Article published 1st May 2024

Horsham Model Railway Club held an Open Day on 6 April, attracting railway enthusiasts of all ages. AAH met chairman Peter Reed and members Gail Tomsett, Tim Shevington, Alf Edes, Steve Borrill and Harry Lynsdale-Nock for find out more…

Peter: Horsham Model Railway Club was formed in 2008 to bring together people with a shared passion. Early meetings were held at Hurst Road Youth Club but for many years now we’ve met at St Leonard’s Hall, Cambridge Road, Horsham, with several founder members still involved. 

Gail: During lockdown, we managed to keep the club going. When restrictions allowed it, we met in small groups in Horsham Park and one evening were even serenaded by a singer with a guitar! We also started a Facebook group as a way of maintaining friendships and interest. Membership has recovered in the past two years and now stands at around 40, with several junior members too.  

Alf: The social side of the club is important. We meet on Wednesdays at 7 – 9.30pm, but on the second and fourth Wednesdays we start from 2.30pm, giving us the time to set up our main exhibits, which can take a couple of hours to construct. Club evenings are great as we can fix and repair trains and layouts, work on scenery or talk about model railway events or layouts we have at home. My wife Janet doesn’t share my interest, but she comes along and helps run the kitchen. She just gets on with a jigsaw when we’re all too engrossed in our locomotives! 

Peter: Most model railways use either an OO (2mm to 1ft) or N (4mm to 1ft) gauge, but some members also take an interest in other gauges such as HO (a continental equivalent of OO) or G scale (about 10mm to 1ft). Our main club layout uses an OO gauge, although we also have N gauge exhibits, as they’re the two most popular and even today most popular starter sets use those scales. People need to be aware of what they’re buying, especially if it’s a gift for someone who already has model railways, as there are many other gauges, such as Hornby’s TT, and they’re not compatible with one another.  

Tim: Like many members of the club, my passion stems from childhood. I loved watching TV programmes like Thomas the Tank Engine and Ivor the Engine. My grandparents used to take me to a bridge over the mainline in Ash, Surrey, and I would wave at passing trains, hoping for a horn salute from the driver. That passion stayed with me. 

Alf: My first train set was a Hornby Dublo 3-Rail, a classic set for my generation. I remember coming down on Christmas morning and seeing the box under the tree! At the time, Hornby were made by Meccano at the factory on Binns Road, Liverpool. I loved the three-rail system as the central rail helped locomotives run smoothly on the track, before the company switched to a two-rail system. I gradually added to my first model set and eventually passed the hobby on to my son, who in turn has passed it on to my grandson!  

Gail: Most members love old locomotives like the Flying Scotsman, but what I enjoy most is making scenery. You can buy model railway kits that can be built to fit a space and decorated to suit a certain era. However, I like to make a lot of the surrounding scenery myself, including trees, bushes and grass. The club’s main layout is called Two Fills, after two members who started it years ago who were both named Phil. The track and trains are only one part of a layout as we also create stations, platforms, depots and in some cases an entire town or village with cars and buses, cinemas, shops, garages, estate agents and pubs. Our main layout has The Albion Inn and a close look reveals that they’ve just received a delivery of beer! 

Gail: Much of the interest comes from small nostalgic touches that create miniature pieces of living history. Some members are skilled with electrics and add lights to buildings, so layouts look fabulous at night.  

Peter: We have two big events each year. We host the Open Day at St Leonard’s Hall and at the end of summer we host an exhibition, organised jointly with Dorking and District Model Railway Club, as hiring a venue is too much for a single club to absorb. The Dorking Club also had its own layout at our Open Day. This year, we also welcomed the Crawley Model Engineers who run the Goffs Park Light Railway. We all have a common interest, so it makes sense to work together and promote all model railway clubs in the area. 

Steve: Another of the layouts at the Open Day has a number of features of local interest. Although the railway itself is not based on Horsham Station, as we wanted an exhibit inspired by the Colonel Stevens light Railway locomotives of the 1920s, the buildings along the track will be familiar to some. So far, we have built the original Dog and Bacon pub (now cottages next to the current pub) and the Mill House at Warnham. We will soon be making a Mill Pond and lock, before looking at other historic buildings in the town.  

Peter: We only started the local layout a year ago and although the rail line is running, these exhibits are long-term projects that take time to come together. However, the new layout has generated interest and Horsham Museum has supported us by researching the history of local buildings. We have a rich rail history, with routes such as the Steyning Line which create added local interest. 

Gail: The Open Days bring in people of all ages. We always attract older members as it’s a hobby people often take up in retirement. However, we also see many children and their love of trains never dwindles. During Covid, when we couldn’t travel abroad, families enjoyed visiting places like the Bluebell Railway instead and we’ve certainly seen more young faces in recent years.  

Harry: I like seeing all the different layouts on the Open Day. One of my favourite dioramas has a Jinty locomotive (Class 3F) and a Digital Command Control (DCC) which means you need to operate it yourself. I don’t have a model train set at home, but I bring my trains to club meetings so I can run them on the OO gauge and N gauge layouts. I first loved trains from watching TV programmes, but now I have about 20 trains and love club nights, even if I am one of the youngest. 

Tim: If you ask a child to draw a train, you can guarantee it will be a steam locomotive, as there remains something magical about them. There’s always going to be interest as long as steam trains continue to run. Last year, I took my niece to the Bluebell Railway and she loved it so much that we bought her a Brio wooden train set. She has since got an extension set to make an even bigger layout. That’s where it all begins and although my niece is still very young, it is that interest in steam that can develop into a hobby for life. That’s how clubs like ours can survive. 

Further information:

For more details visit the website at www.horshammrc.org.uk