Solent Sky Museum

11/05/2026

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/26092408.southampton-tram-returns-track-first-time-77-years/

A Southampton tram has been rolled-out on the tracks for the first time in 77 years.

10/05/2026

Come along for the 2nd day of our historic tram event. Remember we open at 10am today!

Kings West Tramway Museum – an OO gauge Museum style layout
This layout features trams from around the UK and a varying range of groups of figures to spot including Harry Potter and friends, Dads Army, Blackadder Goes Forth, Open All Hours and Last of the Summer Wine. The scene will change regularly during the day as items are swapped, so come back to see what has changed.

09/05/2026

Our annual tram event is NOW OPEN! Come and see the historic trams and models like this:

Talyffraith an OO and OO9 gauge railway layout.
Talyffraith a fictious place bordering the west county and Wales set in the 1960’s. The village of Talyffriath is served by a narrow-gauge railway for passengers and freight movements from the standard gauge branchline to the narrow-gauge line. Freight generally consists of fruit and eggs from the local farms.

09/05/2026

Solent Sky's historic tram event opens today and runs all weekend - here is just one of the amazing tram displays you can see:

St Mary Mead – an HO scale early rural/suburb incorporating Lilliput buildings, creating an old England of time gone by, with a population including various TV detectives including Morse, Sister Boniface, Father Brown and Brother Cadfael – see if you can spot them all.
The trams are horse and steam powered.

08/05/2026

Our historic tram event begins tomorrow at 10am and lasts all wekeend! Here is another exhibit on show:

Mardlin Mawkin Transport Museum
This N gauge layout features working trams and well as trolleybuses, buses and other road vehicles. As a museum style layout, it features vehicles from all around the UK as well as a few European trams. There are lots of mini dioramas to see on the layout.

07/05/2026

Our tram event opens 10am on Saturday 9 May - here's another wonderful exhibit you can see:

Hayling Island – an OO gauge railway layout showing the Hayling Island line that ran until 1963.
Originally constructed for the use of goods and the local community it ended up with an intensive service for holiday makers visiting the Island. The track, buildings and some rolling stock are mostly built from kits or adapted kits which shows what can be produced by the model maker.

06/05/2026

Only 3 days to go until our tram celebration weekend event. Here is another exhibit:

Whiteleaf – A European heritage tramway in a garden tramway setting.

This layout is in G scale (1:22.5). It features a variety of European trams and scenery. This large layout includes ready to run trams, modified trams and scratchbuilt models. The layout will be spread between two rooms on the first floor of the Museum.

05/05/2026

Florin Street - 4mm – Andy Burrows
Another of our regular exhibitors at this weekend's historic tram event is Florin Street which captures the feel of Leeds Tramways around Sovereign Street in the years 1948-54. During this time the Corporation fleet consisted of over 400 tramcars, with a large variety of types, including rebuilt and experimental cars, and second-hand examples from Hull, London, Manchester, Southampton and Sunderland. In this post-war era, the livery was changed from blue to red, with many variations applied to the fleet, giving Leeds one of the most diverse and interesting fleets in the UK.

04/05/2026

Our tram event is this weekend! Here's another exhibit you can see:

Gordon Bartlet – a narrow gauge tramway in ¾ inch scale. This layout will be situated next to the Tramway Arms. Although the models are to the same scale as the Tramway Arms it shows narrow gauge trams using a track gauge of 2⅝”. There will be a number of models running including Bournemouth 85, Poole 3, Taunton 6, Exeter 16, Llandudno 4 and Karachi 103. Some of these trams run using live overhead others are battery powered.
The models also include horse cars and the horse’s legs move as it goes along the track.

23/04/2026

Our tram event is coming soon on 9-10 May. Here is another of the spectacular tramways we will have:

Seacoastia - Lego Railway – Lego display featuring a station in the style of Netley, battery-operated, trains running on two loops, and separate live rail tramline running through a model Bargate on the inner loop.

A wonderful group of buildings and a big wheel with a double train track running round the outside. There are a huge number of Lego minifigs as well as vehicles and scenic items and things to spot. See if you can find Mr Bean, seagulls, pirates, a chariot, and many other things.

20/04/2026

Solent Sky's tram event this year is on 9-10 May. Once again, the Tramway Arms will be on show. This modular layout is built to the large scale of 1:16, (3/4"=one foot). The track gauge is 3.5 inches wide, and the layout sets out to recreate the street running scenes of the first generation of British tramways. The tram models are around 20 inches long making them very impressive. They are accurate examples of prototypes that once ran in cities such as Portsmouth and Southampton. The models collect their operating power (24v max) from the overhead wire in a similar fashion to the real trams that these models are based upon.
The layout is operated by members of the Sussex, Solent and West of England Area Groups of the Tramway and Light Railway Society, who will be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
The layout has around 27 feet of track making it very impressive to see. Although this layout has been at every one of our events, it changes the track layout and the trams running every year.