During 1965 the local church asked if any church member had a model railway layout to show at the annual church fete to add more variety.
Several church members had layouts and a small layout was shown at the fete and from the interest shown it was felt it would be a good idea to run a small railway exhibition on its own to aid church funds.
This first show was as a one day exhibition on September 18th 1965 with just five small layouts and a film show and a surprise to everyone over 1000 people attended with £45 raised for church funds.
Admission was 1/t (5p) adults 6d (2 1/2 P) children.
Three more shows were held during 1966 1967 1968 and interest in model railways was on the increase and several visitors to the shows asked if they could join the original group.
Because of these requests a meeting was held on the 9th October 1968 open to anyone with an interest in railways and this meeting decided to form a club who need not be church members and this resulted in 34 members joining. it was agreed to call the group the St. John's (Mickleover) model railway group with meetings held on alternate Fridays in the church hall with an exhibition held on Friday evening September 13th and Saturday 14th 1969 all day.

The club continued using the church hall with all the time looking to see if premises were available around the Mickleover area but to no avail.
The church hall had a disadvantage as the layouts had to be unpacked and then packed away after each meeting with not  a lot of running time in-between but as we could not find any other suitable place we had no choice but to carry on using it.
During 1989 an opportunity came to lease a part of the old Mickleover school. This was a separate building  and although a lot of work needed to be carried out the club members set to and we moved into our own clubroom late 1990.

The work to covert the building to suit our purpose including a complete rewire, a library and toilet. We still hold a annual exhibition in Mickleover during the autumn with members showing their own layouts with also the clubs own layouts.
 In 1982 Derby city council wanted to stage a model railway exhibition in the assembly rooms this being the main theatre and exhibition centre in derby and the club were asked if we would help.
Some members did and from this first show the annual Derby Model Railway Exhibition has become one of the premier shows in the country.
 

The Club meets on Tuesday and Friday nights from 7.30 pm in the clubroom at the back of Mickleover school (now the community centre) and has layouts in English OO finished and N gauge and O gauge under construction so if you are interested you are welcome to come along on a club night or contact our Chairman Mr S North on 07773437857.