Three generations of the same family are all members of a club where "no one gets judged".
Colin Oldfield, his son Alastair, and grandson Joshua Oldfield are all part of Rainhill Model Railway Club- with Colin "falling in love" with trains at a young age, and starting the club in 1995. One of the main aims of Colin when starting the club, was to make sure everyone is equal and no one feels judged
The 77-year-old told the ECHO: "I fell in love with trains after getting a train set when I was a kid, and I've been in model railway clubs since I was a teenager.
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"When I was younger it was a lot different, if you made a mistake with the build the older members would laugh at you and make you feel unwelcome. So I wanted to make sure no one would feel like that in this club - every one is treated the same and has the same voting rights- whether that's the youngest member or the oldest."
The oldest member of Rainhill Model Railway Club is 89 years old, with the youngest, Joshua Oldfield, just 10 years old. Chairman Colin believes that the hobby not only brings people of all ages together, but also teaches young people valuable skills they can use in life.
He added: "They can learn things that they can then take away into life, I'm not sure what they teach in school nowadays- whether they learn to saw wood or solder a piece of metal- but we teach them and if they make a mistake- they can learn from it.
"Then when they are a bit older they can take the skills and use them for odd jobs around their house and that sort of thing."
For those not involved in model railways, it may be difficult to see the attraction or interest- however for Alastair and Colin, the love for the hobby runs deep. Alastair told the ECHO: "I think for a lot of the members, it can remind them of their childhood, for the older ones- they'd have seen these older trains in person when they were younger, so it's nice to be able to recreate that. It's just the same for younger ones with diesel trains."
The club host an annual exhibition at Rainhill Village Hall, encouraging parents to bring their children along and get involved in model railway building- as well as offering a day of festive fun. 2022 is the first time the exhibition has been held since the pandemic and the club are hopeful that the event will be a success.
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