The NOTTINGHAM MRS: About Us |
Who we are, where we are and what we do |
We are an active group of modellers with widely ranging interests. As well as Nottingham, we have members living in various parts of the country, and we are always delighted to welcome new members. Amongst us, there are members modelling railways from most decades of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and several have even had articles published in the model press. We cater for all modellers, whatever their interests, and currently we have vacancies within most of our groups.
For some obscure reason, despite being a Society, we always seem to refer to ourselves as 'The Club'!
We have our own clubrooms in Mapperley, Nottingham, to which we re-located in 2008. There is access and parking for cars and we are very well-served by public transport, being close to Nottingham City Transport's Services 44, 45 and 41. In the clubrooms we have a very extensive reference library, together with a comprehensive magazine collection, plus DVDs & Videos. There are layout building and modelling facilities and space for a natter and a cuppa.
There are several groups within the club who have already completed exhibitable layouts, or have layouts currently under construction. There are currently club layouts in 3.5mm (HO), 4mm (OO and EM) and 7mm (O) scales, though our members' interests also include P4, narrow gauge, North American and continental. Over the years, our speciality has been the construction of near-scale, authentic, working overhead electrification systems. Layouts with overhead line equipment include Deepcar , which features the 1500V DC electrification of the Woodhead route and Carstairs , which features the 25kV AC electrification of the West Coast Mainline, plus computer control of the signals.
There are other club layouts, of course, including Skipley, in 00 gauge depicting a fictional trans-pennine route in the 1960s; Springfield, in H0 gauge, representing a down-town commercial district of an imaginary east coast US city; and Llanbedrog, being built in EM gauge, as a fictional extension of the Cambrian Coast line. Also being built is Ilkeston Town in 00 gauge and set in the 1930s, and Streatham Mainline, an imaginary ex-Southern line in south London, set in the 1980s-1990s.
Currently under construction is the club's latest big project: Trent Lane Junction. This will be a model of the ex-Great Northern junction in east Nottingham and set in the 1950s. In addition to the ex-GNR, the layout will feature the erstwhile Nottingham Suburban line and the former Midland Rauilway route to Newark and Lincoln. Although the layout is still under construction, three of its baseboards were at the 2007 NOTTINGHAM East Midlands MODEL RAILWAY EXHIBITION as part of a major feature to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Great Northern Railway arriving in the City of Nottingham and the opening of its lines into London Road Low Level, as depicted in the model.
Whatever aspect of the hobby you're interested in, we're always happy to receive new members. If your name is Dave, then you'll be made particularly welcome ..... we already have seven of them, so you'll fit in well! Just so there's no confusion, we've numbered them and we've now also made a start on Ians, Grahams, Neils and Peters, of which we currently only have two each. At present, about 25% of the club are professional railwaymen, so if we need to know how something is done on the real railway, we've got a choice of folk to ask!
Please contact the Secretary if you require any more information about the Nottingham MRS, its facilities or activities. Everyone is most welcome to call in at our clubrooms to have a look around and meet us but, again, please contact the Secretary beforehand.
The NOTTINGHAM MRS: A Potted History |
Our roots, how we started and when we began |
The NOTTINGHAM Model Railway Society (formerly the Nottingham (Bulwell) MRS, but, back then, known simply as the Bulwell MRS) was formed back in 1971, as a result of a group of five like-minded folk, with interests in railways and railway modelling, getting together. At the time, the group were then all employees at Nottingham City Transport's erstwhile Bulwell Bus Depot. Although none of the founders are still current members, since then, there has always been at least one member connected with Nottingham City Transport.
After meeting in various places, the fledgling club settled at the Bulwell Youth Club and even held its first few exhibitions there. In the late 1970s, though, there was then a need for the Youth Club to expand and there was nowhere for the NMRS's equipment to be stored.
The search was on !... It was decided that the club needed a place of its own. This turned out to be two former Education Department temporary classrooms moved, and re-erected, on a nearby site leased from the City Council. They say that home is where you make it and the NMRS stayed there for some twenty-eight years, until September 2008.
The writing was soon on the cards for using the Youth Club as an exhibition venue, too. There followed a 'giant leap for mankind' (well, for the club members anyway !), when the exhibition was moved to the City's Victoria Leisure Centre and re-named the East Midlands Model Railway Exhibition. In 2001, after a further twenty-one years, the show more than doubled in size with a change of venue to the Harvey Hadden Sports Complex. With the demise of other model railway events in the city, another name change followed in 2005, when the exhibition was re-launched under our new banner:
In late 2006, we heard that the City Council needed our site for a big project. We were offered several other sites and, eventually, we settled on a disused Scout Headquerters. This was on the opposite side of the city, but seemed to provide better facilities, although we were faced with alot of work to bring the building up to scratch. There are still a few bits of work to do, but we're in there now and it's 'home'.
Bilborough Park
NOTTINGHAM NG8 4PB
© NMRS 2009
WEBPAGE 03 Club Info (About Us) v09 Updated 31 Oct 09