Perth model railway exhibition 2026 to showcase 32 layouts

A 60-foot O gauge Glasgow Queen Street will be the kind of centrepiece that stops model railway visitors in their tracks, but Perth is aiming to deliver far more than one big layout. The Scottish Model Engineering Trust says its 33rd annual exhibition will fill the Dewars Centre with 32 railways, specialist societies, modelling demonstrations and trade support, turning the show into a full-scale weekend for anyone who wants to see how much hobby value one regional event can hold.

The exhibition will run at the Dewars Centre on Glover Street, Perth, over Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June 2026. Doors open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and 10am to 4:30pm on Sunday, with advance tickets allowing early admission from 9:30am. SMET describes the show as the largest club-run model railway event in Scotland, and says it has built that reputation over 33 years of trying to attract and inspire visitors.

For layout watchers, the spread is the real draw. Perth Model Railway Group will show Newton Ferrier in OO gauge for the first time, a pre-war themed scene with LNER and LMS traffic. Nearby, Faskally Junction from East Kilbride Model Railway Club, Roshven by John Noorani and Joe Marsella, Aberdeen Kirkhill by Glenn Daniel and Strathearn Parkway by local modeller Roger Cartwright will give the exhibition a distinctly Scottish spine. Strathearn Parkway, which imagines what might have happened if the Crieff and Strathearn line had survived, should be one of the show’s most talked-about what-if railway builds.

That mix matters because Perth is not just stacking tables with layouts. The exhibition’s specialist railway societies and modelling demonstrations give visitors the chance to pick up ideas, compare techniques and buy the sort of trade support that rarely turns up in a smaller local hall. Perthshire Box Office’s 2025 listing put the show at 31 layouts and 22 trade stands, while SMET’s own 2025 ticket announcement said 32 layouts, 22 traders and 10 groups and societies. That scale, held steady year after year, is what makes Perth feel less like a club night and more like a snapshot of the wider hobby.

SMET’s modelling section is based at Wester Pickston, about three miles from Methven, and Perth Model Railway Group joined there in April 2019 to create what the Trust calls a centre of model railway excellence. With the exhibition set across the main hall, known as the Ice Rink, and two suites upstairs, Perth is again betting that breadth, not just size, is what keeps the summer show at the top of Scotland’s model rail calendar.