e-mail: lmrsmembership@gmail.com  

About the Leeds Model Railway Society

 

Membership

Visitors are always welcome to come and have a look around the club rooms, meet current members. We are always open to those who wish to join the club.

For security we do not give the location of the club rooms on line, as layouts and models are sometimes stored there.

Please use the contact page to arrange a visit, or for enquiries about membership.

 

History

On September 1st 1947 a small group of model railway enthusiasts met in a room above the Model Engineering Centre in Wade Lane, Leeds and inaugurated the Model Railway Society ( Leeds ) as it was initially called. After only five meetings at Wade Lane the Society settled down to alternate Monday and Tuesday gatherings in the canteen of the Leeds Model Company, Potterdale Mills, Dewsbury Road, these premises being placed at our disposal by the owner, Mr. R. Rathbone, in return for a nominal charge of one shilling (5p) per week.

The highlight of these first few months was a coach trip to the Manchester Model Railway Society's first post- war Exhibition in the Milton Hall, Deansgate, on Saturday December 20th.

In December, 1949, we had to find alternative premises and a room was obtained in St. Anne's Cathedral Institute where we continued as far as was possible under the limitations of space and the necessity to clear everything away at the end of each meeting. A small Exhibition was staged in November 1950 at St. Stephen's School, Kirkstall, and this gave valuable experience in organisation preparatory to embarking on a full-scale show.

A further change of clubroom in November 1951 found us in Enfield Yard, Sheepscar and from there the first Corn Exchange Exhibition, November, 1952, was organised. Enfield Yard had its disadvantages, and with finances standing at a higher level than ever before due to a very successful exhibition, the opportunity was taken to rent a large ground floor room in Park Street ( on the site of the new Magistrates Courts ), which was destined to be the Society's home for no less than eight years. In that year the Society exhibited a layout at the Festival of Britain celebrations in Leeds.

Park Street was vacated in November 1960, and the Society has operated from a further eight locations before occupying our present premises. Annual Exhibitions were staged in the Corn Exchange until 1985 until the show moved to the Armley Sports and Leisure Centre, and is currently been held at it‘s present location which is the Leeds Grammar School on the A61.