Eltham Model Railway Club
About EMRC
The Eltham Model Railway Circle was formed in 1980, when past president Chris Rogers,
realising a lack of a model railway club in the northeastern suburbs of Melbourne, advertised in
the Diamond Valley News, for a gathering of all those people interested in the hobby. The
enthusiastic response resulted in the formation of the club. At first meetings were hold in various
members' homes, but eventually the club moved into its permanent home in a refurbished section
of a fruit packing shed on the orchard property of one of the members. Work then commenced
on a portable exhibition layout, a small end to end layout, that only saw one public showing. Late
in 1982 the members decided to build a larger permanent one, into which it was decided to
incorporate sections of this exhibition layout.
The railway has progressed to a fully operational layout. By the Mid 1990's the club began construction of
an exhibition layout commenced. The exhibition layout had it's first public Showing at the Strathmore Model
Railway Exhibition held over Augest 1999.
The year 2000 has seen "Murrranbilla" exhibited at the Corio and Hobson Bay exhibitons - and the layout was well
recieved. The club layout also grows as well as we continue to operate and enjoy the layout.
The Eltham Model Railway Circle , with both a large permenant layout, and a exhibition layout
has a bright future and we look forward to continue our hobby.
We have changed our name , not a big change but significant -
From the Eltham Model Railway Circle to the
ELTHAM MODEL RAILWAY CLUB
The club continues it's exhibition showing, but the latest big news occured in September 2005 when we found out
we had to move on, the landlord wanted to redo the sheds, and we had to go. We have October to run the layout,
the November we destroy/salvage it, so we are out by December. We have had great relations with
the landlord, and we know how hard it was for him to tell us. Well we are looking for a new clubroom.....
January 2006 saw us move into some temporary clubrooms that the Nillumbik Council kindly found for us. The new
club rooms also brought three new members into the club. Apart from running and working on the
exhibition layout, club members have been busy making many things in our workshop room. Members have
done sparay painting, weathering, coach detailing, trestle makeing, kit building, layout design, etc.
In 2007 We are still around. We still participate in model railway shows. Two more memeber have bolstered our numbers,
making the move very positive. We are slowly working through the planning for a NEW exhibition layout, which will
be more ambitious and larger than our current one.
This year we have taken on a project getting a donated Model layout to a Special Needs house working.
We still meet every Monday, and you are welcome to pay us a visit !