Create your world in minature | Tauranga Model Railway Club

1/4

Create your own world in miniature.

Modelling a railway is not just about railways, it is also about learning new skills. It’s about knowledge of the railway prototype (the real thing), capturing the mood and setting of a real railway in miniature.

It is also about making new friends and having fun. The Tauranga Model Railway Club (TMR Club) can show you how rewarding and satisfying modelling a railway can be.

The modelling choice is timeless and endless … You can choose to model the railways of Britain, Europe, Canada, the USA, Australia and of course New Zealand, or anywhere you like. There are a variety of scales and systems to choose from; analogue or digital (DCC) operation, early steam, diesel or modern electric. You decide the period and the Club can help you get there.

Fun for all ages.

Learn new techniques.

Something for all the family.

About Us

The Club provides the opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to participate in the hobby for the social and recreational benefits it provides.

Thanks to the NZ Herald and NZ on air for supporting us.

The objectives of the club include:

Educating people on the technical and practical skills of model railways.
Encouraging like-minded individuals to meet together for the purpose of social interaction and sharing the knowledge of model railways.
Expanding and enhancing the resources available to model railways in Tauranga specifically, and within other areas and other groups.
Participate and actively promote projects in order to achieve Club objectives.

The TMR club is a place that attracts enthusiasts who have a passion for model railways, and provides the opportunity for people to master skills, learn and enjoy both the creative and technical aspects of the hobby.

“Model Railways!
It’s where imagination comes alive!”

Tauranga Model Railway Activities

Club Running day

Diesel running on the new Katikati layout.

An english themed layout in
OO scale.

Stourbridge Road View to Main Line Station Platforms- OO Scale

Stourbridge Road - Village Street Scene - OO Scale

Steam locomotive crossing the stream north of Katikati.

The TMR Club Drive a Train layout.

Market Stourbridge - Dairy Factory & Station Platform - OO Scale

Click on the link below to view a video of our Katikati Layout:

The Katikati layout is S scale, and fully landscaped.

Some members are modelling
in O scale.

Stourbridge Road - Street to Canal Basin & Warehouses - OO Scale

https://youtu.be/5NVOOQwORWY

About Us

Our Club

Club layouts on our recent running day.

The club library and social area.

Our Club Activities

There are a range of layouts and activities that the Club offers its members and visitors.

Current layouts:

Katikati (NZR – S gauge)
Stourbridge (English 00 gauge)
English (N gauge)
Raurimu Spiral (NZR – N gauge)
Drive a Train (H0 – 00)

Club Library

A large modelling and trains reference library is available including books, magazines and CD/DVD’s, with viewing facilities.

Some of our popular activities are:

Drive a Train
This provides children with the opportunity to drive a 3.5mm (H0) train along a 16mm gauge track. Children can run replicas of NZ Rail locomotives, coaches and wagons.
Shunting Puzzle
This provides the older children with a more challenging shunting puzzle.
Other Layouts
Several model railway layouts built by club members, are constructed on site

Model Railways Involve:

Design
Carpentry
Buildings
Computing
Construction
Craftwork
Electronics
Friendship
Geography

History
Kit construction
Painting
Scale
People
Research
Scenery
Prototype practice

Club members exhibit the club layouts at other model railways shows throughout the North Island.

Members Layouts

We have decided that to help our members enjoy club time more by starting a series of through the train room door...

This is a series looking at the home layouts of some active members, who hopefully will be working away making some real progress on their modelling.

Driver Train - Built and run by club members at shows - 00 Gauge

The Club has produced a great interactive layout to be used primarily at model train shows, which draws in young and old alike. Driver Train sits on two 2400x 1200 mm interconnected boards. These were very well constructed by member Rob, using the (now) standard baseboard technique of plywood and insulation foam board. This produces a reasonably light but strong baseboard and a clean surface for track installation and scenery development.

