About the club

The Glasgow & West of Scotland MRC was one of the original four model railway clubs in Scotland founded in the early 20th century. The earliest recorded reference to the club is in the Railway Journal in 1935. We did meet one of the original members of the club in the early 1980s at an exhibition in Edinburgh.

The club is a friendly club, whos aims are to build and exhibit layouts to the best possible standard. We were one of the founding members of the Association of Model Railway Societies in Scotland (AMRSS) which organises one of the UK's premier model railway exhibtions, Model Rail Scotland at the SECC every February, and one of three clubs who organise the Cathcart Model Railway Exhibition every October.

Fraser Ross, a former member of the club who provided much of the information on the club's history, gave a list of members who were prominent in the 1960s and 1970s. These were:

Bill Sanderson, Bill McMillan (Owner of McMillan Models), John Brown, George McArthur (Caley George), James McGinty, Graham McLachlan, Neil Clark (NB Neily), Bob Alexander and others.

Originally the club was not an open club, you had to be invited to join. The club modelled in those days in purely 4mm fine scale being Gem Weldcut, using code 75 rail and all the points being handbuilt. One of the earliest references to the then group in the press was the announcement of a model railway exhibition to raise money for the Rotary Club. It was held and underwritten by the late Billy McMillan with:

Glasgow & West Of Scotland MRG
Edinburgh & Lothians MRC
Eastbank School MRC &
Kirkintilloch Miniture Engineering Society (Later to become Kirkintilloch MRC).

The Exhibition was a major sucess.

After changing from Invite only in the 1970s, the club produced a two level layout of 30 foot by 12 called "Earnbank". This layout featured in the Railway Modeller of Jan or Feb 1970 or 1971. (Do you have this edition. If so, please get in touch). This layout was the largest around at the time, and took a great deal of concentration to operate. Both levels had a double track mainline and goods yards, with the bottom level having a station with 2 through lines and a bay platform. Much of the point work was hidden, and it was regular for one of the through express trains to be routed to the bay platform and demolish everything in sight!. Where the two levels met, was knicknamed the plough field. What it actually was, was a double junction with insulated pointwork, controlled by signalling. Remember, this was before the wonder of Electronics, and many trains where helped by with a wink and a prayer. Ironically, Earnbank was scrapped before it was published in the Railway Modeller. 

At the exact same time, another magazine, this time Model Railway Constructor, published an article on the construction of the clubs new branch layout called "Kirkton" with photos provided by Fraser Ross who provided much of this information. Kirkton reached new heights in fine scale modelling, and was considered one of the finest layouts in Scotland at the time, featuring for the first time ever, working lower quadrant signals. The layout was last seen in the early 1990s at an exhibition in England, still with the same electrical fault it had when it was sold.