The Solihull Model Railway Circle was founded in Olton in 1951, making it one of the oldest model railway clubs in the Midlands, and it is still active today. Some of the first club meetings were held at the Manor House in Solihull. The current longest serving member joined in the late 1960s, but new members are joining all the time. more...

The main objectives of the club are to share and improve knowledge and skills between the members, to produce scenic model railway layouts in different scales and formats and to exhibit to the general public.

The existing members are of widely varying ages, skills and interests, from beginners to veterans. Within the club there are members with experience in loft layouts, baseboard building, track laying, electrics, digital command control (dcc), signalling, locomotive and rolling stock building, detailing and weathering, model engineering, scenery, architectural modelling and civil and military road vehicle modelling.

The club owns two layouts, with plans for more. The main one is Cherwell, which is a scenic OO gauge, 26 feet 6 inches by 10 feet 6 inches, four track mainline with an integral branch line. It features working automatic signals and has largely scratch built buildings. The layout still needs a lot of scenery and buildings work, and has been partially rewired for added reliability. It was built mainly to display scale length mainline trains, those being run reflecting the varying interests of the membership. Trains run are usually British outline, but can come from any part of the UK mainland and from any date between about 1900 to the present day. The layout is usually run on the first Thursday of every month. more..

The club also owns an O gauge continuous run layout double mainline and third line which will is used as a goods line. It is 13 feet across and 29 feet long.  Minimum radius of 6 feet.  This means this layout requires scenery etc… The layout has been built to display reasonable length trains and allow continuous running, those trains being run reflecting the varying interests of the membership. The layout is run on the fourth Thursday of the month and if you are an 'O' gauge modeller we would love to see your models running on our layout! more...

The other Thursday evenings, when there is nothing set are what we call ‘working nights’.  On these nights we work on the layouts, carrying out repairs or upgrades and scenery work. There is no pressure on anyone doing any work (feel free just to come and talk to the other members), but if there is something you wish to learn/do, please just ask! 

Throughout the year we have other events organised annually, these include:

A trip to a model railway or railway location – Free admission to location to members.
Annual ‘Loco Maintenance’ evening – Bring your loco’s along for a service or advice.
Christmas Railway video night – Members only.
Slide show - Open to none members.
More information...