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Welcome

Welcome to the online home of our club, the Somerset Railway Modellers Club or SRMC. We offer our members an enjoyable experience in railway modelling whether a novice or more experienced. The club meets every Wednesday evening 7.00 in the club house at Washford. Whether you want to meet like minded friends or get involved in building our exhibition layouts come inside and find out what we're all about by using the links above or please contact the membership secretary (see committee link above).

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Latest Club News

Rail-Ex Taunton 2024 has come and gone! Last minute adjustments saw 39 Layouts, 20 Traders and 6 Societies and Demonstrations on show. There was a steady stream of visitors on both days, and we were quite caught out by the number of people who wanted to come for both days of the Show - in fact we ran out of 2 day wrist bands! Perhaps we should not have been surprised - it takes a long time to see and properly appreciate that many layouts. There's no question that our Show was one of, if not the, largest in the South West this year! And on the day its smooth running was down to the efforts of all the members who were able to help. Thanks for all your support.

See the Rail-Ex page for more about the Show and the Club trophy winners.
Putting on an event of the size and quality of ours is not a 5 minute job: planning for Rail-Ex Taunton 2025 has already started!

Preparations are well in hand for Rail-Ex Taunton 2024. Barring any unexpected events we hope to have 40 layouts on show, supported by half a dozen Demonstration/Society stands and 18 Traders. Don't forget to make a note in your diaries for 26th and 27th October and come along to the show that is the "Best in the West"!
For more information on the layouts etc see the Rail-Ex Taunton website.

The Club was invited to exhibit a layout at the West Somerset Railway Association Steam Rally over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of August. In the space allocated to us, rather than taking a single large layout we chose to show three smaller ones: Nether Stowey (in N gauge), Box Yard (OO gauge), and Bill Blackborow's newly built layout "Williton" (O gauge).

We had a steady stream of visitors and a large number of flyers for Rail-Ex Taunton 2024 were distributed.

To give the opportunity for new layouts to be constructed two of the Club's existing layouts have been sold in the past few weeks. One of them was Winter Barton which was originally built to be displayed at the Thomas the Tank Engine Weekends at Minehead Station of the West Somerset Railway. It has not been used since those events ceased, and has been stored downstairs in the Club Room. I am glad to say that it has gone to a young enthusiast who saw it at the Washford Open Day. The other layout is Oake/Bradford-on-Tone. Oake has been our best known layout, having been written up in Hornby Magazine and displayed at the Warley NEC show and numerous other exhibitions. However all layouts have a practical lifetime, especially if they've been bounced around in a van on the way to here there and everywhere!, and it was decided that Oake had reached its. I am glad to say that when it was advertised for sale on Facebook there were a dozen or more genuine enquiries and the first person responding bought the layout. It is going to a new home in Cirencester. And that gives us the space for a new large OO layout to be built. Anyone wanting to take part in making the new layout would be very welcome - just let Steve or Martin know!

It looks like everyone who took part in the Open Day on Saturday 6th April in the Memorial Hall in Washford enjoyed themselves! Our visitors seemed to have been suitably impressed by the layouts on show, judging by the comments. .
In the small hall we showed Box Yard, Wavey Bridge, Nether Stowey and Darren Berry's 009 Pant-y-Llynr. The large hall held the Hornby Dublo 3-rail - always popular!

and the Otterhampton team took along the new N gauge layout as a "work in progress" exhibit. If you've been to the Club Room lately you will know that it is at the "bare baseboard and drawn on track plan" stage, with a little track temporarily in place. It generated a lot of interest, questions and discussions from, and with, the visitors about the process of building a layout from scratch.

The Open Day gives a useful opportunity for trying out our layouts and their transportation. Gorbriton went home with a long list of jobs that need attention! But we were very impressed by George and Ethan (two young visitors) who spent much of the afternoon running the layout using the wi-fi controller. Obviously "digital natives" they were in full and careful control after only 2 minutes instruction - WELL DONE, LADS! The Tramway layout had a good run too.

Mike Carter brought along yet another of his layouts. This time its narrow gauge - Bleat is a very attractive 009 line.

Once again the Club will be holding an "Open Day" at the Memorial Hall in Washford; this year it will be on Saturday April 6th. Open Days give us a chance to show the range of interests within the Club and, if you have been before, to see the progress that has been made on the layouts that started construction last year. Come along and talk to the layout operators - whether you're an experienced modeller or someone who would like to have a go it is always useful to have the chance to exchange ideas!
After a break of three or four years over the first weekend of December the Club was delighted to be invited to participate once again in Dunster by Candlelight 2023.
We took something for everyone who might come through the Tithe Barn - Brio for the little ones, Waveybridge and Box Yard for grown ups and the Hornby Dublo 3-rail for all ages! The Tithe Barn was open from 3 in the afternoon until after 9 on Friday and Saturday, and the room we were in was busy all the time.

Late October saw Rail-Ex Taunton 2023 in full swing. This year we showed 35 layouts, a greater number than we have ever had before, supported by a good selection of traders who are familiar faces at Rail-Ex.If you were not one of the 1500 people who came to the show that is "The Best in the West" then you should make a note in your diary to come along to Rail-Ex Taunton 2024 next October

Keep an eye on our Rail-Ex website throughout the year for news of layouts, traders and demonstrations that will be at the show.

Another successful Open Day!

Following our successful "Open Day" in 2022 we once again took the opportunity to show some of our Club activities in a one day show in Washford Memorial Hall on 15th April 2023. Since last year we had begun the construction of three new layouts - one in O gauge, another in N gauge, and a small tram layout based (loosely) on the Seaton Tramway in OO. It was good to welcome many people who came along to see progress so far!

For a review of the Open Day and exhibition of the Club's layouts on 9th April 2022 in Washford Memorial Hall see the Activities page.

Mendip Show Cup

Waveybridge was taken to the Mendip Model Railway Show at Shepton Mallet over the weekend of 10th and 11th June 2022. As you can see the layout was awarded a trophy for “Best Operation”. Well done to everyone who helped to take it to the show and to run it!

Hornby Magazine Page

Hornby Magazine has published an extensive and lavishly illustrated write-up of Bradford-on-Tone, our large 00 layout set on the West of England main line somewhere between Taunton and Wellington, in the late 1960s/early 1970s when diesel hydraulics dominated the services. See Hornby Magazine issue 178 (April 2022) and enjoy pages 58 to 65!

Reports of earlier events may be found at
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Rail-Ex Taunton

For many years the SRMC has organised a large model railway exhibition in Taunton known as Rail-Ex Taunton. Held during the Autumn half term in late October the show has proved very popular and has gained an excellent reputation for the quality and diversity of the layouts on show and the variety of traders attending.

Following the Covid pandemic which caused the cancellation of so many shows Rail-Ex returned with a BANG! in 2022 and the show that is "The Best In The West" will be back again in October 2023!
Don't forget to put the dates in your diary: Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd October

Rail-Ex 2023 Poster

A review of the last show can be found at
'Rail Ex Taunton Review'

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