Swindon’s annual model railway festival featured more than trains, with firing tanks and battleships all making an appearance.

And next to every scale model at the Swindon Railway Festival 2024 was an enthusiastic lifesize hobbyist, bursting with knowledge about the trains whizzing around the tracks.

The festival that ran on September 14 and 15 brought together hobbyists featuring over 20 railway layouts alongside the iconic Swindon-built locomotives in STEAM, the rail museum.(Image: Dave Cox)

“If you step back, any hobby is a bit odd”, said Robin Gregory, 69.

“I had Hornby when I was five or six, and like most people, you get married, you stop the hobbies, and then as you get older, you start the hobbies again.

But it is not just nostalgia for Robin: “There's the history, the geography, there's the practical bits, and there's the social bits. So it's intellectually stimulating and socially stimulating.”Paul Stanton, 65, Sam, 14, Robin Gregory, 69 and Martin Kilford, 60 (Image: Newsquest)

Countries with more engagement in hobbies rank higher on the World Happiness Index, according to a UCL study, and some say hobbies requiring mental engagement could put off dementia.

His son, Sam, 14, was with him operating their 60s French-designed train. He said: “I grew up with LEGO which just stands still, but I like seeing something move and also the electronics.”

He is not the only one new to the hobby. (Image: Dave Cox)

“I'm a real newbie. I picked this up when I was like 53, and was looking for a hobby in 2017”, said Martin Kilford, the proud Swindon designer of one ‘50s Horny Dublo 3 layout.

“Seven years later, I've built up a great friendship with various people, spent an awful amount of money, but also put together some fantastic layouts.”

For the first time, South West Meccano Club also joined the festival, bringing model tanks, carousels and battleships with swivelling guns that “really do fire”.(Image: Newsquest)

Bonnie Gulley, 81, stood beside a 25kg Tiger 131 tank her husband Brian had built. She explained: “He won third in the world for a galley he built with Meccano, and that is what got him really interested.”

Also present was a full-size steam engine belching steam outside and various traders.

It was not just the designers enjoying themselves. “We’re from Wantage”, said a couple looking at a model of the Wantage Tramway made by Robin Gay, 67.

“It really genuinely does look the same - we have been there.”