The year 2024/2025 was a year of consolidation for the Club. Over the course of the year, three public open days have been held, which were attended by a total of 144 people. Open days prove to be a useful way to highlight the club by demonstrating the hobby and often results in new members joining along the way.
The Club held its annual public model railway exhibition on 7 June 2025 at the Ridgeway Centre in Milton Keynes. This event attracted approximately 1,300 members of the public, 20 Traders and 4 Railway Supporters Groups were represented plus, 24 Exhibitors layouts.
The club also took part at six Bedfordshire Vintage Train Group meetings displaying layouts and helping out at their events. It also ran a Christmas themed layout at the St Mary and St Giles Church in Stony Stratford immediately before the Christmas holiday period where children were invited to operate the layout in return for a small donation towards church funds. These events are always well received and serve to raise awareness of the facilities that the Club has to offer its members.
As well as public community events, Club layouts were exhibited at shows which included: TINGS, Silver Fox, Alsager, TadRail, Northampton, Oxrail, Royston, Watford, and Crewe These events highlight the Club’s layouts to a wider audience and supports the wider community of railway modellers. Club members also exhibited their private layouts at exhibitions but highlighting the Club held at Doncaster, Watford, Milton Keynes (Silver Fox Model Railway Exhibition), International N gauge show at the NEC, Biggleswade, Cambridge, Ashford, and Lydd Vale.
As a further service to its members, the Club manages an extensive collection of books which are available to loan.
In addition to its regular Tuesday and Friday club nights, the Club continues to hold Monday morning meetings which benefits its older members who are able to continue to enjoy their hobby whilst not having to drive at night. These meetings are attended on average by between 5-10 members.
Due to a loan made to the supporting company, Milton Keynes Model Railway Society Limited, the Club recorded a small deficit of £628.93. This was due to problems in accessing the supporting company’s bank accounts, and the need to overcome Barclays Bank’s change of signatory procedures. Because of this, it became necessary to record certain items proper to the supporting company unusually through the Charity’s bank account. This need was drawn to the attention of the Company’s auditor and when the bank account became available, all relevant transactions were transferred to the company account to the satisfaction of the independent auditor. In this period, it was necessary to support Milton Keynes Model Railway Society Ltd (the supporting no profit company) whilst the difficulties mentioned above were resolved, and all monies loaned will be repaid to the charity during 2025/26.
The Club has commenced construction of a new exhibition standard 00-gauge layout which has resulted in increased material costs necessary to bring this about. It has also supported the upgrading of existing club layouts in N and 0 gauges.
A modest increase in rental charges imposed by the landlord on the Club has been offset by reductions in the cost of producing a Club newsletter in hard copy format. Instead, this is now produced and circulated in electronic format resulting in considerable postage cost savings. Despite the financial challenges posed by increased costs, the Club has taken the decision not to increase the subscription rate for 2025/26 due to small increases in its membership base, and a larger than expected surplus derived from its annual model railway exhibition.
The Club remains a healthy and thriving organisation.
Signed Paul Egerton
Trustee Director
19 February 2026
| £2,025.00 Ad-hoc Receipts £273.98 Clothing £52.32 Donations £40.00 Exhibition MKMRS Donation £1,017.00 Members Subscriptions £3,992.00 Refreshments £138.35 Sales of Club Members Stock £160.00 £5,673.65 Cash funds £2,025.00 Cash £23.10 Current Account £14,114.34 Total £14,137.44 |
2024 Income £541.44 £60.00 £4,113.50 £10,265.78 £328.70 £282.00 £15,591.42 2024 £0.00 £14,739.99 £14,739.99 |
£2,025.00 2024 Expenditure Clothing £415.00 Donations £200.00 Exhibition Advertising & Website £116.50 £55.00 Fixtures and Fittings £26.38 Furniture & Tools £36.37 £271.00 Insurance £304.11 £692.47 Layouts £130.88 £609.49 Loan to MKMRS Limited £2,174.63 £4,391.60 Newsletter £19.30 £100.35 Refreshments £109.98 £137.91 Rent £3,348.00 £10,593.00 Stationery £36.43 £47.00 £6,302.58 £17,465.82 Surplus/Deficit for theyear -£628.93 |
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