Our club is 50 years old this year and we are planning some sort of event to mark this occasion. We have not decided what that should be but thoughts are around a combined open day for members from other clubs to bring their steam engines and a public running day with all monies taken going to charity. Watch this space.

We recently had a problem with our new electric engine and although it took Kevin some time to actually find the problem, it turned out to be a rather simple failure of a connector block so the engine is now back in service.

We are always on the lookout for new members so if anyone is interested then please pop down to the track on the first Sunday in any month or pop down to the basement of the Grange community centre at Hurworth on any Tuesday night from about 7pm.
We could do with a few younger members in the club so that our more experienced members can pass on their engineering and driving skills.
With the decline in engineering shops and factories in our area it appears that engineering apprentices are few and far between and it would be a shame to see these skills dry up completely.
Our club is a model engineering club and our members have made a multitude of table top and scale models ranging from clocks, traction engines, hot air engines etc through to complete scaled down, working steam engines.

It must be said that our main focus has been on steam engines because as a self financing club, we have to pay the bills and rent and insurance are quite expensive and running the steam engines at our home ground and at North Road and Shildon allows us a steady income to invest in the club.
All of our events are manned voluntarily and any money taken goes into the running of the club.
You don't need to have an engine to join or indeed any engineering background. We have a fully functioning workshop complete with lathes, shaper, milling machines, rollers etc. and our members will be only too happy to train you in the use of this machinery if you so wish. You can also be trained to drive the electric trains and eventually the steam locos but these are a bit harder to handle and will take a bit of time to master. ... See more

This year is our 50th Anniversary of the club.
I can't give you any detailed information regarding the origins of the club but it seems that a very few like minded individuals got together and formed a model engineering club.
The club had very few members and no money and certainly no steam engines. At some point, it was decided that they would build a track to enable steam engines to be able to run around.
These model engines are quite big and basically too big to fit in a garden unless you have a lot of land.
The initial track and concrete and wood supports were begged, stolen, donated or bought by the original members and the track was built by them.
This was in the days when there were many engineering companies in the area and a lot of mechanical expertise was available.
The track was eventually built from mainly scrap material from discarded or demolished projects where the material was no longer required.
The track performed well for many years but the ageing materials started crumbling away so it was decided to renew the track. A few members had their own engines by this time and to keep the track running, it was decided to split the oval track in half and renew it into two separate sections to allow the other half of the track to keep operating although the engines then had to go half way round and then reverse. A mould was made for the concrete pillars and the members took their turn to turn up at the Grange and mix and pour concrete into the moulds to form the pillars. There are a lot of pillars on our track so this process took an age and the renewing of the track took over 2 years to complete.
What we have today is basically this track with a lot of improvements. ... See more

We are steaming on Sunday 2nd December on our home track at "The Grange Community Centre" at Hurworth from about 10am until 12.30. Hopefully we should be running the new electric train .

The Comsol solder appears to have been successful. The boiler has now had its first pressure test at 2 times working pressure and has passed this test. The cladding, new insulation and fittings have now been refitted and it is now ready for its next test at 1.1/2 working pressure to test the fittings. If this is O.K. then the engine will be rebuilt ready for a steam test. Watch this space. ... See more