Driver Train is designed in two parts;

The Oval circuit: for younger kids the oval two track circuit with sidings and station, gives them the chance to run two trains independently, controlled by a simple and robust DC/DCC wired system. We have limited the speed so they can drive fast or slow, but not to a speed that trains all fall off!

Both Thomas the Tank and NZR rolling stock supplied by the club can be run, usually NZR stock The layout is sceniked in a generic New Zealand scene, with some lovely railway houses and village scape built by member Rob.

Once a child has finished their drive (usually around 3-4 minutes) the club issues them with a printed certificate with their name and date etc… Kids love this.

The shunting puzzle: for older kids and adults this side of Driver Train encourages problem solving and logical thinking. It uses an NCE DCC Powercab unit to operate this part. The puzzle task is to disassemble and reassemble a short diesel powered goods train into the various sidings in the yard. The train enters the yard and the guards van, fuel tanker, cattle wagon, coal wagon and goods van are separated and ‘spotted’ in their respective sidings/platforms. Once this is done the driver can then reassemble the train and drive it out of the yard.

Thomas and friends TMRC showIMG_0429 (2)

Thomas the Tank Engine

Mike in charge

Driver train in capable hands

President Mike O's - Classic 8' x 4' English Layout - OO Gauge

Mike says he started in the hobby in 2017 after having a triple bypass operation and needing a less strenuous activity. The layout is not based on any particular area but a typical small town near a coal mining area is the theme. The layout measures 8 x 4 with a double track main line and a goods line with a small fiddle/storage yard to the side. The track is code 100.

Mike is running the layout with DCC and a mix of steam and diesel locos, some with sound and lights. He has 20 locos in all with main line coaches, box vans and coal wagons in the mix for running stock. The bulk of the layout is finished and he now spends time refining scenery etc. Have a look at the accompanying photos to see Mikes progress.

Mike says that joining TMRC has been tremendous value in assisting in his modelling efforts and in learning technical aspects such as DCC equipping his loco stock.

Mike's layout demonstrates that we can use the classic 8 x 4 board as a basis for starting in the hobby, progressing modelling skills and getting good results within an achievable timeframe.

Thanks Mike for sharing your layout with us.

Mikes 8' x 4'

Overall View

Mikes 8' x 4'

Loco Facilities

Mikes 8' x 4'

Goods Yard / Town / Station

Mikes 8' x 4'

Fiddle Yard

LInzee's Layouts – Wademouth – N Gauge

Background

I read modelling magazines and books and this layout was inspired by one of them. There are some great scenes of railways in the south west of England. The challenge was to choose an area where both GWR and Southern could be used, with the occasional LMS livery trains. I settled on a line between Wadebridge and Bodmin. This layout had to be compact in use and size. It’s possible to have running loops and\or large station areas but the line arrangements have tight curves and little spare space in the town area.

This layout would fit into the time period of 1950\60’s, and see steam engines and diesels alongside each other.

Linzheim South

Commuters off to Work

Linzheim South

Station View

Linzheim South

Overall View

Linzheim South

Depot View

Ecclesbourne in the South east of England - N Gauge

Background

I read the modelling magazines and this layout was inspired by one of them. There are some great scenes of railways in the South East of England.

The challenge was to operate trains for multiple franchises and zones in a compact area of the Kent coast.The era of the layout spans era 3 to current day.

Beach view

Ecclesbourne cliff entrance from Hastings

Platform 1

Ecclesbourne - to Dover

Ecclesbourne - Real thing

Ecclesbourne - Bus connections

Vice President Darryl J's - Huge Barn Layout - OO Gauge

I've done a bit of work since you last saw it:

Extended the double track main line up the slope on the back wall heading to the helix. It works well with a slope between 2.5 & 3.5%. The diesels cope no problem, but the steamers can't pull 7 coaches, just not enough tractive weight.
Constructed the two ports - old port and new port - gee, imaginative names - still have to finish off track laying
Fitted the facia to the main 'island' that has the roundhouse. makes a hellava difference to the 'look'.
I still have A LOT of work to do on scenery, but as you know that's not really my thing.
What's unseen is more electronics and loco maintenance.

