The Model Railway Club (Ballyclare High School)
The School was delighted to be asked to display their model of the Doagh narrow gauge branch line for a second time at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum's Model Railway Day at Cultra on 13 November 2004. We received many favourable comments from members of the large crowd attending the event. We continue to meet on Thursday afternoons in Room 114 and always welcome information on the line which closed in 1950.

The Model Railway Society During the course of this year, work has continued on our model of the narrow gauge line, which ran through Ballyclare until the 1950's.

Work on the background scenery is now almost complete, including views of Ballyclare Main Street, Avondale Drive, Doagh and the surrounding countryside. With this work nearing completion we have also moved on to begin construction of scenery on the boards themselves, such as houses, hedges, fields, fences and station buildings.

This phase will hopefully see the completion of stations at Doagh, Ballyclare and Ballynure and an improvement in the overall appearance of the layout. At the same time as improving scenery on the layout, we have also been working on improvements to the electronics (which have always caused problems).

Thanks to these improvements, it is now possible to run engines on three of the five 8'x 2' boards which make up the model, and with any luck the whole layout will soon be functioning normally.

 
Other Modellers at the Exhibition had a model of the Main Line Broad Gauge at Ballyclare Terminus. It was good to see the models of both stations which at one time were in the town of Ballyclare. Sadly this is a little bit of our history that many of our students know so little about. We felt so proud to be from Ballyclare and to let others see that there is a thriving Model Railway in the town.