Swansea Railway Modellers Group is a thriving club bringing the joy of railways to people of all ages. We went along for a visit.
Railways are an endless source of joy and fascination, and nowhere is this more evident than at Swansea Railway Modellers Group, a thriving club that meets weekly in Cwmbwrla, Swansea.
Originally located on the top floor of the Friends of the Young Disabled building, the club now also occupies other rooms in the building due to its growing number of magical, large-scale layouts in which model trains run between miniature towns and villages, passing perfectly rendered trees, houses, churches, factories, and fields dotted with tiny sheep.
With 80-plus members, the club is a welcoming hive of activity: a typical meetup sees members collaborating on model building, enhancing track layouts, running trains on a variety of different gauge tracks, and also simply socialising in the well-stocked library over cake and a cup of tea.
“Some people like to buy trains and run them on tracks at the club; they might not put together layouts at home,” says club chairman Martin Evans. “Other people are really interested in building things, and once they’ve made it, they’ve lost interest and want to make the next thing.”
The members range in age from nine to 80-plus and have a wide range of skills. Some are expert electricians who put their knowledge to good use creating complex digital track layouts on which you can run a whole timetable complete with atmospheric lights and sound. Some are skilled modellers of houses and scenery, and others are specialists in creating scale models of locomotives. Among these are members with highly specialised skills, such as creating weathering.
“We have all different skill levels; one of our junior members is amazingly skilled at painting,” says Martin. “People exchange skills, so for example, the person who does the weathering might paint some weathering for other people’s models.”
The range and scale of models made by members is very broad, but the steam era is a popular theme. There are, however, no rules: club secretary Paul Dally’s special interest, for example, is American railways.
A former track maintenance engineer who was responsible for all the rail track west of Llanharan for over 20 years, he was drawn to US railways because they offered a change of scene.
“I wanted to do something, but I didn’t want to do anything with British Rail, because that was work,” he says. “I’ve always been a railway enthusiast; my grandfather was a station master, so I’ve got a real railway history. I discovered the American model rail world, and I collected and built a layout, but then it went into storage when I had a granddaughter and we needed a room. After that, I found the club, and the rest is history.”
One of Paul’s responsibilities as secretary is to arrange the club’s annual model railway show at the LC in Swansea, which attracts a high number of visitors, impressive layouts from all over the UK, as well as traders selling model railways and exhibitors from various clubs and societies.
Other group activities include outings and an annual modelling competition. On top of these, members get use of the club’s excellent modelling workshops, where they have access to tools including a laser cutter and a 3d printer.
Paul is not unusual in coming from a transport background: before his retirement, Martin was Director responsible for transport at the Welsh Government, while another member is a former train driver. But overall, the members’ backgrounds and routes into railway modelling are diverse. Some, such as Kyle Humphreys, have made railway modelling their business: he runs TRS Trains, making perfect 3d printed scale models of rolling stock.
The club’s spectacular layouts are a big attraction. Most are imagined places, often inspired by Wales; but a reproduction of the Upper Bank in Swansea that’s currently under construction is being faithfully reproduced using old diagrams and photographs.
The club has an impressive selection of memorabilia and historical records, including old photographs and countless books: as well as being a place to relax and have fun, it’s also a great learning environment where people can pick up skills in everything from electronics to painting.
“We enjoy fostering these skills, and we run for workshops too,” says Martin. “We had a build-a-tree workshop recently, and we’re going to have others on other skills. It’s lovely seeing just all these people from different walks of life just showing enthusiasm, and being able to link them together.”
If you’d like to know more, visit: www.srmg.org.uk