First Bangor Model Railway Club

First Bangor Model Railway Club

Index -- Club history -- Club news
Model railway exhibition: photos page 1 - photos page 2 - photos page 3 - photos page 4
Mainline photographs -- Photographs of Bangor
Local rail: photos page 1 - photos page 2 -- Bangor relay: photos page 1 - photos page 2
Exhibition dates -- First Bangor MRC Annual Exhibition details -- Links
Links to Commercial Model Railway Websites

First Bangor Model Railway Club News
For details of 2007 exhibitions click here

R.N.L.I. Charity Exhibition July 2006

We held a Charity Show on behalf of the R.N.L.I. in 1st. Donaghadee Presbyterian Church Hall
in July on what was probably the wettest Saturday of the year!
A comment was overheard that if the torrential rain continued through to the
afternoon we would be needing the lifeboat to rescue us!
Despite the weather we managed to raise more than £380 for this worthwhile cause.

Annual Exhibition 2006

Over the 2nd./3rd. June we held our 17th. Annual Exhibition
in the Guild Hall complex. Other hobbies were well represented again this year with boats, cars,
tractors and dolls houses to complement the large number of model railway layouts present.
All the major scales of model railway were present from 'G' to 'N' with steam and diesel traction.
Our new all digital '00' layout was given an airing even though there is still a considerable amout
of work yet to be carried out before it is completed.
We are grateful to our friends from the length and breadth of Ireland who continue
to support us with a variety of exhibits.

Charity Exhibition 2006

This years two day charity event was held in the Mall of Ards Shopping Centre and the
two charities supported were 'Chest, Heart and Stroke Association' and 'Fields of Life Trust'.
As usual the public were generous in their support and we were able to present
both charities with over £300.
Our thanks to the Management and Staff of Ards Shopping Centre for their help
in staging the exhibition.

Charity Exhibition 2004

With the Mall in Bloomfield Shopping Centre no longer available due to the
new shops built there, we had to find a new venue for our annual charity show.
Luckily the Manager of Springhill Shopping Centre agreed to allow us the use of a
vacant shop unit to hold the show which was staged over Friday 25th. - Saturday 26th. June.
This year the charity chosen was Marie Curie Cancer Care, and thanks to the
generosity of the public we managed to raise £530 for this very worthwhile cause.
Our thanks to the centre manager, Ken and his staff for all their help and to June Carson
of Marie Curie Cancer Care for her support.

View of the exhibition from The Mall in Springhill Shopping Centre.

Club's '00' layout with a camera train giving a drivers eye view on the television.

Annual Exhibition 2004

On the 28th. – 29th. May (Bank Holiday weekend) we held our 15th. Annual Exhibition
in the Guild Hall complex. As usual other hobbies were well represented along with the trains.
This year we had dolls' houses, boats, cars, tractors, glitter pictures and even thimbles!
We are grateful to our friends from the length and breadth of Ireland for their usual
unfailing support with a variety of exhibits.
This is the first year our exhibition has been held on the Spring Bank Holiday weekend
(last weekend in May) and we were very pleased with the support from the public.

2003/4

The model railway club has been as busy as ever over the winter, with work slowly
progressing on the building of our new portable digital '00' and modular 'N'-Trak layouts.
We enjoyed participating with five layouts at the annual Erne Model Railway Exhibition
in Enniskillen last September and were pleased to be awarded, for the third year running,
'The Best Overall Trophy'. This was voted for by the visiting public and was won by
club member Peter McVicar with his layout 'Indian Bend'.
Our annual visit to the three day Irish bank holiday exhibition in October took us to Blackrock,
Dublin where we exhibited two layouts, 'Santa Clara Valley' and 'Briarwood Falls'
and enjoyed the usual warmth and hospitality of our southern friends.
Our annual 'Christmas Special' in the McKinstry Wallace hall on 6th December proved
to be as popular as ever with a very seasonal theme and was enjoyed by all, especially
by the youngest section of the Boys Brigade, the Bugle Boys.
In December five of the club flew over to Birmingham N.E.C. for our second visit
to the largest UK model railway exhibition and in February we travelled by coach and ferry
to the S.E.C. in Glasgow for our now annual visit to the Scottish Exhibition.
Due to the new internal shopping unit in the Mall of Bloomfield Shopping Centre,
we have lost the location where we have had a charity fund raising event for the past two years.
This is unfortunate as we will not be able to add to the £2000 already raised for local charities.
We are investigating other alternative venues and hopefully will be able to continue
this very useful and valuable exercise in the near future.

