The Club builds and operates layouts in a variety of scales.
Wagon repair shop on DVD
Back in February, we had a wagon demonstration next to Empire Mills at the Doncaster exhibition. During the show Phil Parker from BRM interviewed Ben W about the wagons he was fettling, and the result is on the DVD that comes with the June edition of the magazine.
May 26, 2018Empire Mills attending Trainwest, 14/15 April 2018
We had a great trip to Doncaster back in February — thank you to those who stopped by to see the layout and chat. The layout ran flawlessly (well, a cable did come loose on Sunday morning but that was it). I am grateful to the rest of the operating team, Hugh and Tom, for …read more.
Mar 16, 2018
Empire Mills at upcoming Festival of British Railway Modelling
This weekend, 10 & 11 February, we’re attending the Festival of British Railway Modelling at Doncaster race course. We’re in the company of some pretty impressive layouts, not least in EM gauge. Look forward to seeing you there!
Feb 6, 2018Empire Mills September and October 2017
Little jobs can be very time consuming. Firstly the uncoupling magnets are now powered by a relay, which hopefully means we won’t burn out the switches on the controllers any more. Secondly the uncouplers which were incorrectly identified have now been fixed, so reducing a pernicious source of operator confusion. And finally a mystery short …read more.
Nov 13, 2017July 2017 running nights for Empire Mills
June’s been a quiet month for Empire Mills, although like the proverbial duck the legs are paddling away under the surface. We’re running on two consecutive Thursdays — 6 July and 13 July — and last night we did a little work towards ensuring that stock prefers to run through a couple of the turnouts …read more.
Jun 30, 2017Empire Mills May 2017 update
We had a great weekend at Quainton Road, so thanks to everyone who paid us a visit. It was really fun to take part in a railway event that wasn’t simply a model railway show, and great to get out into the countryside for a change so we can remember what it looks like when …read more.
May 16, 2017New control panel for Empire Mills, and two chances to see us
Here’s a preview of the new control panel. Wiring work to support this is now in hand with the two main boards done and the two subsidiary modules depicting the clay dries on course. Come and see us this weekend at the MRC open day — we are hoping to have the basics completed! We …read more.
Apr 4, 2017Empire Mills March 2017 update
Although Ally Pally preparations are at the front of everyone’s minds at the moment, we’ve started in earnest on wiring work. We might make a tweak or two to the sections and uncouplers as we go, but the real object is to ensure everything is documented and cabling is standardised so that if and when …read more.
Mar 20, 2017
Empire Mills – Feb 17
We’ve had a couple of good operating evenings at Keen House already this year, and the picture above shows my Class 08 on shunting duty this week. Members will have read in our last Bulletin that Empire Mills has new trackwork and a colourful new turntable fiddleyard. Over the next month or two we will be …read more.
Feb 4, 2017
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.
Aug 28, 2016
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.
Jun 26, 2016
May 2016 Update
It’s all been a bit quiet since the layout visited Portsmouth last Autumn. As is the nature of Club layouts, unfortunately some of the key team behind the layout have had to step back from the project for a while, and as the layout had been up and being worked on for most of 2015, we …read more.
May 6, 2016