Liverpool and West Lancs. ‘O’ Gauge Group was originally formed in 1956 as the West Lancashire ‘O’ Gauge Group, at about the same time as the Gauge ‘O’ Guild, to which it is affiliated. (The Guild was formed to promote 7mm : 1 foot scale (‘O’ gauge) railway modelling, nationally and internationally, which was then declining owing to the development of smaller scales, considered more suitable for building layouts in ‘compact’ modern houses.) A link to the Gauge ‘O’ Guild is provided via the logo, below.
The West Lancashire group was set up as a regional single-scale society in order to concentrate and capitalise on the particular advantages of ‘O’ gauge, which has seen a considerable resurgence in more recent times. After 50 years, the Group had to move out of its original premises based in the leafy north-Liverpool suburb of Crosby (owing to demolition for redevelopment) and now has excellent accommodation just 3 miles north of Liverpool city centre (not far from ‘The Mons’ pub).
Clubroom meetings are generally held each week on Wednesdays and Fridays between 7.30pm and 10pm (approximate times.)
For members who have difficulty getting to the clubroom, a Zoom meeting is held most months on the first Monday from 8pm-10pm.
When formed, the club was, indeed, in the west of Lancashire. (A mile further west and it would have been in the Irish Sea!) Since then (and without any action required), in 1974 it found itself in the newly-created county of Merseyside. More recently, the linking of Halton borough, covering Runcorn and Widnes (technically still in Cheshire), with the existing five boroughs of Merseyside, now places the group in the administrative area known as ‘Liverpool City Region’. Consequently, our historical name was changed to include ‘Liverpool’ in the title, to reduce potential confusion over where the group is actually located, since the western side of Lancashire now extends from the eastern boundary of Merseyside right up to the southern edge of the Lake District.
Our logo features the class 777 EMU, rolled out by Merseyrail in 2023 and used around the Liverpool and West Lancs. area.
Now that you’ve learned how we got here, why not visit our layouts pages to see what we now run, or the news page for the latest announcements?
Liverpool And West Lancs. ‘O’ Gauge Group 
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