Leigh parish church hosts family-friendly spring model railway exhibition

The best thing about Leigh’s spring model railway show was not the price, though £3 for an adult ticket and free entry for accompanied children made it hard to ignore. It was the scale of the opportunity: a small, approachable exhibition at Leigh Parish Church that put actual layouts, club builders and a live hobby atmosphere within reach of families, newcomers and anyone who prefers a local show to a bigger, pricier regional hall.

The Spring Festival and Model Railway Exhibition ran at St Mary the Virgin, Leigh, on 25 and 26 April, with doors open from 10:00 to 17:00 on Saturday and 11:30 to 17:00 on Sunday. Hindley Green Model Railway Group organised the event and listed it as a spring festival, model railway exhibition, craft stalls and a café, which gave the day a broader pull than a trains-only meet. That matters because the strongest small shows are the ones that let someone wander in for the cake and leave having studied a compact layout, a track plan and a stock list they might actually build from.

For model railroaders, the real draw was the club’s own footprint. Hindley Green Model Railway Group describes itself as a small team working in 4mm OO gauge, with layouts spanning the BR period through to the modern day. That tells you exactly what kind of exhibition this was likely to be: practical, varied and close enough to the hobby’s mainstream that a beginner could pick up ideas immediately, while an experienced operator could spot weathering, rolling stock choices and scene-setting tricks worth stealing for a home layout.

The setting added its own appeal. St Mary the Virgin, Leigh, sits in Leigh town centre and describes itself as being in the heart of the community, with links to three nearby primary schools. The church’s history gives the venue a proper sense of place too. The present building was erected between 1870 and 1873, consecrated on 12 February 1873 and is Grade II* listed. A church with that kind of footprint makes a good home for a community show: central, familiar and big enough to stage a modest exhibition without losing the feel of a local gathering.

Leigh also looks set to stay on the model railway map. Leigh Model Railway Society has already announced a 50th anniversary exhibition for 12 and 13 September 2026 at Leigh Leisure Centre, which means this spring church show was not a one-off but part of a town-wide hobby calendar that is still very much alive.