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ABOUT THE CLUB
Who Are We?
In 1994 St. James Methodist Church was in the throes of raising money to pay for its newly built extension hall and other rooms.
One of the initiatives at that time was to hold a model railway exhibition. Tom Lowton undertook to organise the exhibition and asked
for the support of various friends in the modelling hobby. One person who agreed to help was Colin Oldfield, who is a churchwarden with the nearby St. Ann's Church.
The exhibition was a resounding success and plans for the 1995 follow on exhibition were being immediately spoken about.
During the early months of 1995, whilst finalising the arrangements for the coming exhibition, thoughts were leading to the
possibility of forming a model railway club in Rainhill.
After much time dillying and dallying (which I'm told we men do a lot of), Colin's wife Mary prompted us to advertise our intentions in the show's programme.
The show was another overwhelming success and we collected the names of 25 people in our area that demonstrated interest in the formation of a club.
Where Are We?
On Monday 15th May 1995 we held our first meeting at St. Ann's Parish Rooms (now the new Millennium Centre) and continued to meet on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of each month.
We started to construct two layouts and enthusiasm grew in strength, necessitating meeting on every Monday. Our membership has grown rapidly (now 50, including 10 youngsters and 4 ladies and backed up by a waiting list), that we do not need to advertise for members, which is a testimony to our friendly, sociable approach to modelling.
When do We Meet?
In 1998 we took the bold step in obtaining our own permanent premises at Prescot Leisure Centre, where we have the luxury of secure permanent accommodation for our modelling projects along with a modellers' room and video and book library. We now meet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in order to maximise our investment in the new premises.
After a number of years exhibiting at St.James' Hall, we moved to the newly renovated Rainhill Village Hall where we now hold annual Christmas & March exhibitions. We have also been party to raising over £2000 for charitable concerns such as Christian Aid, Lifeboats, NSPCC, Willowbrook Hospice , BBC Children in Need etc., and will continue to do so.
The members and committee would like to put on record our thanks to a number of people and organisations that have and continue to support us. We are grateful to St. James' Methodist Church, St. Ann's C.of E Church, Rainhill Railway & Heritage Society, Prescot Town Council, Rainhill Village Hall, Harry Whitfield, Dave Mash and finally the members and their wives and husbands (yes we do have a few ladies in our club to keep us in order), for their friendship, support, understanding and varied interests in railway modelling that has made the club the great success that it has proved to be.