In 1982, Frank Armishaw, having recently retired, decided to start a model engineering society in Bromsgrove. Accordingly, he organised a public meeting in March of that year, and some thirty people turned up. With this encouraging start the society was formed, with the first lecture being given by founder member Jim McQuaid, who had previously lectured at Dudley College of Further Education.

The society looked around for a track site, since although it was (and still is) open to all types of modellers, by far the majority was interested in railways. Bromsgrove Council was approached, and they were amenable to the society having a track in Sanders Park, Bromsgrove. Negotiations stalled when the council insisted that it would not be possible to fence the railway. Concerned about the possibilities of vandalism, the society carried on looking for an alternative.

As well as his model engineering interests, Jim McQuaid was a volunteer blacksmith at Avoncroft Museum of Buildings, on the outskirts of Bromsgrove, and he approached Michael Douglas, Director of the museum, with a view to the society setting up in a field behind the museum shop. An agreement was soon reached, and with a grant of £300 from Bromsgrove Council’s lottery fund, work started.

By the summer of 1984, we were able to run trains on a short up and down track at the club barbecue, and by June of the following year, the full circuit of 600’ had been completed. At the official opening in August, the opening ceremony was performed by L. G. Harris, of Harris Brushes. Guests included Walter Allen, one time driver of “Big Bertha”, the Midland designed locomotive built specially for the nearby Lickey incline, and to complete the picture, a 5” gauge model of “Big Bertha” itself, brought up for the occasion by builder Frank Stubbs.

In 1992, we held an open day to celebrate our 10th anniversary, with ten locomotives being brought in for the day by members of other clubs. At the same time, we opened the 16mm garden railway in what was to be its first guise, a simple loop with spurs off to a terminus station.

Having had one or two occasions when the service loco had failed, the society decided that some form of “instant” traction was required. A class 20 kit was purchased and finished in 1993. As an indication of our links with the museum, it was named “String of Horses”, this being the original name of one of the museum buildings when it had been a public house.

Since 1995, members of the society have travelled abroad, sometimes as a club party, and at other times simply as a group of friends. We have taken locomotives to Nienoord (Netherlands), Sindelfingen (Germany), Brussels and Turnhout(Belgium). We’ve even had a trip to New Zealand!

The museum owns another field adjacent to our original passenger track, and over a few years, negotiations were held with the museum with a view to the society clearing the site and extending the track into the second field. By 2002 we had cleared the field and laid the track, which increased the length of a lap from 600’ to around 1250’.

The 16mm garden railway has been extended several times over the years. The original spur to the terminus station was extended with a viaduct and return loop to produce a dog bone shaped layout. This has further been extended in 2007 to provided improved steaming facilities.

A number of club members have become interested in gauge 1, and we opened our facilities in that scale in 2005.

Over the years, the club has hosted several rallies. These have included the “Curly Bowl” in 1996 and 2000, the Sweet Pea Rally in 1999, and the Southern Federation Spring and the 2 ½” Gauge Society Rallies in 2003. We are scheduled to hold the Sweet Pea Rally again in 2014.