The Billingham Railway Modellers Club (BRMC) has survived with about a dozen members varying in age from their 20s to their 80s. After enduring a painful time where it lost its town centre home, members hope they are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Beginnings
The club started in the autumn of 2022, and went from strength to strength. “When we came here the very first time there were two of us,” says chairman David Frost, 70. “The second week there was three, the next there were 27.
“Model railwaying is the biggest hobby in the country apart from sports. But most people have them in lofts, sheds, garages or in boxes.”
The club ended up using a property in the town centre, above Heron Foods at Queensway, paying a peppercorn rent. And they were looking to grow.
Secretary Graham Potter, 62, says: “We managed to get a property in the town centre where we were for a year or so. We’d filled it, the club had grown quite big. We were hoping to pick up a neighbouring unit because we had expanded so much.”
Sudden eviction
Then came the bombshell early this year, as town centre owner Evolve Estates’ plans moved forward to demolish “tired and dated” buildings including Queensway, and the club had to leave: “Rather than expanding, we got kicked out.
“We were given notice to quit the building because it’s one of the first to be pulled down. We were homeless for a bit.
“We probably lost half the members through that, so we’re down to about a dozen members now.
“It’s not to knock the town centre, we understand it’s got to be rebuilt. But it did have an impact.”
David said they were given a week’s notice: “It was devastating to us. We had about 24 members and we lost half of them.
Fighting to rebuild
“Fortunately I know about this place because I’m the treasurer here,” he said, speaking from Monkseaton Community Hall, where the club had started and ended up returning, in a meeting attended by eight members on a rainy Sunday night.
Graham says: “We’re still going strong, we’re still active and we’re looking to rebuild our membership and move to a new premises. It’s very much a phoenix from the ashes.
“Those of us who stayed, we’re not despondent. We’ve carried on, we’re still doing things to move forward in the months we’ve been without a home. We’re just looking to let people know we’re here and we’ve got space.”
Members have hand-made a layout commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, including a Locomotion No. 1 and coaches.
“We’ve got electrical, electronics, 3D printing, laser cutters, all the scenery and painting,” says David. “The skill involved is unbelievable.”
He points to the models as snapshots of times past, prompting stories among members: “It’s a way of recording history. If you go to old Billingham where the station was, there’s nothing there now.”
As members come to build layouts, bringing in models for repair or just to chat, go on trips out to places like Shildon and AV Dawson, and welcome visitors from as far away as Australia, Graham says the club meets a wider need. “This ticks all the mental health boxes,” he said, speaking of members who had been helped and encouraged by their fellow enthusiasts.
Finding a new home
Now he says they want to grow their membership again, and find a permanent base, though they had seen other potential sites snapped up by others: “Ideally we would like to buy somewhere. Our long-term goal is to get our own premises.
“They talk about a mixed economy to bring people into the town centre, the days of it just being shops have gone. There needs to be clubs as well in that mix, like ourselves.”
For now, things are looking up as the club is renting a new space at Grange Business Centre on Belasis Avenue, where it will meet from 6 to 9pm on Sundays and 7 to 9pm on Wednesdays.
Comment from the Club
David added: “The positive is that we’ve got a new place that we can lease. There’ll be a little bit of work to sort it all out. That will enable us to expand again and take on new members.
“We’ve had a rough ride for the past seven or eight months. That was really hellish to go through.
“We’re looking to buy rather than rent. Once we’ve got somewhere permanent we won’t have to worry.
“In past open days we were getting over 300 people through the door. It’s surprising the number of people we’ve had in saying this is what we’ve been wanting in Billingham for a long time. We still get a lot of people saying they didn’t know we had one.”
He spoke of other larger clubs elsewhere in the country, but said their biggest obstacle was finance: “Everywhere’s so expensive. There’s no support for it. We don’t have a national club, it’s just people who have a hobby.
“People want that nostalgia. They want to see it and take their kids to see it as well, get them off the machines.
“I think there is a future for us. I can’t see it disappearing. You just need somebody to push it forward, and it happens.”
The club is holding an open day on Sunday, September 14 from 10am to 4pm at Monkseaton Community Hall on Matlock Gardens, Billingham.
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