202603 Swindon MODRAIL 2026

Location: STEAM Museum of the Great Western, Fire Fly Avenue, Swindon, SN2 2EY
Date: Saturday 7th March 2026
Time:10:00 - 16:30

Sponsor: Swindon Model Railway Club

The exhibition organiser set us another friendly challenge, this time to assemble an L-shaped layout. To fill the tables, we used our school modules, the stock of "retired" school modules, and a selection of modules from our friends at N Gauge Society - Wiltshire 5 Towns Area Group to create a four scale mile out-and-back trip round the layout from the terminus station. Visitors to the show were able to use their smartphones as throttles to drive trains round the layout, with a peak of six trains moving at the same time.

	Our T-TRAK™ layout, viewed from the terminus station end where our "signaller" sits. We added a R216 circuit inside our balloon loop for this show, so Thomas the Tank Engine could have somewhere to run under DC control. ModRail 2026 was also the first real test for our new high capacity Wi-Fi router for the smartphone-throttles: we had no wireless network problems all day, so that test was passed.
	The layout viewed from the bottom of the "L", with our guest mascot admiring the jungle module. The closest row of five modules are NGS-W5TAG Dan's 25mm spacing modules. The "heel" of the L is formed using our new 45 degree modules and single modules to go make use of the round table.
	Our signaller's desk uses a JMRI control panel to oversee the layout and control the routes in and out of the terminus station. Here, our late afternoon signaller watches another train pulling out of the station. Plenty of visitors were watching over the signaller's shoulder during the day and asking questions: the signaller is often the first person that visitors speak to.
	We extended our terminus station for this show to let us run long trains, with a 9-car GWR IET, a 10-car GWR IET, and a seven-coach CrossCountry HST, as well as our usual class 150 and 153 to serve our intermediate station, Drayton Green.
	NGS-W5TAG's Dave Smith contributed a set of four triple modules for the layout: a container depot, distribution centre, and service yard for Dave's collection of Eddie Stobart lorries. We had a track power problem on the Up Main, so every train ran through the container depot loop instead. Nobody seemed to mind; in fact, people seemed to prefer it that way for the variety!
	Whoosh! The GWR IET speeds through the tunnel away from the station. In the background, the Cross-Country HST is waiting in the snow for the signaller to set a route into a vacant platform.
	We used our spare 45-degree corner modules (the demonstration one, the prototype one, and two guest modules) to make a "weave" to break up the otherwise straight row of modules down that side of the table. Four R282/R315 45-degree corners, two S248 viaducts, and a tiny 45mm filler module, is the same length as four single modules. (The modules are slightly offset compared to the single modules on the other side of the table because there's S124 section just out of shot, where we tuck a cab handset underneath.)

Photos courtesy of Chris Baker.