We Visit the Wrexham & District Society of Model Engineers

John Arrowsmith ventures deeper into GWR territory to find a club with a healthy younger membership.

- John Arrowsmith

My next visit in this little series was to the Wrexham & District SME who are located at Gresford near Wrexham on a delightful private site adjacent to a local hostelry. I was given the usual warm model engineers welcome on arrival during their workday lunch break - a mug of tea. The conversations started, followed by a tour of the track and site.

The club have a dual 3½ and 5 inch gauge elevated track with all the usual facilities in a pleasant setting (photos 1 and 2) and an interesting layout measuring about 850 feet, so it is a good run and includes a short tunnel through an old, existing building. A spacious covered steaming bay provides a useful area for locomotives to be prepared. The area surrounding the track is attractively landscaped (photo 3) and adds to the overall atmosphere of the site.

My visit coincided with one of their work days and again it was good to see a 5 inch gauge locomotive and flat trucks being used to move used material and garden refuse around to the disposal area for unloading (photo 4).

The signaling system is a standard colour light arrangement but with a couple of full-size signals present in the system as well (photo 5).

Placed where they are, they fit into the layout very well, all controlled by a simple but nicely built lever frame (photo 6).

A number of track traversers enable good use of the track by allowing locomotives and trains to be moved onto or off sidings without having to disturb any running operations (photos 7, 8 and 9).