Cheadle Hulme Model Railway Group

WHAT (and WHY) we are: A group of, currently, seven double-0 modellers, who have combined to use our best modelling skills to create and operate a realistic railwaylike* 4mm. scale layout capable of running believably as wide a range of British-outline stock as possible with regards to period, and to region and company of origin.

[* see Jenkinson, David, 2001, Historical Railway Modelling p.157ff for definition]

WHO we are: Brian, a bank official, Bill, an academic, and Alan, a GP, all retired, plus Rob, an air traffic controller, Ian, Sales Manager for an Aviation Electronics firm, and Fraser, an airline pilot  (who, usefully, is also a qualified electronics engineer). Not forgetting Adam and Nick, our active and enthusiastic junior members.

WHERE we are: At the Cheadle Hulme Mission and Institute, a Victorian not-for-profit foundation on the corner of Hulme Hall Road and Church Road in Cheadle Hulme, Stockport, Cheshire, where we rent a 100 square-foot storeroom off the meeting hall,in which we store the layout; all stock is owned and stored at home by the members.

WHEN we meet: We generally meet weekly at the Mission, in the 29 foot by 24 foot hall. At present we meet in the afternoons, normally on Fridays, although we can meet other afternoons if we wish. We do have Friday evenings reserved for us at the Institute if we should need to meet later.

      We met originally at the Brookside Model Railway Club [BMRC], which was based at Brookside Garden Centre, in Poynton, Cheshire. The BMRC Chairman, a professional joiner, had built the Clubroom on a piece of land in the garden centre next to the existing Model Shop [the South Manchester Toy Firm], the owner of the Centre paying for the materials used. We were then allowed to occupy the Clubroom rent-free, although after the first year we had to start paying for our electricity.

      BMRC was formed in November 2003. However, only one of the present Cheadle Hulme Group was a member from the start; the rest of us joined at various times later, by which time the double-0 layout, Attam Bank, had been designed and the baseboards built.

      Despite a false start, good progress had been made on completing Attam Bank by mid-October 2006, when a bomb-shell was dropped on the Club by the Garden Centre owner - he had accepted an offer from a commercial concern to rent our Clubroom, and could we please vacate in ten days!!

      Naturally we held an emergency meeting, and it was decided that the 0, 00 and the N groups would each go their own ways, after dividing up the Club’s assets in a mutually agreed way.

      The double-0 Group was pointed in the direction of the Cheadle Hulme Mission and Institute by the wife of one of our members, and fortunately we were made most welcome - so much so that within the ten-day deadline we had moved the Attam Bank layout and gear to the Institute, and at a meeting  on the 1 ^st of December 2006 reformed ourselves as the CHMRG you see today. We are glad to be able to say the other two groups were able to move within the deadline as well.

      So that was how we got here from there.