The LMS Society - www.lmssociety.org.uk
The LMS Society was founded in 1963 by a small group of dedicated modelmakers whose main aim was to find out as much accurate and original information as possible about the subject of their interest in the London Midland and Scottish Railway, so as to enable the construction of accurate and definitive models, be they static or working, not only for themselves, but also for the wider modelling fraternity. For those who were so inclined, a subsidiary aim was to discover sufficient information about the working of the LMS so as to allow those who were modelmakers, to operate models in as realistic a manner as possible. This in turn led to a much wider study of the LMS infrastructure, including signalling, road vehicles, architecture, not to mention the significance of the many subsidiary aspects of its inheritance from the pre-grouping constituent companies, all of which followed naturally from the original aims and objectives.
In essence, the Society has never deviated from these initial objectives, and it has always been implicit that any who joined the Society, should, above all, be active rather than passive in terms of contributing towards the fundamental aims. This, in turn, has made it rather inevitable that those who join are either able to contribute to, or willing to research into, the growing pool of knowledge, rather than simply gain passive benefit from the efforts of others. Membership has thus, by definition, remained somewhat restricted in terms of its general approach, though it was not long before individuals with no modelling interests, found the essential "working" character of the Society to be much to their liking and, having made their interests and activities known, were invited to join its ranks.
However, from an early stage, it was realised that this specialised form of membership posed a number of additional problems in terms of disseminating information (once gathered) to a wider public, so a further prime objective of the Society was to make its' growing knowledge available to any and all who were interested, but who were, for whatever reasons, unable to make their own direct input and thus become a member of the Society. This drive to publish information, has mostly, but not exclusively, taken the form of books and articles, of which well more than 1300 examples have, since 1963, been made available to the wider public. Members have also provided advice and information "when this has been asked for" to many of the well-known model making firms seeking to reproduce accurate LMS and pre-group company prototypes.
In addition, the Society continues to offer information and an advisory service to any interested party, insofar as members are able to do so from their own knowledge and information available to them, including references to published material. However, whilst every effort is made to satisfy the needs of the enquirer, there can be no guarantee of immediate success. The principle is that a specific query should be put in writing to the Secretary, either by email or by letter accompanied by two stamped addressed envelopes, one un-addressed so that the query can be forwarded to the appropriate member, and the other self-addressed for the actual reply which will always be offered. All queries and requests for information are included in the Members' newsletter. Even if a precise answer cannot be given, as much information as is known will be provided, along with suggestions as to which other possible sources might be approached.
The LMS Society has never been a "closed" organisation and is always seeking to add to its numbers those who are willing to take an active role in pursuing its aims, but it has not and never will seek to enhance its membership total purely for the purposes of numerical or financial gain purposes. It provides a simple newsletter to keep members in touch between its regular meetings each year, including circulation of requests received for information, the administration of which is contained within a very modest annual subscription, but its principal "modus operandum" has always been to function as a "networking" operation between like-minded individual members, whether it be on the model or prototype side.
In order to facilitate this process, the Society holds regular on-line meetings and also in person at locations which may vary between Scotland and the South West, with at least one visit to a local railway or similar venue.
If you feel you have something to contribute to this essentially two-way process, and that this sort of organisation might suit you, then please let us know something of your railway interests, by contacting the Hon. Secretary in the first instance, or, alternatively, when the Society is exhibiting at an exhibition, please do make yourself known to us
Contact the secretary