Darryl's Layout

New High Level Lines to Helix

Darryl's Layout

Loco Facilities & Loop

Darryl's Layout

Station View

Darryl's Layout

New High Level Tunnels

NZR Themed Layout - Modelled in S Gauge, by the late Brian Smith, it is now owned by another enthusiast group.

We acknowledge all the time & effort he put into both his own & the clubs NZR Katikati layout and can only say a simple Thank you. May he rest in peace. The combined road/rail bridge is located on the white pine bush road from Awakerie to Taneatua in the bay of plenty. The bridge was constructed in the 19 twenties. The branch line is closed and bridge reduced. Here Ab715 with coal wagons, sheep and cattle wagons heads for Taneatua. There were extensive stock holding pens at Taneatua. Sheep and cattle mobs walked the roads from east coast to the rail head. Coal slack fed the steam boilers at Waimanalo at Opotiki dairy company.

Railcar RM 911 pulls into Peketahi while NZR bus waits for passengersl

Brian's Layout

White Pine Bush road bridge

Dg skirts the main yard with empty log train

Brian's Layout

General scene

Ken C's - Australian Themed Layout - HO Gauge

I was born and brought up in the Shetland Islands, probably the furthest you could get from anywhere and still be in the UK. Given that, my first interests were ships and the sea but I was given a railway book one Christmas and it got me hooked on railways. The Lerwick library, surprisingly, had a lot of railway books, company histories by people like Hamilton Ellis, etc and so the interest grew.

I went to sea at 15 and my years at sea were among the best, but wherever we were docked I always tried to have a look at their trains, and sometimes ride on them. And when I left the sea when I got married and was looking for a hobby I went for trains rather than ships.

Because of this I am interested in most countries railways, my top ones being French, North American, Australian and New Zealand. But, sadly, I can only do one at any one time. Having done Great Western (UK) and American Im now into Victorian rail in Australia.

Living in NZ I would love to do NZR but have a total inability to build loco kits. Memories of trying to get a K,s kit to run many years ago so, with the increase in good models of Aussie stuff available, and having ridden on railways around Melbourne when I was at sea, decided to settle on that.

As can be seen from the photos the layout design is fairly conventional with a station and yard on one side running around to off-scene storage, about five loops and maybe a couple of dead end lines. Hopefully there will be room for the quarry.

In the photo the loco on the passenger train is a B class 6-axle engine based on GM technology and the freight engine is 1st series T class. The station is typical Australian layout of 3 loops with a couple of sidings. The left hand loop is the platform line although I was thinking of moving the line out and have the platform between the two lines but not sure. The goods shed will be on the fourth loop and the line towards the bottom of the photo may go round to a quarry or cement works. Not sure if a grain silo would be appropriate on a line supposedly running through the Gippsland area?

Ken's Layout

Passenger & freight trains in typical Aussie station

Ken's Layout

Overall view of layout

Ken's Layout

Long view of station area

Keith O's - British Themed Layout - OO Gauge & possibly N Gauge

There is a lot of work still to do on my layout. This is due, partly, to having moved here recently. Also, I have been deciding about N or OO which have track and stock for both. I decided to start with OO as would be easier for my young grandsons to use. I was thinking that I would use DC has it would them a controller and a section each to operate but have decided to do DCC or, perhaps, both. My space is limited and allows only minimum radius curves. I will run British early diesel on it although I dream of a freelance NZ scenario. I made good progress on laying track until I struck difficulty with the two double-slip switches finding one is electro frog and one not. When I replaced them with points, I found I have a mixture of electro-frog and not, isolating and not. So some more thought needs to go into that.
At the west, left hand, end where I will have a hill and tunnel, I seriously thought of making twisty exit in keeping with leaving hilly country but I like the gentle curve, the only one on the layout, leading into the straight run. This fits with the back scene I have of the South Island wide braided river and mountains in the background.
I may put a N layout above it, on removable base board sections, but that is a ‘long way down the track’. I find there is a lot of space to play with in N but can not get away from the OO scheme. Ideas for schematic plan would be welcome

