The Met Office Space Weather Operations Centre (MOSWOC) provides a platform for running space weather models operationally. Models relating to the source and propagation of solar eruptions as well as their impact on the near-Earth environment are currently successfully running on the MOSWOC system. When models are run operationally this implies a robust infrastructure, with 24/7 support and provision of model results to aid the production of timely alerts, warnings, and forecasts by expert space weather forecasters. The processes involved in transitioning these models to operations are described here. Many challenges are overcome to successfully implement such models, including re-writing code, acquiring real-time observations, running on supercomputers, and managing firewalls. Our experience with running Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems at the Met Office is used to illustrate some of the differences between space weather research systems and operational NWP systems. This also used to direct future operational developments, such as real-time verification and inter-comparisons with model products from other centres.