About The Society

The Walton-on-Thames Transport & Model Enthusiasts Society (WoTTMES) is a place for those interested in any mode of transport and/or model making/engineering and arranges group outings throughout the year to different heritage centres, preserved railway lines, working museums, exhibitions, etc. that are in some way linked to the world of transport or model making/engineering.

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As well as these get togethers WoTTMES also runs a yearly exhibition of its own.

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Through this new website (and its planned expansions) and the social media platforms it is hoped that over time the society will be able to offer help, support and guidance to anyone new to these interests as well as being an exciting community for long term enthusiasts.

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The origins of the society began back in 2015 with a couple of, then, 14 year olds. Gellért Kiss and a friend thought about having a one off model railway exhibition in Hersham, under the name of Hersham Train Exhibition.

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Although there were some difficulties, the show turned out to be very successful with many of the shows exhibitors urging Chris Rice and Gellert to continue the exhibition again the next year and look at it becoming an annual show.

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Shortly after the second show Harrison-Brown Models offered to sponsor the third exhibition. Due to it being an exam year neither Chris or Gellért could comit to a fourth show but after talking with both Adrian Harrison (Harrison-Brown Models) and Neil Jackson (Heritage in Motion) they agreed to step in as acting exhibition managers. 

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As with previous years the exhibition was successful and with Gellért's aim to enlarge the exhibition for the future it was decided to create a group of some kind. Due to the distances between the 4 of them, and people immediately interested in joining, a fixed regular meeting point would prove difficult so after research and many discussions the Walton-on-Thames Transport & Model Enthusiasts Society (or WoTTMES for short) came into being in late 2019 with the aim of members getting together at various outings held at locations of interest. 

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Just like the exhibition, the society has received a lot of attention and now has members & supporters from across Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex, etc. (and interest from overseas) and has been on outings and had exhibits attend shows .

 

If you’d like to find out more about joining the society, please click here