About Us

Originally formed in January 1945, the Chingford & District MEC has now become a local icon in its own right, remembered fondly by many adults who rode on our trains in their youth. Our first train ran in Ridgeway Park on the 4th August 1945 on a portable track assembled by the members all day proving to be a great success. The club then set about building our first permanent track (the raised track) in 1947 which proved once more to be a hit with the local kids.  After seeing the success of our first track we decided to build another, and in 1995 the ground level track was opened for passenger service. The club has participated in many “Chingford Days” throughout the years and on a particularly busy one in 1952 the club was visited by none other than Mr Walt Disney who had heard of our reputation and wanted to come along and check out the railway for himself!

Since the completion of our second track, we have continued to build onto our facliities and are still doing so to this day! Our ground level track is full of things that are found of the full sized railways such as a fully functioning signal box  that controls all the points (switches) and signals on our railway. The lever frame used was aquired from the London Underground - a true piece of railway heriatage! Despite our already impressive infrastructure, we contiue to develop our facilities and build on them to ensure that our railway runs as smoothly as possible and that our railway is the best that it can possibly be! 

From hosting American billionaires to featuring on Blue Peter with members of the British Royal Family, the Chingford and District Model Engineering Club has done it all! Our members are incredibly proud of our heritage and are only too keep to share our history with you! If you would like to learn more about our heritage, you can watch this video by our Chairman Mr Roy Berg on the Chingford Historical Society's Youtube channel where he covers the entire club history up untill the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.