2003

As usual The Club had a busy year with exhibitions as far away as Dublin, Dun Laoghaire
and Enniskillen. Nearer to home, we ran our own annual exhibition in May,
the Christmas show in December and a Charity exhibition in Bloomfield Shopping Centre.
We also had layouts at the North Down MRS show in Bangor Leisure Centre.

Our new digital exhibition layout is progressing (slowly) with scenery now under
construction and the wiring of electrics under way.

We have decided to change the timing of our annual show in 2004 to try to avoid
it clashing with either the North West 200 or the cup final.
The annual exhibition will now be on Friday (evening) and Saturday of the Spring
Bank Holiday weekend. For further details see exhibition pages HERE.

Charity Exhibition 2003
28th. February/1st. April 2003

For the second year in succession we held a two day charity exhibition in the Mall of
Bloomfield Shopping Centre with seven layouts filling the 30 ft square. The fantastic
sum of £1240 was collected over the two days and this was shared between two
local charities, Bangor Junior Gateway Club for children with special needs, and
Assissi Animal Sanctuary at Conlig. Thanks must be expressed to the generosity
of the shoppers and to the assistance of the manager, Mr. Sam Montgomery and the
staff of Bloomfield Shopping Centre.

Christmas Exhibition 2002
Saturday 7th December 2002

Our first ever Christmas Exhibition was held on Saturday 7th December
and although much smaller than our annual exhibition it was a great success.
The 12 exhibits were either club layouts or belonging to club members and
were seasonally decorated with snow, lights, (totally out of scale) snowmen, etc.
The club's "00" layout had a camera equipped diesel travelling around transmitting
live pictures onto a television and giving a driver's view of the layout. There were
quite a number of last minute changes to 'Santa's List' as a result of visiting the show!

The club layout with camera train

What's in the bottle Ron?

1950/60's toy shop window display

Wrenn layout with a heavy fall of snow on high ground.

Edwardian Christmas Fair

23rd/24th November, 2002

North Down Borough Council invited us to bring a model railway to their Edwardian Christmas Fair
which was held in conjunction with the official switch on of the Christmas lights in Bangor. The fair
was held in Bangor Castle Leisure Centre and there were various craft stalls selling their wares along
with people dressed up in Edwardian costume. Even Santa was there.
Outside there was a miniature roundabout and a Marquee with an ice rink.

Edwardian Fair

Transport Museum Exhibition, Cultra

Saturday 9th November, 2002

The club had a highly salubrious day at the 'Model Railway Day' in the Transport Museum, Cultra,
on Saturday 9th November. We were able to provide 12 layouts of various types and sizes
including 'Z' and 'TT' gauges along with the more common '00' and 'N' gauges.
Visitors started arriving very soon after opening at 10 am and kept coming in right up to closure.
The museum car park was packed all day with cars parked on grass banks and anywhere there was a space.

Transport Museum

Summer 2002

The club has continued to keep active over the summer (??)
by commencing to build two new portable layouts. One ‘00’ gauge
layout, 8ft x 20ft is to be the main club layout and is to take the
‘pressure’ off the 12 year old ‘Burns’ layout. The other layout is a
‘Modular’ system built in the smaller ‘N’ gauge. This is a system
where anybody can build a 4ft x 2ft section which links in with other
members units, making up a layout of varying sizes and formats.
This is an ideal method for anyone to get started into this interesting
hobby. These units are small, can be made at home, at your own pace
and to your own capabilities.

