The HO Model Engineers Society was formed in February 1948, and for the first five years met at members' homes. In 1953 the club started a 10' x 20' scale model railway in the basement of the Mary-Mar Dairy Bar at Main Street East and Park Row in Hamilton. Late in 1955 the club moved to the basement of a member's parents' home in Aldershot, then in May 1956 to a two-car garage on Gage Avenue North at Beach, where a much-improved layout was built. This was a 15' x 20' layout built on a dirt floor, with the interior walls covered with ten-test. There was no insulation, so it was very hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. Current member Ken Byrne, who joined in 1948, says of the Gage Avenue layout, "I had the honour of designing the worst bowl of spaghetti ever seen for a layout."

On June 7th, 1960, the club moved once again to the basement of Booth's Hobby Shop on Concession Street on Hamilton Mountain, where they stayed for 20 years. The new layout filled a 25' X 50' room. At its peak, it required 14 engineers and 2 dispatchers to run a full schedule with fast time clocks.