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Media kit · free to use

Press & partners

Covering Making Tracks, listing our events, or partnering with us? Everything here — copy, facts, photos, feeds — is ready to use. One address for anything else: press@makingtracks.uk.

Boilerplate — short (50 words)

Pete Waterman’s Making Tracks is the Guinness World Record holder for the largest portable model railway — an OO-gauge recreation of one of Britain’s busiest junctions with live signalling, working departure boards and four main lines. A touring section of the layout visits UK exhibitions, and visitors drive the trains.

Boilerplate — standard (120 words)

Pete Waterman’s Making Tracks holds the official Guinness World Record for the largest portable model railway, measured at 694.9 metres in April 2024 and since grown to around 736 metres of track under 82 catenary masts. The OO-gauge layout recreates one of Britain’s busiest railway junctions and runs on real technology: every train detected every four feet, UK colour-light signalling worked entirely by the trains, and working departure boards announcing services as they run — all on System2 by MegaPoints Controllers. Run as a Community Interest Company by Pete Waterman and his volunteer Railnuts crew, Making Tracks sends a touring section of the layout to UK exhibitions, where visitors take the controls and drive real trains. As seen in Channel 4’s Little Trains & Big Names.

Fast facts (all verifiable)

  • Guinness World Record: largest portable model railway — 694.9 m, verified 27 April 2024
  • Now roughly 736 metres of track under 82 catenary masts
  • OO gauge (1:76.2) · four main lines · a touring section visits exhibitions
  • Every piece of track split into 122 cm (4 ft) detected blocks
  • Real UK colour-light signalling run entirely by the trains (System2 AutoSignal)
  • Working departure boards announce model trains as they actually run
  • Founder: Pete Waterman OBE, with the volunteer Railnuts crew
  • Freightliner Class 90 90041 “Pete Waterman OBE” named at Crewe, 11 September 2024
  • Featured in Channel 4’s Little Trains & Big Names with Pete Waterman
  • Making Tracks CIC · Company No. 17111081 · sponsored by MegaPoints Controllers

Photos — high resolution, free for editorial use

Credit: “Making Tracks”. Click to open full size, then save.

Visitors at the barrier watching trains on the Making Tracks layout At the barrier1920 × 1080 · JPEG The Making Tracks layout running the length of an engine shed The full layout3840 × 2160 · JPEG Visitors photographing a locomotive on the Making Tracks layout Trackside3840 × 2160 · JPEG Making Tracks logo LogoPNG, transparent

List our events automatically

Two machine-readable feeds update themselves whenever we publish an event — subscribe once and never chase us for dates:

Calendar (iCal)https://makingtracks.uk/events/calendar.ics— add to Google/Outlook via “subscribe by URL”
News feed (RSS)https://makingtracks.uk/events/feed.xml— for listings pages and readers

Event pages also carry schema.org Event markup, and AI assistants can read our story at makingtracks.uk/llms.txt.

Media enquiries

press@makingtracks.uk goes straight to the Making Tracks team — interviews with Pete and the crew, filming at exhibitions, review visits and partnership ideas all welcome. We’re quick to reply.