Club Activities

Monday 'Open Running'

Monday's 10am - 4pm

On Monday's the club has an 'open running' session that is more social and less structured than the formal operating sessions conducted at our Scheduled Running sessions (Thursdays) or Switch List operations evenings.

Socialise with like minded railway enthusiasts, run trains 'ad-hoc'.

This is a chance to run your equipment (engines and rolling stock) or the club's, in trains of any length and makeup, with few operational constraints other than the practicalities of managing passing trains.


Thursday Evening Club Sessions

Thursdays 7pm - 10pm

Thursday evenings are the main club night, with varying activities each month, ranging from

  • Maintenance Nights - track cleaning and repair, layout maintenance, including signal installation and testing
  • Films and Videos - a social night with train films, often shot by club members
  • Scheduled Running - timetable based operations with train crews, station masters, and train control
  • ​​​​​​​Unscheduled Running - informal operations.
  • Clinics - several times each year, we arrange for experts in particular areas to come and take a clinic on their particular bent, be it DCC, back drops, operation, scenery, etc. 
  • Layout visits - A few times each year, we organize to visit some of the many layouts hiding around Auckland, be they American, NZR, or British.

Our large, well detailed club layout  supports both lengthy runs and intricate shunting challenges. If you have not operated trains in a realistic manner and would like to do so we'd be very pleased to introduce you to this aspect of our hobby. New members can pair up with 'old hands' and have a stress free introduction to the pleasures of timetable running and doing 'useful work' on the railway.

Had enough of work? Just want to run trains... then Unscheduled Running nights, and the informal Monday sessions give you the opportunity to run club or your own trains and rolling stock.

The club layout is DCC, utilising MRC equipment. The club owns MRC DCC throttles (wireless or wired) which you are welcome to use, or you may bring your own MRC throttle to the club.


Switch List Operations Nights

Monthly, on a Tuesday evening from 7:30 pm

Switch List operations are run to provide maximum operational engagement for a train crew with shunting duties managed from individual 'switch lists'. The switch lists nominate which specific waggons are to be collected or dropped off at specified stations or shunting tracks. The train crews work with Station Masters to manage  their duties. Station Masters work with Centralised Train Control to manage traffic between  stations.

Where 'Scheduled Running' (see the Thursday night description) provides some shunting activities it is oriented to moving trains across the network to a schedule. In contrast Switch List operations are the detailed movements of trains and waggons to a plan. Crews move their trains to their next location of operation after completing the work needed at their current location.

The club uses JMRI software to manage the waggon locations and create the switch lists.

​​​​​​​Interested in participating or observing?Contact the club for the next evening, or check the Events section for the calendar entry.