A bit about our club:

We are a model railway club based near Stevenage in Hertfordshire, formed in 1960’s as the Lea Valley Model Railway Club.

With the outbreak of Coronavirus last year and the subsequent lockdowns, we have been forced to have an extended closure since March 2020. Like many clubs, this has had a very negative impact on our membership, projects, and funds.

However, we decided to turn this unfortunate time to our advantage and take on some work that would otherwise be impossible to help us in the long run and secure the future of our club for decades to come.

Currently, the building for our club is 128 years old and is in dire need of some TLC, internal renovation, and repairs. The majority of this work would usually be impossible whilst the club is open to members without an incredibly long closure.

We are also one of the only clubs in the region to offer a full-circuit O-gauge layout with four complete loops and sidings, accompanied by our operational OO and N gauge layouts. Our O-gauge permanent layout is over 30 years old and, like the club building, is in need of a complete overhaul due to old deteriorating boards, wiring, and track. We hope to completely rebuild the layout prior to any club reopening which will avoid the risk of it failing in the future, leading to long closures again.

We have started to undertake renovation work including strengthening our loft space, reinforcing our buildings tie beam which supports the roof, and making preparations to lay a new solid flooring.

Sadly, we ran into a number of unforeseen issues during the work which means although we can repair issues before they become a bigger problem, it also sank into our existing donations and funds. With support, we still hope to complete more renovation work and projects to secure our club for many more years and ensure we will always have a safe and secure building and working layouts for members, new and old, to enjoy for generations.

Our main aims of the project when we began were to:

• Make our club building more secure and supported.

• Search for any concerns with, and repair & maintain the structure of our building which has previously been inaccessible.

• Make repairs to our club floor and lay a new safer, more hard-wearing surface.

• Upgrade our inaccessible loft space into a usable storage space.

• Completely rebuild our O-gauge layout with new stronger baseboards and track, plus a complete rewire ensuring the layouts operation for the next couple of decades.

• Additions of two OO-gauge and two N-gauge circuits around the club to allow members and visitors to operate models whilst our other layouts are unavailable.

• And finally: To ensure our members and visitors, current and future, have a safe, secure, and welcoming club to continue to enjoy the hobby for decades to come.

Any donations, big or small, to help us achieve our goal would be so gratefully received. We are all keen and passionate modellers and want to keep the hobby and our club alive for future generations to enjoy as we all have for many decades.

Our goal is to raise enough funds to at least offset a fraction of the cost. In the unlikely event we receive more donations than the cost of the project, we will put them towards future projects and supporting the club into the future =)

How will donations reach the club?

Due to being unable to enter the bank details for our clubs donation account onto JustGiving, the donations received will be transferred via myself to the club. I believe JustGiving take a 2.9% cut for each donation, but I will try to off-set that myself where possible so all the intended amount reaches our club =)

From everyone at Stevenage & District Model Railway Club, thank you for any support you can donate to us. We are truly grateful for it and for helping to ensure the future of the hobby.

For updates on the club and the renovation project, you can follow us on facebook:

Club Facebook Page