The concept
Our club started as a concept in the minds of some of our founding members in early 2022. These members felt that there were a growing number of people south of Adelaide that were interested in N Scale model railway modelling but were not being catered for with existing clubs in the area.
Invitations sent out
In early April 2022, an invitation was created and sent out to known potential members of this new club for a meeting to discuss the pros and cons of creating a new club.
First meeting
The first meeting of the club was held at the home of one of the organisers on Saturday 23 April 2022.
10 people attended this meeting, and a further 8 people provided apologies. It was at this meeting that it was agreed that a new club should be formed, and it would be an Incorporated club despite the increased costs involved.
The new club committee was also elected at this meeting.
Southern N Scale Model Railway Club Inc. (SNSMRC) was born on this day.
Hiring of a club room
From our second meeting we were fortunate enough to be able to hire a hall for most of the day each time we held our monthly meeting. We used the opportunity to setup T-TRAK modules to allow members to run trains on the day, and we also held demonstrations on various aspects of model railways to share knowledge between members.
Demonstrations / Clinics
The club members agreed that it would help everyone if we ran a clinic or demonstration of some aspect of the hobby after each meeting.
As a result, we have had several of these sessions since we began.
The topics that have been covered can be found here.
First official public demonstration
On Saturday 30 July 2022 our club put on our first public demonstration at the Willunga Almond Blossom Festival.
We took along T-TRAK modules, and the layout was operated from a controller built by one of our members, which allowed each track of the layout to be individually switched between DC or DCC operation, as required by the train being run at the time. This controller was also powered from a 12 Vdc battery, making electrical requirements much easier on the day.
The day went very well, and we had a large number of people looking at our layout and talking to our members throughout the whole day.
Incorporation
On 13 August 2022 our club received notification from the SA government that our Incorporation had been processed, so we were then an official Incorporated body.
Online Presence
Our club decided to create an online presence as soon as possible after we were officially incorporated, so at the club meeting on 20 August 2022 approval was given to register our domain name, purchase a web hosting package, and create a web site for the club.
On Sunday 21 August our domain name was formally registered, and work began on creating our online presence.
Email accounts were created for relevant people, and the web site design was begun. During the initial design phase, the web site was only visible as an ‘Under Construction’ page, but by early September 2022 it was made live so that external testing could be conducted, and search engine page indexing could begin.
Once the testing and subsequent changes were finished, and the search engine indexing had commenced, the web site was once again hidden behind the ‘Under Construction’ page, and the web site was presented to the club members, and made officially live, at the monthly club meeting on 17 September 2022.
As with all websites, further updates continue to be made to the site on an ongoing basis.
ABN
Our club received its ABN on 12 October, 2022.
The Southern Community Showcase 2022
Our club was part of The Southern Community Showcase on 16 October 2022, an event held at the Wilfred Taylor Reserve in Morphett Vale.
The day was designed to allow the public to meet and get to know community organisations in the local council area.
We were pleased with the interest shown in our display by the public with many people coming in and having a chat with us.
Willunga Almond Blossom Festival 2023
We were invited to attend the Willunga Almond Blossom Festival again in 2023, so on Saturday 29 July 2023 we were once again at this event, promoting N Scale model railroading and T-TRAK systems.
Once again this was a successful event for us.
Southern Community Showcase 2023
We attended the Southern Community Showcase for the second time on 12 November 2023.
The event was very well attended by members of the public, and once again we had a T-TRAK layout running throughout the day as well as club members on hand to talk with people about any aspect of our club or model railways in general.
You can see some photos from our display at this event here.
Milang Model Railway Show 2023
On Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 November 2023, we were at the Milang Model Railway Show with a T-TRAK layout.
A large number of people attended this show over the weekend and everyone seemed pleased with the show in general, and our T-TRAK display.
We specifically promote the benefits of the T-TRAK system when we are at public demonstrations, showing how modules created by different club members can come together to create a layout that might be different each time we set it up. The T-TRAK modules are also a very convenient format for storage and transportation.
Some photos from our setup at Milang can be seen here.