SARMA South Australian Railway Modellers Association

27/11/2024

For those of you who miss the layout 'Strathburn', why not visit St John's Anglican Church in Salisbury this weekend for their Model Railway and Hobby Show, to see it in action with its' proud new owners? Entry is just a gold coin donation.

In the meantime, work on our new HO scale layout, 'Wilkins' continues, with the layout having its first outing during the Summer school holidays in January at the Tea Tree Gully Library! (watch this space for updates)

31/05/2024

EDIT: THE LAYOUT IS NOW SOLD, BUT DON'T WORRY YOU WILL SEE IT ON THE EXHIBITION CIRCUIT AGAIN SOON! Thanks to everyone for their interest.

LAYOUT OF A LIFETIME FOR SALE!

If you have the space for it and have always wanted an award winning HO scale layout but don't know where to start, our much loved layout 'Strathburn' could be yours! Measuring 11.5m by 4.5m this setup is just ripe with operating potential whether run as is or modified by the buyer.

Taking its' final bow this year at the June Long Weekend Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition, our club is looking to move the layout on to a good home.

All offers considered and we can arrange setup/instruction at your place. (No, it doesn't come with the trailer or rolling stock, but it does come with a LENZ DCC system and 2 hand controllers).

Please get in touch or talk to our volunteers at the Exhibition!

18/03/2024

Thanks to everyone who supported our Swapmeet yesterday. Our next one will be September 15th, same time same place. If you are interested in having a sellers table, please get in touch and we will make sure you are informed when bookings open!

16/03/2024

Not long now and the doors open for today's swapmeet. All sorts of goodies in our hall today, swing by Avenues College between 10 and 1pm!

16/03/2024

Yes, we know the Swapmeet tomorrow is the most immediate event but there is less than three months now to the June Long Weekend: the Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition will be back and SARMA will see you all there, please stop by 'Wilkins' and say hello!

Tickets are now LIVE for the 2024 Adelaide Model Railway Show. Buy your tickets online before the 2nd of April to score an extra earlybird discount. https://www.trybooking.com/CPWRG

13/03/2024

Wayback Wednesday! 22nd June, 1951, in picturesque Port Lincoln. T class loco T234 stands by the coaling crane in a terrific detail shot.
Narrow Gauge prototypes like this have plenty of character and offer a lot of scope for a modeller to do something different.

You may have seen the South Australian narrow gauge modelled on classic exhibition layouts like 'Terowie North', always worth a second (or third) look.

(George Sweetapple Collection, 20-238-b1058)

10/03/2024

One prototype we don't see as often as we like is Commonwealth Railways. This week, this delightful coach set made an appearance on the layout and certainly makes an impression. Just needs a nice Maroon and Silver GM loco at the head of it....

29/02/2024

Last night's meeting brought with it a fairly exciting moment for our club: our brand new HO scale exhibition layout 'Wilkins' was set up in complete form for the first time. Thanks to an eager team of members the assembly, testing and disassembly went off without a problem. Testing was very encouraging and our intrepid team of layout builders can now proceed to the next step.

Remember, all members are welcome to help out in the building of the layout, whether it is trackwork, electrics, scenery making or more. What better way to learn the skills on how to make your own layouts better?

31/12/2023

SARMA would like to wish all its members, friends and followers a splendid New Year celebration tonight, we hope you stay safe and have a great time!

We are delighted to announce our new HO scale exhibition layout, now christened 'Wilkins', is looking to break cover for exhibiting in 2024. In the meantime there is plenty of modelling to be done across the board, we hope we can encourage a few of you to get involved....

28/09/2023

Do you remember the 2000 class 'Jumbo' Railcars? Its already been 8 years since they stopped running on our network. One of our members is working (slowly) on his N scale set of these and has shared some of his reference photos (sorry HO modellers, we are not aware of any currently available kits for this railcar). Courtesy of State Records SA, from the collection of Mr I Hammond, here are a couple of nice shots of an almost brand new set out and about in 1980.

As a matter of interest, the first photo is on the Gawler line passing the then Penfield branch junction. The signal box was once part of a HO scale construction project by SARMA more than 45 years ago, there are still a few of these on members layouts too!

17/09/2023

Thank you to everyone who visited our swapmeet today, it was absolute chockers in there with a record number through the door! Our next swapmeet will be on Sunday March 17th 2024.

15/09/2023

Only a couple of days to go until the Swapmeet, we hope to see you all there! In the meantime, we had deluge of people contacting us during the Royal Adelaide Show asking us where our Golden Grains layout has gone.

Last year we discovered before the show that the layout had suffered terminal damage from leaks and flooding during the COVID closures, so it was decided it would not be viable to attempt a complete rebuild. A 17 year life was certainly longer than intended!

Happily, many of the buildings were recoverable, and you can see the magnificent 'Noble Judith' ship on our clubroom layout.

We would love to see any photos or videos our followers have taken over the years of the layout.

17/08/2023

A few highlights from last nights' action. A rather nice N scale T1 class (digital sound equipped) was under testing, while over on the HO layout the 'Stonie' with a proper length train and double headed BL class locos hypnotized onlookers. Sadly our photos of the excellent 'Southern Spirit' set did not come out well enough to post!

29/06/2023

We'd like to congratulate our member, friend and previous club President, Brian Woods, on his final day at Junction Models today! We hope as many people as possible can pop in and see him. We'd also like to congratulate Adam and Alex and wish them all the best going forward, there will be plenty of SARMA members coming through as always.

Well done Brian, its been a great 33 years.

28/06/2023

Tonight we are lucky enough to host this eye catching Roco HO scale Dutch Plan V electric multiple unit. Apparantly they are known as "Mat '64" or by the nickname "Apekop (monkey's head)!

22/06/2023

Building a model railway layout from scratch can be daunting if you are a beginner. Luckily, there's' never been a better time to make use of a SARMA membership and join in on the creation of a layout from the ground up. We are currently working on a brand new HO scale exhibition layout. The frames have been constructed, and some of the modules are getting their tops installed.

We will be sure to keep you all informed as to the progress!

12/06/2023

Congratulations to our member James Gauci for his success in the AMRE awards last night. His layout 'West Croydon' took out second place in both the Judging and the People's Choice. A superb slice of South Australian Railways history, what a result for its' first showing at the Exhibition.

If you haven't had a chance to see it, you can still do so until 4pm today!

10/06/2023

First day of Adelaide Model Railway Exhibition is over, what a busy day it was! Standing room only, the layout behaved itself (for the most part). We hope all our visitors had as much fun as we did.

If you couldnt make it down, don't worry there are still two days to go! Meanwhile enjoy the sight of a diverted Overland and a short grain train rolling through Cadell.