About Us

Tony's Trains Of Rugby originally began life as Barby Model Rail in 2003 located at a garden centre near the village of Barby roughly 4 miles from our current location in Hillmorton. The business moved to our current location in Hillmorton in 2009 but retained the same name of Barby Model Rail. 

In 2015 the business was acquired by current owner Tony, who quickly added the words Tony's Trains to the business title to give Tony's Trains At Barby Model Rail. Tony had been trading on the toyfair and exhibition circuit prior to the acquisition as Tony's Trains and Transport. The business became a limited company in February 2016. 

In the autumn of 2018 it became apparent that a larger unit on the Hillmorton site was to become available and we moved lock, stock and barrel into the unit next door which is twice the size of our previous store. 

As a result of the move into a bigger unit we are now able to stock a much larger range of products and we also have the ability to display them much more clearly than they had been in the previous unit.

At the same time we decided to drop the "Barby Model Rail" part of our title and add "of Rugby" to it as we felt over a decade since the business left Barby this was no longer relevant. 

Tony's Trains of Rugby finished 4th in the Model Rail Magazine "Model Shop of the Year 2019" awards and were short listed for the Hornby Magazine "Retailer of the Year" award in 2020.

Tony's Trains of Rugby can also be found at some of the UK's biggest and best model railway exhibitions (please see separate page for our exhibition diary)

Away from the shop, Tony is a fireman on the Great Central Railway, Loughborough as well as being an experienced railway photographer having his work published in several issues of Steam Railway magazine. Tony also works closely with Martin Creese of 30742 Charters to assist in the organisation and running of photographic events of various preserved railways all around the UK.