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WELCOME to the home of the Lawrence Model Railroad Club. We are a growing group of model railroad enthusiasts both young and old and welcome visitors and new members. If you are interested in showing up to our next club meeting, please visit the contacts page and email a web admin or the events coordinator. The site is always being updated to so check the news page for any new updates.

We are on YOUTUBE from the 2011 show. Check it out HERE


HISTORY:.(a flash back to LMRC's first show)
From Left, LMRC members Carroll Ottinger, Steve Meseraull, vice president Jim Turner, prepare to break down a section of mountain scenery so they can transport it to the club's first Model Railroad Show and Swap Meet at the Douglas County Fairgrounds. The show is open from 9am to 5pm today.
Model railroad hobbyists put on show, swap meet
By Jim Baker
   Saturday, September 22, 2001

Model railroad trains aren’t just for children – Steve Meseraull can tell you that.

Meseraull, 57, is vice-president of the Lawrence Model Railroad Club, which has about 45 members.

“We’ve got people (in the club) from 19 years old up to 76 or 78,” says Meseraull.

Club members think there are plenty of other people in Lawrence who might enjoy model railroading, too.

So today, the three-year-old club will hold its first Lawrence Model Railroaders Show and Swap meet from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in Building 21 at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds, 21st Street and Haskell Avenue.

            The purpose of the show is really twofold. Club members want to encourage the hobby of model railroading, as well as educate people about the safety issues involving life-size, real trains.

            The show will feature five, large model railroad layouts, four of them brought in by a Topeka railroader club. One of the layouts is a circus theme, complete with a miniature ferris wheel and roller coaster.

            The Lawrence club’s layout is a realistic logging scene with mountains, tunnels, lights, and a town—all created to 1/87th scale.

            The scale of the cars and the engines at the show will be HO, N, and O gauge, Meseraull said.

            The trains on display all have digital chips in them that allow the controller to run two to four engines on the same track and operate them independently.

            “They have horns, sound effects and lighting built into them,” Meseraull says.

            The show will feature 48 model railroad vendors selling different products, as well as a concession stand. There will be drawings for free prizes and clinics on how to build model train backdrops and layouts.

            The cost is $3 for adults and children older than 12. Children under 12 will be admitted free.

            There’s much to like about model railroading, Meseraull says.

            “No. 1, you get recreate Mother Nature, making trees, mountains and water. When people see the layout we’ve done, they’ll think it just looks real.”