A short history of the club

The club was founded as far as we know in the mid 1950's, and has always tried to promote model railways as a friendly and open group pastime. We have had several venues over the years, and when I joined in 1987 the club was located on the top floor in Thornton Hall in Kingsthorpe. Unfortunately we had to vacate the hall due to radon gas being found, and we took up an offer of a place in the Boys Brigade Hall in Duston for a couple of years. We then moved to a Community Centre in Hunsbury Hill for two more years, until we were recently invited back to the Kingsthorpe Community Centre, adjacent to Thornton Hall that we had left previously.

If anyone has more information about our history, I will be pleased to receive it.

We have created a roll of honour for past members which can be found here.

Currently we have available a large multigauge test track from "oo" to G scale, a "n" gauge layout, and a new "oo" gauge project. We are in the process of building a new "O" gauge layout and this will be called "Kingsthorpe."

Les Pace, Club Secretary, 2007

Email from an ex-member

Greetings from Auckland, New Zealand and congratulations on your fantastic website. It makes me feel very homesick for Northampton and Kingsthorpe in particular.

Way back in 1981-1982 I used to be a member of the club when it was based at the very top of Kingsthorpe Hall. There used to be a LMS based terminus layout that I think was either OO or finescale 4mm, which looked awesome and a major club achievement. As I was 14-15 at the time, I was a very insecure modeller and was not at all confident in my modelling skills or having much money to buy locos or stock for my attic based train set/ layout. Next door in a smaller room there was the start of a permanent circuit layout that I guess never went to exhibitions, that I never saw to completion. I fondly remember a few other youngsters like myself, such as Simon Dunkley who was in the year above me at Kingsthorpe Upper School. We used to have a snack from the downstairs servery and marvel at the modelling wonders being constructed by our fellow experienced modellers upstairs.

I left the hobby (as teenagers often do, lured away by the bright lights of pop music, fashion and social stereotyping!), but having emigrated to NZ in 2004 have rediscovered the hobby with earnest. I now buy heaps of N Gauge stock off eBay and get it shipped over to my large N gauge Western region/ Withered arm 1950-60's layout. As NZ homes are considerably larger then the average UK house, I am spoilt in having my own large railway room to operate in.

Seeing your website brought back fond memories of the 80's and a huge thanks for instilling a sense of nostalgia that has been reawakened in my adult years. It is great to see you back in Kingsthorpe, where my parents still live. I would love to become an overseas member of the NDMRC, but I guess that may not be practical!

Thanks for a great website and for continuing the NDMRC as a living entity.

Kind regards,

Andrew Landmann, Auckland NZ.