A brief history of the club's origins

There has been a bit of discussion between our members and another clubs' recollection of the events that lead to the formation of the "The Ayr Model Railway Group" so it now safe to say the it was formed over thirty years, i.e in the dim and distant past. As most of the original members will now be playing with trains in the great model railway in the sky, we will consign the origins to prehistoric time's (,unless someone knows better.).

The only thing certain is that our first premises were in a single room in the basement of the large Rozelle House, located in Rozelle Country Park, near Alloway (the birthplace of Scotland's National Bard 'Rabbie Burns') on the southern outskirts of Ayr.

As our membership grew, it became necessary for the group to look for larger premises. So in the latter part of the 1970's we relocated to a decommissioning British Army Camp at Dundonald, outside Troon, where we took over the spacious building that had one been the Sergeant's Mess.

This larger space enabled us to develop our layout building skills to their fullest potential. However, 'like Topsy' our membership grew and kept on growing. We eventually moved further north along the Ayrshire Coast, taking possession of an unused British legion Hall in Saltcoats.
After only a few years, in 1991, the Club hall suffered serious flood damage. Fortunately we were able to salvage much of our equipment and we obtained new premises at our present location within the grounds of Eglinton Park, near Kilwinning. As reported last year, we have now replaced the roof of the original structure and live in a nice bright building which can accommodate 3 large layouts.

We have exhibition layouts covering the main gauges modeled in the United Kingdom: O, OO and N, along with an American HO layout..

Ayr Model railway group would like to thank our club member David Davies of "D & F Models", Bell Street, Glasgow for supplying us with much of the materials we've needed for the construction of our layouts.

Last Updated:    10 August, 2010