East dorset N gauge group

 The East Dorset group meet on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month. 

The majority of our members belong to the N Gauge Society, an organisation whose aim is to promote and develop all aspects of N gauge modelling, membership of the N Gauge Society is not required to join us, The club welcomes modellers in all gauges.

The club currently has 4 layouts.

Benbridge - which is twenty feet long and consist of a country station and branch line, Town, goods yard, farming, funfair and a manor house. The layout has been shown at many local exhibitions and was recently voted best in show by exhibitors at Exeter model railway show 2025.

Sarahs falls - which is Canadian . This layout was donated to the club, A number of changes have been made to improve running and scenery.

Thomas and Friends - A small circular layout with a station, sidings, village, pond and a castle. This was build from donations that the club was given. The layout is controlled by two DC controllers and can be used for our exhibitions to have Thomas running and his friends, however the layout can be used to run both modern and steam.

Our final layout is "Blachford Quay" this is a new layout and only the base boards have been built while we work out a track plan and scenery ideas is now in full swing.

The club has also taken donation of a large layout that will be looked at before making any decisions, but it is hopped to bring this into our club making it the 5th layout.

We meet from 6:00pm on the second (2nd) and fourth (4th) Fridays of each month,  at "Pelhams" - Kinson Community Centre in Bournemouth. Everyone is welcome just to come along and have a chat with our members before joining.

Beginnings

Our group was started by Yvonne and Michael Shillabeer. He called a meeting of local N Gauge Society members at Pelhams in 1993. Michael missed the first meeting, as he was in hospital, so it was Yvonne that started us off. Around 20 members attended, a committee was formed, and it was decided to form a proper Area Group, affiliated to the N Gauge Society. The East Dorset group is one of the oldest society members of the society.

At first we just brought along rollingstock and chatted, but then the possibility of building a group layout was discussed. This was soon ruled out due to lack of storage space. Some of the members still wanted to create something, so a modular system where each person could build a small part of a layout was devised. Eventually the number of modules were 10 straights and 4 corners, this was cumbersome to assemble and dismantle at a club evening, to this end two end return loops were built to give more flexible options. In 2005 the club decided to hold its first ever exhibition, something the club has continued to do every year, each year our exhibitions continue to grow.  

Club Members 

The club now have over 26 members who regularly attend club nights.

Exhibitions

Both the clubs layouts and members layouts attend many exhibitions over the country each year.