StowRail 2026 returns to Stow-on-the-Wold with 10 layouts

St Edward’s Hall had the sort of compact show model railway readers notice fast: 10 layouts, practical demonstrations, a pre-loved items table and a hall full of local purpose, not just display cases. StowRail 2026 ran from 10.30am to 4.00pm in Stow-on-the-Wold, with adult admission at £5, children free and family entry listed at £10, while on-site parking and refreshments made the day easy to work around.

That accessibility is the point. StowRail was revived after being cancelled during the pandemic, and the StowRail Organising Group brought it back with a clear community job to do, raising money for the Parents, Teachers and Friends Association of Stow on the Wold Primary School. The school charity says it helps fund trips, additional activities and equipment, from an adventure playground and books to transport for educational visits, play equipment, iPads and software. The posters made by schoolchildren and the tea-and-cakes atmosphere fitted that role neatly.

The show’s scale also worked in its favour. Rather than chasing spectacle, StowRail leaned on variety and proximity, the things active modellers actually use when they go to an exhibition: time at the barrier, a chance to study operating ideas, and enough room to talk to the people behind the scenes. The 2025 event, held at the same hall on Sunday, May 18, featured 10 named layouts, Greycliffe, Saith ar Hugain, Sheep Dip, St. Oswald’s, Selbourne, Kaninchenbau, Hartburn, Fryupdale Brewery, Bunker’s Lane and Farmer’s Drove, alongside demonstrations and a pre-loved items table. That year’s show raised nearly £1,000.

There is also deeper history behind the return. StowRail says it first staged the exhibition in 2010, and a local newspaper report from 2015 said it had already raised £3,010.62 for charity. Another report described it as attracting enthusiasts from a 70-mile radius, alongside Japanese and other tourists visiting Stow, which underlines how a small hall can still pull in a wide audience. St Edward’s Hall, built in 1878 from unclaimed savings bank funds and generous public gifts, remains a fitting base for a show that depends on local effort.

For a hobby crowded with big-name dates, StowRail’s case was straightforward: a revived community exhibition, a school cause, and 10 layouts in a historic hall proved that the smallest shows can still carry the strongest local weight.