Friday 18th October saw all eight sections our new '00' layout
joined together for the first time since the track laying was completed.
The first 'trains' (clockwork as none of the wiring is in place yet!)
made a complete circuit of the new track and encountered no problems.
All that is left to do now is the wiring, scenery, painting, .........

Chernobyl Children's Project (2002)

The club was once again invited by The Association of Model
Exhibitors in Ireland to support a fund raising event to help
sponsor 32 Chernobyl children on a ‘health improving’ holiday
in Ireland. The residents of the Belarus area in Russia are still
suffering today from the massive nuclear power plant explosion
16 years ago with the children unfortunately being most vulnerable.

These arranged holidays are very beneficial to the children's
health where they receive dental treatment, eye tests, new clothes
and the things we take for granted – healthy food and clean fresh air.

Eleven of us were privileged to attend an exhibition in Greystones
on 30th June, where we displayed 5 layouts. It was most gratifying
to be able to assist and see the children enjoy the exhibition,
carry their ‘goodie bags’ which we had given to them and take
part in the operation of our layouts.

The local Priest from the adjoining Church and the children's
Russian interpreter were but a few who expressed many favourable
comments about our layouts and thanked us for our support
and for travelling such a distance. Perhaps the most
enthusiastic visitor of the day was young Jamie Carson,
the son of the Presbyterian Minister in Greystones. He was there
with his mother right until we were dismantling the units, and skilfully
operated every unit ‘he could take over’.
Surely this is what its all about!

A grand sum of 1100 Euro was raised towards this project.

(photo courtesy Dermot Hackett)

Annual Exhibition 2002

On the 17th – 18th May we held our 12th Annual Exhibition
in the Guild Hall complex. The 35 exhibits on display included
what was probably the largest running ‘Hornby Dublo’ layout
in Ireland with 90 engines and 300 rolling stock from the
1948 – 1964 period, an ‘N’ gauge layout with a real waterfall
plunging down a steep rock face, beneath a timber truss bridge,
and the smallest commercially produced train in the world
- a ‘Z Gauge’ in a suitcase.
The fine display of traditionally furnished houses with
miniatures and the imaginative fitted houses made from watering
cans, tea boilers etc. were actually the skilful work of Karen
Marshall and Margaret Crangle.
A valued addition to the show this year was from the Leequay Boat
Club, Dublin. Their range of hand made model boats were superior
in every detail.
The usual welcome and hospitality was given to our fellow exhibitors
from the length and breadth of Ireland. Not only did they make
an enormous contribution to the show with their trains, trams,
dolls, circus, cars, farm etc. but their usual warmth and friendship
added to the atmosphere of the weekend.
Our newest, youngest and most enthusiastic exhibitor, 6 year old Ben
McMechan, proudly displayed his new layout for the first time –
ably assisted all weekend by Mum, Dad, 2 Grans and 2 Granddads.
Ben's exhibit certainly wins the prize for ‘most operators’. This
gave Ben time to move around operating and ‘spying on’ other
exhibitors layouts.
Despite atrocious weather, we were very pleased with the attendance
from the public, which led to another successful exhibition.

Bangor Junior Gateway Club Charity Exhibition (2002)

The Management of Bloomfield Shopping Centre kindly allowed us to
hold a charity model railway exhibition in the shopping centre to raise
funds for Bangor Junior Gateway Club. Thanks to the generosity
of shoppers we were able to raise £937 during the two day event.
Some of the children and their carers were able to visit the exhibition
on the Saturday morning and watch the trains on the various layouts.
Our thanks to Mr. Sam Montgomery and the Staff of Bloomfield
Shopping Centre for helping us to organize this event.

The display at Bloomfield Shopping Centre

Our e-mail address is :-
firstbangormrc@btinternet.com