IT WAS full steam ahead for Corsham after the town successfully hosted Wiltshire’s largest railway exhibition for the first time last weekend.

After nine years of being held at Melksham’s Christie Miller Sports Centre, the Trainwest Model Railway Exhibition found a new home at the Springfield Community Campus, with more than 2,500 visitors over the weekend.

Trainwest, which has around 60 stands and 26 working model railway layouts, and Chippenham Model Railway Show merged for the big event, which according to organiser Geoff Endacott was an overwhelming triumph.

“It was our highest ever attendance by far. It smashed our expectations. Last year was good but this was an overwhelming success. I am chuffed, apart from the tidying up,” he said.

“Everyone had a great time. With any luck we will be back next year. The sheer volume of people more than justifies the move. We have already received bookings as far away as 2019. Everyone was thoroughly impressed with the displays.

“People seemed to think this was our best yet and what was lovely was that Corsham came out in force to support an event in their town.”

Duty supervisor at the campus, Pete Monks, held the event in very high esteem.

“We were delighted to host this. It brought in a lot of new faces, which gave people the opportunity to see our facilities," he said. 

“They said it went really well and we would love to have them back. It was absolutely packed which was great to see.”

The move from Melksham was bolstered by the fact that the campus catered for several hundred cars in their car park over the weekend.