Advance public education and foster a general interest in model railways, railways and allied pursuits and encourage a high standard of railway modelling- in particular amongst members of the club.

The Club views itself as part of the wider community and seeks to make a contribution to different groups within the community.

Wanted New Members

Do you have an interest in model railways? Then come along to our club nights on a Wednesday evening.

Fopr more details contact us by email [email protected] or telephone 07715 993675   

Our premises and facilities

We have moved to new premises with a purpose built clubhouse

We have 1000 square feet of space (40 by 25 feet)  plus 400 square feet of storage space

We have a six track test track which is used every club night by our members to run and test their locomotives and rolling stock. Members are able to run either DC or DCC and on either OO (4mm) gauge or N (2mm) gauge

One area of the club is set aside for meeting and chatting with others members of the club particularly during our tea breaks. The tea and coffee is prepared in our kitchen area.

And we also have the facilities to screen films-  inevitably films with a railway flavour

What we do

Club Nights

Club nights are held on a Wednesday evening 7.30 -10.00pm

• Many of our members simply come along on club nights to relax, socialise and chat with other members about railways, railway modelling and all kinds of general current topics.
• Running on the test tracks (the photograph shows the test tracks)
• A major activity on club nights is building the club layouts (see below)
• We also have occasional technical demonstrations where members bring along their equipment and give a talk and/or hands on demonstration. We recently had a weathering demonstration.

Other times at the club house

Any group of members (providing it includes a key holder) can arrange to attend the clubhouse at any time during the week. Such groups typically work on building the club layouts  (see below) or sorting and pricing items for our shop.

Preparations for our exhibition

The major event in our calendar is the annual club exhibition held at the end of October every year. We have a group of members organising and arranging the exhibition (they always welcome more help) and on the day everyone chips in the set it up (and at the end of the day to take it down.)

Attending other exhibitions

For many of the major model railway exhibitions a group of members arrange to attend and travel together usually by rail. Exhibitions attended in recent years include Stevenage and NEC.

Christmas

We always have a bash at Christmas including a (railway themed of course) quiz.

Layout building

There are seven stages involved in building layouts:

• Research
• Layout planning
• Baseboard building
• Tracking laying
• Wiring
• Buildings
• Scenery
• Operation

The club owns five layouts and they are at various stages of completion. Our plan is to complete them all in time for our 2022 Exhibition to be held on Saturday 29^Th October 2022.

Our exhibition

Covid has forced us to cancel our last two annual exhibitions but we will be back in 2022 bigger and better than ever. Our 2022 Exhibition will be held on Saturday 29^Th October 2022.

We hold our exhibition at the Seaford Baptist Church, Belgrave Road, Seaford. This venue is 500 yards from Seaford Station and on the 12A bus route (British Legion stop).

The scale and ambition of our exhibition can be seen from the 2019 exhibition show guide which involved more than a dozen layouts from amongst others Brighton, Bognor Regis, Eastbourne, Crawley, East Grinstead, Burgess Hill and Uckfield Model Railway Clubs. In addition half a dozen traders attended and refreshments, including lunch, were served all day.

Shop

Our shop sells an extensive range of models mainly 00 gauge and N gauge but with some O gauge merchandise. Items include track (Hornby. Peco and Lima), locomotives (Hornby, Bachmann, Dapol), RTR (Ready to Run) rolling stock across multiple eras from 1940’s to the latest liveries, Metcalfe card kits and numerous scratch built buildings as well as scenic items.

We sell our shop items at our own exhibition, at other exhibitions in Sussex and Kent, at local Toy Fairs and on eBay.

If there is any particular item you are looking for email us and we will see if we can help.

Community

The Club views itself as part of the wider community and seeks to make a contribution to different groups within the community.

The first is in the area of disability. One of the prime drivers for moving our premises was to accommodate one of our members who uses a wheelchair. So we now have a clubhouse and a location which will accommodate wheelchair users – wide doors, no steps, ramps for minor changes in floor levels and a clubhouse with space enough to allow wheelchair uses to take part in our activities. We would welcome more wheelchair users to the club.

The second area is health. One of our members found building and completing a model railway during a long enforced period of convalesce helped his recovery.  We would like to build on this and encourage others within the community to participate in model railways as part of their recovery from any number of health situations. Our Making Tracks layout which was inspired by this situation.

The third area is youth. We are very pleased to see so many young children attend our exhibition with an adult. We hope our exhibition encourages those young people to take up the hobby – after all it involves mastering a number of different skills including historical research, woodworking, baseboard building, complex control systems for wiring and running the trains and so on. We plan to extend our youth activities initially by building specific exhibits to encourage young people at out 2022 exhibition.

Governance

The club is a registered charity and has a constitution. The constitution and the following  documents listed below are available on request

• Club rules
• Equality and Diversity Policy
• Safeguarding Policy
• Health and Safety Policy
• Health and safety Instructions to members
• Instructions to Members in the event of the Fire Alarms sounding
• First Aid arrangements

Contact us

Email us at  [email protected]

Or telephone 07715 993675