Club History

History of the Bury St Edmunds Model Railway Club

1949: Club founded in Bury St Edmunds as the Bury Model Engineering Club

1951: As all the members were more interested in model railways than anything else club changes its name to Bury St Edmunds Model Railway Club.  The club rooms were in a building on some waste ground behind Maltings on the Mildenhall Rd

1960:  1st club exhibition.  Held in St Georges’ Hall in Bury St Edmunds.  Attended by Rev W Audrey (author of Thomas the Tank Engine) with his Ffarquhar layout.

1961 First of many club Exhibitions held in The Atheneum

1973 Club moves to current club rooms between Woolpit and Drinkstone.  Initially in a single converted chicken shed.

1978 club large permeant layout completed with trackwork that featured on the PECO catalogue cover for some years.

2000 Expansion into room 2 in one half of an old barn on the same site.  Room used for model making and socialising.

2010 Old grain store in the back of the barn converted into room 3 for layout construction.

2010 Annual exhibition revived in Risby Village Hall

2017 Club trip to Dortmund model show

2019 70th anniversary trip to North Norfolk Railway

2022 Club takes its S7 Cobbold’s Wharf layout to the Warley national model rail exhibition at the NEC.  

2023 Annual exhibition in The Guildhall Bury St Edmunds.  Work starts on the new 00 Gauge layout of        Bury Station

2024 Annual exhibition in The Guildhall Bury St Edmunds March 16th and we celebrate our     75th Anniversary with an Exhibition in Bury Cathedral.