Opening Times

The Club meets every Monday (Excluding Bank Holidays although a few hardy members may be there - please check in advance) & Wednesday between 7.00pm and 10.00pm. 

Aims/Activities

The general aim of the club nights is to construct / complete the club layouts in readiness either for our own exhibition or to take to other clubs' exhibitions. Matters relating to the administration of the club and maintenance of the building are normally resolved at the monthly committee meetings.

Do not think you have no pertinent skills - every member can contribute to the club in some way - we can all learn from each other, irrespective of age. If you do decide to join us, hopefully both parties will benefit and we can all acquire new skills.

There is, however, always the opportunity to just run models or generally socialise. We try and make the club as friendly as possible and any new recruits are guaranteed a friendly welcome. Nobody is forced into joining immediately: you are welcome to come down and have a look around before deciding to whether to join us or not. Why not come and see us.

The current subscriptions are as follows:
Full Membership 

Adults £70.00 (Under 18's Free with a responsible Adult)

Associate Member £30.00 (12 Visits to the Club per year, no polo shirt, no voting rights, free entry to Club Events)

We try and keep the subscriptions low in the hope of introducing new members and maintaining an interest in both Railways and Model Railways within the Calderdale area. We are a member of the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society who have a range of trips and events: all our members are eligible to attend.

Photo © National Railway Museum and SSPL

We are a friendly bunch and membership details can be found here.

Annual Subscriptions

Full Membership 

Adults £70.00 (Under 18's Free with a responsible Adult)

Associate Member £30.00 (12 Visits to the Club per year, no polo shirt, no voting rights, free entry to Club Events)

Come visit us at our Clubhouse

5 Deal Street
Halifax
West Yorkshire
HX1 1QX

Link to google maps

Our Club History

Towards the end of steam on British Railways, three old work colleagues met in the end gangway of a coach on one of the "Oliver Cromwell" hauled steam tours.
They were Brian Cain, Kenny Bushell & Gordon Milnes.

The train was overbooked and so the end gangway was the only place left. They began talking about the lack of a society in Halifax for people interested in railways.
Through later meetings, along with other friends, they decided to place an advert in the local paper, the Halifax Evening Courier, asking for people with an interest in railways & railway modelling to attend a meeting in the lecture room at Boothtown Methodist School.

The Methodist School was chosen for the meeting as they had a fixed screen for film shows. During the first few meetings films and slides were shown at alternate meetings, funded with a silver collection.

Once the attendances had grown to about thirty, it was decided that the society should have a proper title and aims and, after a long discussion the title of THE HALIFAX MODEL RAILWAY CLUB was decided upon, dropping reference to general railway interests.
The first officers elected at that meeting were Gordon Milnes, Eric Mallinson & Brian Cain.
Premises were the next consideration and these were found in a flat, over a Fish & Chip shop, in the Ovenden area of Halifax. The rooms in the flat were not the largest in Halifax, so the first layouts to be built were constructed to fit. This was not too bad for the N-Gauge. However, the OO-gauge layout was very cramped, comprising a loco shed on a high level, with a main line leaving a tunnel from under the shed to a fiddle yard at the back, the fiddle yard being the imaginary station. This allowed us to run main line trains in a very limited space.

For various reasons, it was decided that we should move to premises nearer the town centre and our first move was to another flat above the historic Borough Market.
After a short stay, the club moved yet again; this time to the first floor of an old mill owned by our president, Terry Honour. Here for the first time the club was able to construct larger layouts in all gauges, something it had always attempted to do; for the simple reason that very few modellers have the space at home to run scale-length main line trains.
By the dawn of the Eighties the club was again outgrowing its premises. The hunt was on for larger rooms resulting in our purchase of the club's present home in 1984.

The club's first exhibition was in the Elizabeth Room of the Civic Theatre, Halifax during 1973; the main exhibit being from the Hyndburn club.

This brief plotted history has been done by the current members of the club, so if anybody has any further information including dates or corrections to the above then we would be very pleased to here from you.

This image by David Greaves

OPEN DAY

We are currently working towards holding an Open Day later this year (2022) to be held at our Clubrooms, 5 Deal Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 1QX

(Location Map)

No Admission Charge but Donations would be appreciated.

Why not come along and see what we get up to and chat to the members about any aspect of the club, you never know you could become hooked and end up joining us.

ANNUAL CLUB DINNER (Members Only)

2022: TBC

For further Information please contact Peter Burke

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (Members Only)

LOCATION: The Clubrooms, 5 Deal Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 1QX

DATE : Monday May 8th 2023
TIME: 7:45pm
Members Only

Committee Cycle 2022/2023

Location : Committee Room, Clubrooms

Time: 8:00pm

April 11th 2022

June 13th 2022

August 8th 2022

October 10th 2022

December 12th 2022

February 13th 2023

April 17th 2023

Club Exhibitions

It is with regret we have decided to cancel our 2022 exhibition.

We hope to be back in 2023. 

(c) Halifax Courier

It is with regret that we have decided to cancel our 2022 exhibition.

 

We hope to be back in 2023. 

Welcome to the Halifax Model Railway Club. Please feel free to have a look around or maybe visit us on one of our Club Nights. Our Clubs nights are every Monday(except Bank Holidays) and Wednesday.

More details can be found here.

Club Nights