News and Events Page
This page details previous events, for details of scheduled forthcoming events please see our open days page.
Blue Pullman Visit
Today Bentley Miniature Railway was visited by The Blue Pullman. This unique Petrol Hydrostatic driven train manufactured by Mardyke Miniature Railways in 2006 did a number of laps despite the day being wet and windy. We hope to see it again later in the year.
Brighton Modelworld 2008
Modelworld brought all the fun of the fair to the Brighton Centre in February 2008, as part of the celebrations for 30 years of Modelworld. Aside from Daleks trying to hijack the trains, the weekend went well including our interactive guards van and daily running by Rhian, Doreen and the Metropolitan Electric.
Uckfield Steam Gala Day
To celebrate 40 years since the closure of the Uckfield-Lewes railway line the Wealden Line Campaign held a gala day at Uckfield Railway Station on 8th September 2007. Despite the late cancellation of 'Tangmere' the event was surprisingly popular and gave 'Baby Bentley' a third event to attend this year on behalf Uckfield Model Railway Club and Bentley Miniature Railway.
Uckfield Festival Big Day Out
The club again had a stand at the Uckfield Festival with "Baby BMR" in operation and Bluedog as a static exhibit.
Nutley Village Fete 2007
We again attended the Nutley Village fete with both our portable track, using Bluedog and "Baby Bentley". Sadly the event was spoiled by the worst weather for over 20 years.
Brighton Modelworld 2007
February 2007 saw us take our portable track to the Brighton Centre, the locos attending this year were:
Rhian - 71/4 narrow gauge steam loco
Metropolitan Electric - 7 1/4 standard gauge electric
Hymek - 7 1/4 standard gauge electric
The stand ran East-West as opposed to the common South-North direction and included some additional engineering exhibits.
St. Peters & St. James Hospice 2006
A new event for the club timed to replace the traditional running at The Uckfield Festival. This local Hospice has been supported by the club for several years and this year we took it one step further by running as part of their summer fair. The track was approx 100ft in length and again featured the loco 'Bulldog Spirit'. A few photos of the event are shown below.
Nutley Village Fete 2006
Saturday 24th June 2006 saw our club portable track exhibited at the Nutley Village Fete. Our motive power was again provided by our longstanding exhibitonist, 'Bulldog Spirit', which was kept busy running, in the heat, on probably the clubs longest portable track configuration for some years, in excess of 200ft in length. We also had Baby Bentley which at times had even more people watching it than queing up waiting for a train ride. A small collection of photos taken during the day are ashown below.
Inclement Weather!
Whilst Bentley normally benefits from a very pleasant eco-climate, everywhere can suffer at the hands of mother nature, as a little light relief, below are a couple of photos taken after a particularly heavy storm in late May which despite all our drainage efforts led to water levels above the rail head. Thankfully it was the right type of rain and so services continued unabated.
Brighton Modelworld
As has become a recent tradition, we took our portable track and a collection of locos including:
Lorna
Bill Powell
Dock Shunter Jenny
Beyer Peacock HYMEK
to the Brighton Centre over the three days 17th-19th February 2006 to offer public passenger rides in an unusual 'C' shaped track formation..
This was also the first public display of the modelling
sections new '00' layout "Netherhall & Fletching", which
was on display alongside the portable track.
For details of previous events, please see our archive.