Model Rail Scotland Marks 60 Years With Glasgow Exhibition Showcase

Sixty years is a long time to keep any exhibition running. AMRSS Ltd's Model Rail Scotland filled Hall 3 of the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow across March 27-29, 2026, with more than 50 operating layouts and roughly 130 exhibitor stands, marking not just six decades of the show but 40 consecutive years at the same venue on the banks of the Clyde.

The scale of the 60th-anniversary edition made it one of the weightiest entries in the UK model railway calendar. Friday and Saturday doors opened at 10:30am and ran until 6:00pm; Sunday closed at 5:00pm, giving three full days for layouts spanning multiple scales and eras to draw visitors through Hall 3's exhibition floor.

Ian Porteous, exhibition manager at Model Rail Scotland, put the anniversary in context without leaning too heavily on nostalgia. "Model railway exhibitions have been bringing enthusiasts together for decades, and while the way people engage with the hobby continues to evolve, the core appeal remains the same," he said. "People want to come together, share ideas, and experience layouts in person." That framing matters in 2026: club forums and social media have reshaped how modellers swap ideas between shows, but the 60th edition treated in-person layout time as something no Discord server replaces.

The four-decade relationship with the SEC is itself worth noting. Breda Cruickshank, head of exhibition sales at the venue, described the partnership plainly: "Model Rail Scotland is one of our longest-standing clients. It's a genuinely family-friendly event that brings people together across generations." For a venue that also hosts major concerts and trade events, keeping a model railway exhibition on the annual calendar for 40 years reflects how consistently the show has delivered attendance.

The family-oriented programming was a deliberate part of the 60th-anniversary pitch. Interactive displays and a themed café returned alongside the exhibitor floor, a combination that broadens the show's reach beyond core collectors and club members. For traders, the anniversary edition represented exactly the kind of high-footfall showcase where new tooling announcements and limited-run releases get their first proper public airing in Scotland.

For clubs travelling from outside the central belt, a show concentrating 50-plus layouts under one roof in Hall 3 compresses months of regional exhibition work into a single weekend. That density is what keeps the show relevant at 60.