RailEx Wellington Train Show 2025 - Wrap up

Well that is the last show for the year wrapped up. To spite the weather in wellington being fantastic the show was quite busy, as is custom the exhibitors all start to trickle into the Walter Nash center in Taita on the Friday afternoon to set everything up for the weekend and by the time I got there after work things were already looking like it was going to be a good one.

We had quite the group there this year, flying the flag for NZR and other things.

Saturday rolled around, we had to be there by 9 am for the show briefing and to set up the last odds & ends. That done we were off to the races and from the minute the doors opened there was a queue to get in ……………………………… it was indeed going to be a good one.

Needless to say, the show was busy, lots of people and kids alike were interested in what we were doing. I set out to build a SouthDock CB wagon, but I did so much talking I didn't get a lot done. Which is great that’s what we are there for to encourage people into the hobby whether it be American, Hornby, Marklin, NZR or any other flavour.

As always, the show is also an excellent opportunity to catch up with people, whether it be people we work alongside of and normally only get a 1-minute chat with in passing, people who have been retired for a bit, people from in the hobby or people that have come from different towns or islands. Rest assured we made the most of the time we had outside of the show.

And so it was for the weekend, day one continued to be busy up to about 4pm. I don’t think any of us even went for a walk around the show on the first day.

On day 2, I was given a leave pass too video the layouts for our You Tube channel, a fantastic excuse disguised as “well we need something to put on the youtube” . . . . hehehehe.

Just saying “wow” it took me quite a few hours to walk around all the layouts! I am a little bias to NZR but my 2 top favorites was 3 Mile Bush & Capital Model railway club. So much detail in both layouts, plenty to look at. Followed closely by the Marklin layouts. considering 3 mile bush is the smallest of the 4 it goes to show, if its well planed for the space you have got it doesn't have to be huge.

All said and done we packed up another year, had a post-show beer and debrief with some of the exhibitors & and established while we would be going back to work for a break we would be doing it all again next year.

For those of you that couldn't make it you can see all the layouts, Southdock and what we were up to on our youtube channel https://youtu.be/nsqc5TO_TEw