Blyth & Tyne Model Railway Society is the oldest and largest model railway club in the North East of England.

Below is a video of some of the layouts at our club rooms, our location and opening times.

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Dear all club members, Visiors and supporters

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Yesterday, I asked the committee of the Blyth and Tyne Model Railway Society, (who put on RailexNE), their thoughts about our 2021 Exhibition in July. 

I wanted to know if it was viable from their point of view, before I went ahead and started to finalise the planning over the next few months. 

After a lot of careful thought it was a majority decision that we Cancel RailexNE in 2021.

The reasons behind the decision were varied, but in general the view was that the financial risk to the club is too great. With Social distancing, along with other Covid restrictions that are currentley in place, which may not be lifted sufficiently, even with the roll out of a Vaccine by July.

The club has also experienced a big drop in members attending the club, before the new restrictions came in, after the first Lockdown was lifted. In the region of 50-60% of members hadn't come back or been in contact. Given the age profile of a majority of our members we fear they might not come back.

We now need to concentrate on reopening the Club rooms when permitted, shut since we went into Tier 2 in mid September and rebuild our membership. 

2021 was also to be my last as Exhibition manager, I had informed the AGM last February that I would not be seeking re election at the 2021 AGM (If we can hold it).  

At some point the club will be in a position to hold another Exhibition, but I cannot see it being on the same scale as RailexNE, as the costs and reduced attendance figures before Covid were getting to the point of us having to look carefully at what layouts were brought in.  

Many thanks for your willingness to attend, stay safe and more importantly Keep modelling

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Lee Davies Exhibition manager