David Boyde – An Appreciation
David Boyde 1940 – 2016 By Dick Billington During his working life David was heavily involved in the Oil Industry and amongst his many pursuits he obtained his Private Pilot’s and Instructor’s Licence; he also had a deep love of steam locomotives. This unrequited love for steam meant that shortly after he retired David joined…
Summerfields Miniature Railway Hosts MENCAP Playscheme
B.M.E.S. recently welcomed the children and their helpers from the Bedford MENCAP Playscheme for two days of riding on our railway. The scheme runs for three weeks at the beginning of the summer holiday period and provides an opportunity for children and young people with learning disabilities to take part in fun activities and trips. The…
BMES Visitor Rally Weekend 2016
Annual Summerfield’s Visitor’s Rally The Bedford Model Engineering Society is holding its Annual Visitors Rally at the Summerfield’s Miniature Railways, to be held over the weekend of Friday, 2nd to Sunday, 4th September. Again we extend a cordial invitation to fellow model enthusiasts from other clubs to join us for a weekend of miniature railway…
May Bank Holiday
By Tony Bullock Sunday 1st, May dawned bright and club members assembled to prepare for a day of running trains for the public. A queue of happy families were soon awaiting the first train whilst steam was being raised. All was ready to go and the first train departed at 10:30am. With four locos in…
A Lifelong Love of Steam
By early days BMES member, Trevor Barber My early days were in Kings Place, Bedford, just across the road from the Bedford Hitchin Line and all the sidings and junctions. My grandfather was chief Ganger on the Bedford Hitchin track which entailed a lot of weekend maintenance on the line. My earliest memories go back…
Summerfield Miniature Railway 2016 season begins
Report by Tony Bullock Easter Sunday saw the opening of the railway for the 2016 season. The day dawned fairly bright but breezy and several families arrived promptly for the first train in spite of losing an hour’s sleep as the clocks went forward. With four locos in steam and two non-steam available all boded…
Bedford MES Supports Local Macmillan Group
Norma White (on the right, above) of Haynes formed the Haynes & District Macmillan fundraising group 2 ½ years ago. Since then they have grown to seven active members and have established themselves in surrounding villages, attending several events to which they have been invited back each year. Bedford Model Engineering Society supported the team’s efforts last year, when they had a stall at…
Santa Specials 2015
December 5th. dawned with a grey very windy day and some anxious phone calls were received asking if Santa would be at the Summerfield Miniature Railway. However, by 10 am Santa had arrived at his Grotto and was awaiting his first visitors. Accordingly the first train departed with a blast on the whistle and in…
Santa Specials 2014
On the weekend of 6th. and 7th. December families started to gather at Haynes to ride Summerfields Miniature Railway to Santa’s Grotto. Santa was reported to be in residence from 10am and steam was being raised at Haynes End in readiness for the first train departure. With a blast on the whistle the first families…
A Good Start
The public running season is now well into its stride with 8 running days already completed. The good news is that for most of them the weather worked in our favour and there was plenty of activity, enough indeed to put a smile on our Treasurer’s face. The May holiday weekend was however a little…