Since its founding in 1948, our club has had to made do with temporary locations and vunerable to the site owner requiring the land back. It was just such an event that left us for most of the 90's without a permanent track. However, in 1999 we teamed up with Budmouth Technology College and now have a secure track location and Club house facilities.

The first track built at the college was an oval around the Main Technology Block with a passing loop and 5 steaming bays coming off a turntable. The track bed was made up of a number of different materials as it works it way round the building as lessons were learnt. The materials range from tarmac, to stone ballast and finally, a concrete base. Pictures of this first track can be found by clicking on to the link Archive of original track being built.

However in 2009 the college rebuilding programme required us to move the track to a new site within the grounds. These photos chart the progress of the redevelopment. A simple100 metre oval with both 5" and 7 1/4" tracks and steaming bays was initailly set up but once the all-weather football pitches were compeleted, the club was given the all clear to run the track between these and the college perimeter fence. Once at the end of the football pitches, the track was designed to loop round and return back parallel to the out track. This track was to be laid on stones.

On Saturday 30th September 2012 the Club Chairman announced that at exactly 16.00 hrs the track was completed and with great fanfare,the Budmouth electric loco did a lap of honour with John Clark at the controls.  It was actually more like ten laps of honour with each of the members present, getting a ride on the flat wagon behind. Work in now underway to iron out the humps and dumps.

Alas the celebration was short lived as some local householders had complained about the noise made by the 5-a-side footballer. As a result it was decided by 'those in the know' that an 8ft wooden fence would solve the problem. This decision meant that one lenght of the straight had to be move 2 feet across to allow clearance for the fence. This move was completed in March 2013. We now believe we have finally got a new club track.

We now have a permanent club track that we can be proud of brought about by the hard work of the club membership driven on by the tireless efforts of John Clark.

The pictures below show the stages of development but do not show the wind and rain! (click on images to see larger versions)

THE TRACK IS FINALLY FINISHED - MARCH 2013

RIDE THE TRACK by clicking 'here'

DEVELOPMENTS (Jun 2012)

DEVELOPMENTS (Jun 2011)