It was a cold wintry Wednesday night in February 1986 when a motley bunch of itinerant railway modellers arrived at the gates of Perth Green Community Association in a pink Ford Transit van with the unfortunate name of “Herbert’s Small Tools” emblazoned along the side. Inside were some of the members of the recently defunct Washington Model Railway Club along with a few baseboards, trestles, tools and some track. Thus Perth Green Model Railway Club was born.
Previously the building had been a school and the room we were allocated for our new clubroom had been a science lab so we had to arrange our baseboards on the workbenches avoiding the gas and water taps. There was plenty of storage space in cupboards under the benches for stuff we didn’t have.
As Washington MRC we had held annual model railway exhibitions and decided to continue. After a settling in period we arranged our first show for May 1988. It was our first show and almost our last as we had inadvertently chosen Cup Final weekend and the weather was ridiculously hot. Consequently people either stayed in to watch the football or went to the beach. The show was still a small success as we had invited only local layouts and traders. One of these layouts was from Oxclose MRS and this eventually led to their membership coming to join us permanently after rent at their previously premises became unaffordable. Some members of Oxclose club are still with us as are some of the former members of Washington MRC who were the founder members of Perth Green MRC.
In 2019 we moved our meeting room to the Primrose Community association and renamed ourselves 'The Jarrow Model Railway Club' We held our very successful 2020 exhibition at the Primrose Community association in March of that year just prior to the first Covid-19 lock down.
Since then others have come and gone but membership for the last few years has been around 40. We are lucky to have a thriving younger membership in their teens or early twenties who we hope will eventually take over the running of the club when we are no longer able.
So from that first exhibition in 1988 we have developed our show into one of the North East’s premier exhibitions and now have visiting layouts, traders and guests from all over the country. We pride ourselves on presenting good quality exhibitions. Take a look at our exhibition page to see what we have on offer this year !
Previously the building had been a school and the room we were allocated for our new clubroom had been a science lab so we had to arrange our baseboards on the workbenches avoiding the gas and water taps. There was plenty of storage space in cupboards under the benches for stuff we didn’t have.
As Washington MRC we had held annual model railway exhibitions and decided to continue. After a settling in period we arranged our first show for May 1988. It was our first show and almost our last as we had inadvertently chosen Cup Final weekend and the weather was ridiculously hot. Consequently people either stayed in to watch the football or went to the beach. The show was still a small success as we had invited only local layouts and traders. One of these layouts was from Oxclose MRS and this eventually led to their membership coming to join us permanently after rent at their previously premises became unaffordable. Some members of Oxclose club are still with us as are some of the former members of Washington MRC who were the founder members of Perth Green MRC.
In 2019 we moved our meeting room to the Primrose Community association and renamed ourselves 'The Jarrow Model Railway Club' We held our very successful 2020 exhibition at the Primrose Community association in March of that year just prior to the first Covid-19 lock down.
Since then others have come and gone but membership for the last few years has been around 40. We are lucky to have a thriving younger membership in their teens or early twenties who we hope will eventually take over the running of the club when we are no longer able.
So from that first exhibition in 1988 we have developed our show into one of the North East’s premier exhibitions and now have visiting layouts, traders and guests from all over the country. We pride ourselves on presenting good quality exhibitions. Take a look at our exhibition page to see what we have on offer this year !