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Welcome to the Gainsborough Model Railway Society. Established in 1946 with the aim of producing a model railway that followed contemporary railway practice, over the past 80 years we have created one of the largest ‘O’ gauge model railways in the country, depicting the East Coast Main Line from Leeds Central to Kings Cross.

From humble beginnings, the railway has evolved over the years to become the railway you see today. It now covers an area of around 2500 square feet and has over 1200 feet of main line track, filling the Victorian school that became our home in 1953 and that we have occupied ever since.

There are nine stations, three goods yards and six locomotive depots that are manned by ten operators. The railway operates in the same way the real British Railways did in the days of mechanical signal boxes, with each ‘box’ communicating with the next using bell codes and block instruments. The only difference is that the operator is not only a signalman, but the driver as well!

Our locomotives and trains represent those that would have operated by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) between 1923 and 1948 and by British Railways from 1948 to the mid 1960’s. In all, there are over 150 locomotives. Most of the main locomotive types that run during these periods are represented, including the famous Gresley pacifics ‘Mallard’ and ‘Flying Scotsman’, through to the smallest tank engines.

Crack expresses such as ‘The West Riding Limited’ and the ‘Yorkshire Pullman’ can also be seen, as well as humble suburban services using Gresley ‘quad art’ sets and a sentinel steam railcar.

Goods trains run between Ferme Park in London and Decoy yard in Doncaster, with a pick up goods service running from Decoy yard to Retford. Look out for the ‘blue spot’ fish train, with its distinctive white wagons, or see if you can spot the products of ‘Marshall, Sons & Co Ltd’ being transported.

We are open to the public on selected dates throughout the year. You can find our opening times and dates here. You can also watch a collection of visitor and member videos on our YouTube channel.