Club Activities

The club meets regularly every Wednesday evening from 7.00pm to 10.00pm in the club house at Washford Click here for map (map open on separate page - close to return to this page) Members can gain access to the clubroom at any other time during the week by arrangement with the committee, in order to make progress on specific layouts or for maintenance on the hall.

The main annual event in the club's diary is the Rail-Ex Taunton model railway show in October each year. Since 2010, the venue has been Taunton School, where the show is held in the main sports hall, with refreshments available in the main school refectory. Other activities are held from time to time in accordance with the consititution, such as visits to other model railway shows and 12 inch to the foot lines. A list of activities is shown below with links available if more detail is required,

Our Open Day at Washford Memorial Hall was a great display of layouts from the Club and its members. We took Bradford-on-Tone, Waveybridge, Gorbriton Hill, Box Yard and Kilve, while Brian Palmer brought along his small 0-16.5 shunting yard.

During the day Bradford was operated by Steve Pike and Liam and Martin Hebditch, while Waveybridge was in the capable hands of Colin Bentley and Gordon Pilgrim who found the day to be a useful practise for exhibiting it at Shepton Mallet in June. Darren Berry’s layout Kilve was run by George Guppy, while Box Yard, after some precision preparation by Ozzo, was operated by Ian Luty taking turns with Daniel Luculescu. Jason Kristunas was able to assist in setting up Gorbriton Hill and then Bill Blackborow was in charge, using the Club’s Gaugemaster Prodigy wired DCC handset during the morning, before switching to a Fleischman wifi control later. He is now a convert to wireless control. Later on, Don Willsmer came along to lend his support.

One of our young visitors was particularly taken with the harbourside scene on Gorbriton Hill

As well as showcasing layouts we also had a display of dolls houses created by Jane, and a demonstration of model building construction by Mike Carter who brought along several pieces from his layouts. Murray Bush had a half size plan of the new N gauge layout which will replace Kitcheners Yard on show and was able to explain to visitors the thinking behind it.

Don Askew took the opportunity to dispose of some of the unwanted items from our store cupboards and made £25 for the club. Digger (unsurprisingly) took charge of the catering arrangements accompanying tea and coffee with a selection of cakes baked by Pam Glaister (which went down very well!) In the kitchen he was assisted by Cilla Palmer and Kit Smith, now happily recovered from Covid. It was also good to see that Brian Garwood felt able to lend a helping hand around the show. Dave Drew must be mentioned – he had planned to be at the show but unfortunately went down with Covid the day before and so was unable to be with us.

Among the visitors to the show were Darren and Josh O’Connor and their families, and we look forward to seeing more of them.

This informal event showed the strength of the club spirit, with so many members “mucking in” to make it happen, and collaborating to transport the layouts, set them up, run them and then take them away again. Despite some earlier predictions that we would need to be working into the small hours to get everything ready, setting up was more or less complete by 10pm on the Friday, and everything had been packed up and was back in the Club Room by 7pm on the Saturday -a (relatively) gentle re-introduction to the practicalities of exhibiting. Futhermore, looking to the future the opportunity was taken to speak to the show’s visitors to tell them about the Club, and one or two expressed interest in our activities which may lead to new members joining.