Happy New Year from all of us here at Rails of Sheffield! Here we're taking a look back at 2024 with our Year in Review.

2025 is already shaping up to be another exciting year in the world of model railways but we wanted to take a brief look back at 2024 which was one of our biggest and busiest years on record. Scroll down to check out some of our biggest news stories from across the past year.

In the Summer, we launched an  updated version of our website  offering you much faster speeds, a revised look & feel as well as an upgraded search system with more accurate results. You can now also receive live results in the search bar!

We were saddened to see the closure of Hattons , a stalwart of the industry, back at the start of 2024. We could not allow the legacy of this brand to disappear and have sought a way to keep it alive for generations to come. 

At present, the Hattons website is back online and you can fully explore the amazing Product Directory , with links to purchase any in-stock items here at Rails! In 2025, we will be working hard to bring the Directory back up to date with all the new models announced.

We were delighted to win Retailer of the Year in both the British Railway Modelling Awards and the Hornby Magazine Awards last year! Your continued support is greatly appreciated by all of us here at Rails and we thank all of those who took the time to vote for us. 

Looking ahead to 2025, we have been nominated in both the Model Rail Model of the Year Awards as well as Hornby Hobbies first-ever Model Shop Awards! If you have a moment, we would love it if you could pop a vote in for Rails in either or both of these awards schemes.

Bringing back to life the popular ' Hattons Model Money' online trade in system , our new website at  modelrailways.co.uk  enables you to build a list of models to trade in to us as quickly as possible! Use our comprehensive database to find your items, add them to the list and submit it to us for a valuation. It's that simple!

Responding to customer feedback, we made some  big changes to our shipping options including the introduction of  faster and cheaper services  across the board, including some improved options for our overseas customers too!

We are continuously working hard to be  environmentally conscious and sustainable  whether we can. In 2024, we went  100% recyclable with all of our packing materials  - including the tape too! We also introduced various initiatives at our warehouse including  solar panels ,  efficient underfloor heating  and  energy saving automatic lighting.

Did you know that we are a Corporate Partner of the National Railway Museum? We work closely with the NRM and Locomotion Models to produce exclusive products under our joint Railway Icons range. The first of which came through during 2024 including the Rapido NER H Class, Highland Jones Goods and the Bachmann Prototype HSDT!

We have many more to come in 2025 - including the following:

In 2024, we welcomed several new brands to Rails - including  Clark Railworks, ModelU and Roundhouse Engineering  to name just a few. We are continually looking at ways to expand our product offering and supply you with the brands you love.

We are now stocking a whole host of products in OO Gauge including the Lowmac Wagons (In stock now), WD Austerity 2-10-0 and LNER Quad Art Coaches (Coming soon).

We also now stock hundreds of different 3D printed figure packs and accessories from ModelU - including figurines designed to perfectly match specific locomotives.

Every year at Rails we try to give something back wherever we can - whether that be nationwide charitable donations  or support for heritage groups. In 2024, with your help, we were pleased to make several donations - to name just a few:

• £2,000 donated to the Caledonian 828 Trust to support future maintenance of their loco
• £2,990 donated to Crisis who provide warmth, shelter and support to homeless people across the country.
• £2,000 donated to Yorkshire Children's Charity who do amazing work supporting children and families in need across the Yorkshire area

As well as selling items through our own website, we also deal with a huge assortment of preowned items via our eBay store  too! In 2024, we were a top performer in the Railways & Trains category - selling in the Top 5% and out-performing 99% of our competitors . 

Thank you to all 11,500 shoppers who bought from us on eBay in 2024, we appreciate all of your positive feedback which has helped us to achieve a 99.7% positive rating with over 13,000 reviews! 

Every single month at our physical shop on Chesterfield Road, Sheffield, we host all sorts of different unique events just for you! In 2024, we hosted more events than ever including manufacturer takeover days, preowned rummage events, bargain promotions and even specially tailored events for model clubs and heritage societies! 

Our next big event is our Heljan Takeover on Saturday 18th January - why not come along and see us and the team from Heljan?

2024 also saw the launch of our  new Vintage Toys and Train Shop sited adjacent to our Rails Emporium!  This new store offers collectors different products you might not have seen at Rails before including super rare collectables, classic toys, classic trains, action figures, comics and even more! Head on down to explore if you haven't already...