevenness in the track itself) we …read more.

Open Day – Sunday 20th November 2016

Our next open Sunday is on 20th November 2016, a joint special event with the S Scale Model Railway Society to celebrate its 70th anniversary – with six working layouts on display:

MRC Layouts: Copenhagen Fields (2mm FS), Empire Mills (EM),

MRC Members’ layouts: Koindu and Moa Crossing (S), Blacklade (OO) and Grape Steet Bridge (S)

Visiting Layout: Trevor Nunn’s Trowland (S) 

Full details of the S scale layouts are below, information on the others through the links – Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates – and check back for more details.

Plus we will have a good selection of pre-owned models available from our shop, and of course refreshments (including a selection of freshly made rolls and Greene King beers) will be available.

Open from 11am to 4pm. 

Admission: Adults £3, accompanied children: Free

Autumn 2016 Lecture Programme

Our Autumn 2016 lecture programme covers a diverse range of subjects from DCC control, through the Gottard line to one of the most infamous railway accidents. Visitors are welcome.

Thursday 13th October 2016 at 7.30pm

Mick Moignard presents: DCC – basics & upwards

DCC is one of the most important advances in the Model Railway hobby since we gave up keys for electricity.Come to this lecture to understand what DCC is, how it works and why it’s so valuable at all levels of the hobby, regardless of scale. We’ll look at choosing and purchasing a system, at decoders and their installation, layout wiring and running trains and then look around the edges at a few of the other things it can do.

Autumn 2017 Lecture Programme

Our Autumn 2017 lecture programme covers a diverse range of subjects. Visitors are welcome. Thursday 12th October 2017 at 7.30pm “Electric Trains” – by David Brown Alone amongst the ‘big four’ railway companies, the Southern Railway embarked on a comprehensive electrification programme under its dynamic General Manager, Sir Herbert Walker. Between 1925 and 1939 virtually …read more.

Bulletin 491

The July/August 2016 edition of The Bulletin is on its way to members, featuring a range of interesting articles all written by members, including: Mark Brown writes about the company “Simply Southern”, who as the name suggest produce Southerm wagons in OO and N gauges An archive item on the last day of the Brill Branch, by the …read more.

Empire Mills gets a turntable

Following our last blog in May, we have unpacked the layout from its hibernation and a group of members gathered to go through the list of stuff that we thought needed doing. Now as we know, there is no ‘right way’ to build a model railway. There are certainly some wrong ways but most of us have a …read more.

The MRC goes Large

The MRC has just completed one of the largest layouts it has ever built, the “Django Express”, for The Goldrush – a pop-up restaurant in the heart of Vauxhall.

The 75′ / 25m long G scale railway runs the length of the venue, with a US ‘pioneer’ loco running up and down all night, creating sound and visual atmosphere for Wild West themed dining experience.

A G-scale commission – Part 4 – The Django Express Arrives

The owner of the venue was persuaded to allow us to put removable brackets up along the way to support the layout, which was a major relief, as we were worried that if supported only on the legs if someone grabbed it and fell over, they could bring the layout with it. The brackets not …read more.