Hundreds attend to view railway layouts at first Slough Model Railway Exhibition

Hundreds of visitors came to view nine exhibition layouts at the first ever Slough Model Railway Exhibition 2023.

The event was organised by the Slough & Windsor Railway Society (SWRS) with support from the Slough Museum and saw 300 people visit across Saturday and Sunday.

The exhibition was the brainchild of SWRS vice chairman Matthew Francis to raise the profile of the society and encourage new members to join.

Slough mayor Cllr Amjad Abassi was on hand to open the exhibition which took place across two sites – Slough Museum in Buckingham Avenue and at the society’s headquarters of The Manor, next to Slough railway station.

Visitors had the chance to view nine railway exhibition layouts, some of which were real-life places modelled in different gauges.

Some of the layouts were fictitious representations of places which could have been.

A gauge in model-making refers to the scale of the model.

The exhibition layouts included Slough Trading Estate, The Royal Albert Bridge, Ropley, Lynton, North Bay , Erleigh Quay, Lockdown Halt, Shunting Puzzle, and Swalesby.

The Royal Albert Bridge layout on display on Saturday was built by Channel 5’s Great Model Railway Challenge contestants Baskingstoke & North Hants Model Railway Society, known as the Basingstoke Bodgers.

The two locations for the event were linked by a vintage AEC Regent Bus which has been preserved in Reading Corporation Livery and was hired for the event.

Matthew said: “This show was the first time we have ever tried it, to raise the railway society’s profile in the town and encourage new members to join us on Friday night for a presentation and also get involved with the society.

“It also helps us support our full-size steam locomotive Slough Estates No3, a Hudswell Clarke loco that worked the trading estate from 1924 to 1976 and is currently under overhaul at the Middleton railway in Leeds, where we keep it close to where it was built.”

He added: “Overall for the first event I feel it went exceptionally well and was very well received by the local community and beyond.”

Matthew said there are plans to organise a ‘bigger and better show’ for 2024.

“Thank you to everyone exhibitors, volunteers and all of those that attended, the show went wonderfully,” he added.

For more information about the Slough & Windsor Railway Society, visit: www.swrs.co.uk/swrsweb/index.html