Keith's Layout

Centre Section

Keith's Layout

Overall Layout Schematic

Keith's Layout

LH Loops

Keith's Layout

RH Loops

Andy R's - Hawkinsfield Junction - A Western Themed Layout - OO Gauge

This OO gauge English layout aims to convey a typical Great Western Railway ( GWR) secondary line in Dorset set in the late 1930s.

This secondary line leaves the main line off scene and travels through a rural junction station ( called Hawkinsfield Junction) to the fictional, seaside terminus of Melcombe Regis. Also modelled is a small single line branch from Hawkinsfield to Abbottsford ( off scene ).

This layout design provides plenty of operational potential which is the main aim of this layout. There is a continuous line link for roundy-roundy running when wanted. The overall layout design is loosely based on the famous UK model railway called Buckingham Branch which has been around for over 70 years.

This Tauranga layout is 14 6 x 9 in the old money, in 6 sections that could be seperated for relocation. Access is via a duck under. The baseboard is beams of 9mm ply with 9 mm ply for roadbed. Open top construction allows scenic contour variation.

The layout track work is Code 75, bullhead rail with all point work hand built in-situ, so that unique alignments are possible. Control is via a NCE PowerCab and slave unit for DCC control. The points are moved by either manual levers (junction) or Tortoise motors (terminus).

The layout has taken over 10 years so far and is nearly completed scenically, with rolling chalk landscape features and detailed station/ goods yard and engine shed areas.

There is much work to do on rolling stock automatic coupling ( kaydees) Also a new 6 track rotating train turntable is being installed in the layout centre to provide a way of reversing whole train formations. Both of these matters are to enhance operations.

Scene Construction

Terminus Construction

A busy Hawkinsfield Junction

Hawkinsfield Dairy Ltd at the Junction station

Recent Scenic treatment

Hawkinsfield river

Hawkinsfield - Leaving Terminus

Hawkinsfield river Quayside

Hawkinsfield

Trevor's Layout

The HO is Marklin K Track which has a centre stud running the length of it. A European themed layout set somewhere in Europe. It depicts a large industrial area with engine shed & turntable.

It is running on DCC via the Marklin CS3 control box. This allows all the points to be easily controlled from the box along with any other accessory that you want. The rider being that it must be compatible with the decoder.

The scene is an industrial landscape loosely based on Europe with a mixture of different countries locos & rolling stock. There is also a HOn3 branch line up in the surrounding hills.

.There is a small HOn3 track running along the back, which is on standard N Gauge track, for both passenger & freight (separate trains) feeding an elevated mountain village. Lit up for night running if required.

Rod G's Layout

Mike O's Layout

Andy R's Layout

Linzee B's - Linzeim South Layout

Linzee B's - Ham Road South Layout

Linzee B's - Feldsee

Darryl J's Layot

Brian S's - NZR Layout

Ken C's Layout

Keith O's Layout

Membership

New members are always welcome. Come in and see what we are are up to.

Either collect a form from the club room or download the one here.

Collection of models to sell?

The TMRC does not buy trains or collections and we can't always respond personally to emails or calls about selling trains. We do gratefully accept donations.

Selling Tips
1. List items individually as collections are worth less.
2. If it has been tested, say so. If you have not tried out the item, be clear that you are not sure.
3. Use TradeMe or similar online trading sites where you can, to provide you and the seller protection.
4. Look for similar listings prior to listing your item to help you set a price.
5. Large layouts are hard to sell as they are difficult to transport.
6. The condition of a piece controls its value.
7. If you are unfamiliar with the selling sites then talk with others, There will be someone that can help.