Layouts already confirmed for Rail-Ex 2026:

Layout 1:

Whiteacres

OO Gauge 2000 - 2020

Whiteacres is Stafford Railway Circle’s 4mm fine scale exhibition layout set in the Staffordshire/Derbyshire area and representing a (fictitious) former LNWR route from Birmingham to Derby and Nottingham (on the assumption the Midland lines were never built). This line is on the high level and is linked to an ex-GCR line on the lower level. One throat of the station is modelled together with the station buildings and surrounding town scene. The River Acres valley is crossed by both lines on viaducts and girder bridges-on the high level is the junction of the lines to Derby and Nottingham while on the low level there is also a junction but the ‘main’ route as currently modelled is truncated. The visible track and point work is all hand-built using C&L and Exactoscale products, and for point operation uses Cobalt and Tortoise point motors. The signalling is all colour light with full route indications. All the bridges and buildings are either scratch built or modified kits. The stock is provided by SRC members and is appropriate to the chosen operating period. The wiring and control panels allow operation on DCC (using Lenz equipment). Behind the scenes there is an extensive fiddle yard which can store over 60 separate trains and allows for an intensive and varied operating sequence.

Layout 2:

Kreuzweg

HOm Swiss metre gauge

Serving the well-known mountain towns Davos, Klosters, and Saint Moritz the rails of the Rhatische Bahn (RhB) play host to two recognisable services – The Glacier Express, and the Bernina Express – both of which may be seen on the layout. The striking red of the well-maintained trains against brilliant white snow is an impactful image. The RhB has an enormous international following and is as much a tourist attraction in its own right as well as being a serious transport network. As such there’s a healthy appreciation of the railway’s heritage, and historic ‘specials’ run on the RhB throughout the year.

A key factor was that the layout had to be able to handle scale length trains. The result is Kreuzweg, a fictional location but based on several actual scenes on the line between Klosters and Davos. Kreuz (cross) weg (path) is the name of a ski piste that drops down into Klosters, passing underneath the line.

Layout 3:

Smalldale Quarry

N gauge 1970s-1980s BR(M)

Smalldale is a small village situated between Buxton and Chapel-en-le-Frith just east of Dove Holes. The quarry is now a popular rock climbing area, but it was once part of the ICI Buxton lime operations. The layout is a "what might have been": features of the layout are a three platform station, the quarry, a spring water bottling plant, riding stables, and a small maintenance and refuelling point. There are two continuous loops plus an extensive shunting area for the industries. The layout is DCC only with several sound fitted locos. Most of the rolling stock had been professionally weathered.

On the left of the layout is the loco maintenance depot. This consists of a re-fuelling point, oil tanks, office, and shed. To the right of the loco maintenance area is the old quarry pond.

Towards the middle of the layout is the quarry. The quarry building is complete with conveyors. On the right of the layout is the bottling plant and riding stables.

Layout 4:

Westcliff

EM Gauge - 1920s GWR in Dorset

Westcliff is a ‘might have been’ whose location is based on the Dorset seaside town of West Bay, Bridport’s harbour, as it might have evolved by the 1920s.

When the railway arrived at West Bay in 1848 there was the expectation that the town would grow into a seaside resort in the same way as Bournemouth or Weymouth had done. Land was bought in preparation for promenades, walks, gardens and hotels. Fortunes were to be made. In the event none of these things happened, the main result of the railway’s arrival was the decline of trade through the harbour.

However in our version of events not only did the town become a successful resort, but the harbour continued to flourish with the export of coal (from Somerset and South Wales), shingle (from nearby Chesil Beach), rope and netting (manufactured locally) and the importation of timber from Scandinavia. Some light shipbuilding was also carried out.

The existing station was moved to make way for developments in the town and a larger station built in a new location under the ‘west cliff’ to cater for a now intensive service of main line holiday expresses and local passenger trains. Goods trains bring supplies into the town and service the harbour via a short branch line.

Extensive carriage sidings and loco facilities are located off the main line to the east of the station, beyond the bridges carrying the footpath to the promenade.

Layout 5:

Snowdon (NWNGR)

Scale 1:38 (8mm = 1ft) 16mm gauge

Snowdon Station was the southern terminus of the North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway before its 1920s extension to Portmadoc and renaming as the Welsh Highland Railway. It is situated at the village of Rhyd Ddu. The layout represents the station as it was circa 1910. The railway was defunct by the start of WW2 but has been brought back to life by the Welsh Highland/Ffestiniog Railway.

The layout and stock are entirely scratch built, with a minimum utilisation of commercially available parts. Loco building commenced in the 1980s and has continued since. The locos, including the chassis, are mainly built using nickel silver and brass. Carriages have made extensive use of Plasticard for the bodies, although some are made from wood, while their underframes are made from nickel silver and brass.

Stonework on the buildings has been carried out by building up layers of Polyfilla on a scribed base. The corrugated iron used in places is represented by the use of Slaters sheets suitably cut and pinned. The layout shows a fairly accurate representation of the station buildings. However the actual station site was much longer. Some freelance modelling has been carried out at the ends of the layout.

Layout 6:

Caldershaw

EM gauge BR(M) and BR(E) 1960s

Caldershaw started as a small layout and just grew bigger. It now has 6 boards, each 4ft by 2 ft, with a traverser at the rear at each end, so that 4ft long trains can run up and down at the back, on a double track secondary line. There is a goods loop, and a line down to a headshunt which serves as an exchange with the industries and the private line below that.

The period is late 1960s, so there are steam engines and green/blue diesels, and the location is definitely up north, somewhere Pennine, maybe Lancashire or Yorkshire, or a bit of both. I like to keep things deliberately vague, so that no-one can say ‘it wasn’t like that’. The track is P4 built from C&L components, and can be run with DC or DCC with sound. There is a wide variety of stock from the Midland and Eastern Regions, from off-the-shelf to kit-built, but always detailed where possible, and extensively weathered. There are now fully working semaphore signals, powered by Tortoise motors, as are all the points.

Layout 7:

Outwell Village

OO gauge BR(E) 1950s-1960s

Outwell Village is a ‘OO’ gauge layout built to finescale standards. Track is SMP code 75 with hand built points. It depicts the largest depot on the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway. The period is post Second World War, although this can be stretched to some 20 years as little changed in that time.

Motive power is what could have been seen running on the tramway: Y6 and J70 trams, Sentinels and O4 diesels. They are a mixture of scratch built, kits or ready to run. All buildings are scratch built using Plasticard and are buildings that once stood around the depot, many of which can still be seen to this day.