HISTORYThe club was founded in February 1980, and our first clubrooms were the canteen of a dairy in Union Street, Carluke.
We were aware that this was a temporary arrangement, so whilst we built our first layout, “BOAB’s BRAE ”, we were on the lookout for a new home.
In March 1981 we found it. It consisted of two condemned houses in Cassells Street Carluke, unfit for human habitation, but fine for railway modellers.
Turning these into clubrooms involved rewiring, [whereupon we found that one house was supplied with some of its electricity FOC by its neighbour] knocking down walls, installing a wash-hand basin, etc.
We were there for 15 years, except for a short period in 1984, when we were decanted to a set of offices following a fire in the “Benvenuti” cafe below us.
During our sojourn at Cassells Street we :-
- Held our first model railway exhibition in 1981 in the Scout Hall Carluke.
- Exhibited at Model Rail for the first time in 1982.
- Started “The Festival of Model Railways”, held in Saint Mary’s Hall, Lanark, which ran from 1982 until 1997.
- Ran “Scale Rail Scotland ” from 1995 until 2003 at New Lanark.
- Constructed “CARLUKE , “CARLYBURN ”, “CARDWELL ”, “NAIRDRIE ”, “MACHAN ”, “MACHANHILL ” and “MILLHEUGH ”
- Started the construction of “CANAL STREET ”
Our THIRD clubroom, which we occupied for about 2 years, was an unoccupied shop on Carluke High Street. This proved to be totally unsatisfactory, so we moved out in April 1997.
This move took us to Lanark, where we shared premises with Winston Squash Club until September 2005.
This time instead of knocking down walls, we built a mezzanine!
While here, we completed the construction of “CANAL STREET ”, and started the construction of “HYNDFORD ” and “COATRIGG ”. Unfortunately our enforced move from the squash club meant we had to leave layouts, parts of layouts, timber, wire, jigs and equipment behind.
We were only able to retain three layouts : - “CARDWELL ”, “CANAL STREET ” and “HYNDFORD ”.
Our FIFTH clubroom was a member’s garage in Carluke, where we completed the construction of HYNDFORD.
Our current, SIXTH, clubrooms were made available to us by First ScotRail under their “Adopt a Station” scheme, with the refurbishment funding coming from The Railway Heritage Trust, Awards for All and the South Lanarkshire Rural Partnership Renewable Energy Fund.
This time, WE didn’t carry out the refurbishment; it was carried out professionally by Built 2 Measure. We did the painting.
One person who deserves particular mention is John Yellowlees. John is External Relations Manager at First ScotRail and as such was our main conduit to Network Rail, First ScotRail, and the Railway Heritage Trust.
Depute Provost Mary McNeill performed the official opening on Friday 27 April 2007.
There is more to do to the clubrooms, but that won’t interfere with our layout construction programme. |
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Club History 
