Nigel Wordsworth
Rail Infrastructure Networking – RIN Events – is a series of trade shows that take place around the UK, showcasing the best that the rail industry supply chain has to offer.
Organised by rail insurance broker Jobson James Rail, the events are short in duration – typically four hours on one day. Their unique features have made them very popular with a wide range of industry personnel – sales, business development, procurement, recruitment, and engineering professionals all flock to their local RIN, and even ones further afield.
But what makes RIN Events so special? For a start, every exhibitor gets a table, a couple of chairs, space for two pop-up banners, and that’s it! One-man-band SMEs and major national contractors all get the same space, so no one exhibitor can ‘buy’ a larger presence.
Then, the fact that the show is only open for four hours means that almost everyone can visit it in one day, though some may stay over locally the night before. This keeps the cost of both exhibiting and visiting down. Entrance for visitors is free and the cost to exhibit is currently just £485 + VAT, inexpensive compared with other rail industry exhibitions.
In addition, exhibitors get the chance to ‘Meet the Buyer’ in prearranged meetings with one or more of the industry buyers that are only too keen to meet both current and potential suppliers.
On top of that, everyone gets a free bacon roll for breakfast, so it’s little wonder that RIN is so popular.
Having run three exhibitions annually – in the South, Midlands, and North of England – for a number of years, RIN went to Scotland for the first time in 2025, organising an exhibition at Glasgow’s Hilton Hotel. It sold out, attracted hundreds of visitors and many of those involved said that it was the best RIN that year.
More space for 2026
For 2026, plans were made to expand the show. It was moved to Glasgow’s Scottish Event Campus, Hall 2, with over 2,000 square meters of floorspace. One hundred and forty-five exhibitors along with Network Rail were listed to take part, as well as the Scottish Framework Tier 1 contractors participating in the Meet the Buyer sessions.
As the doors opened, over 800 pre-registered visitors, and many more who weren’t pre-registered, entered the halls to see what the exhibitors had to offer. Many of the exhibitors were serial RINers, taking stands at one or all of the English shows every year.
On the other hand, some were Scottish companies, exhibiting for the first or second time. JML Contracts, based in Perthshire, is a good example. The company specialises in the supply of gabions – wire mesh baskets of around one metre cube that are filled with stone, creating blocks that are then built up into retaining walls. Often, these are delivered as empty baskets which are then filled on site. However, JML has developed an efficient and cost-effective business, supplying them pre-filled.
Filling gabions takes a lot of labour, as well as needing equipment to handle the stone. It also has to be carried out safely, which can cause difficulties in crowded worksites on unstable terrain.
All this negates the savings in transport costs from shipping empty gabions. “Handling a filled gabion, which can be lifted into place using an excavator or RRV, is up to six times quicker than filling it on site,” explained JML’s John Langley.
Highland Rail Services was another Scottish exhibitor. Gary Craig commented: “We are a signalling support team in Scotland, currently supporting Network Rail, Babcock, Story Contracting, QTS, and a number of other contractors.
“If they are doing any work on the infrastructure, we do the signalling installation – the SMTH (Signal Maintenance Testing Handbook) testing. We also support the permanent way with S&C renewals and other remedial and installation work.
“We are here at RIN to get our name out there and promote the business so that we can support more clients. We’re Scotland based, so if people need signalling support in Scotland for any of their projects, then we’re here.
“Preparing for the job, clearing cables out of the way, testing afterwards, putting it back together afterward and engineering management. We supply competent, IRSE-licenced senior engineers to Network Rail, Babcock, and we can do the engineering element as well as the delivery aspect of it.”
From south of the border
Of course, English firms were out in force too. Neil Cross of cable-trough manufacturer Anderton Concrete, an Ibstock company, was clear why he was exhibiting at RIN. “We are here because it is a really, really good opportunity to catch up with existing contacts in the industry,” he exclaimed.
“But it’s also a really good opportunity to catch up with who’s new in the industry and also find out what’s going to be new in the industry, because we all want to know what’s happening in the future.
“We’re here as well to promote our new products. So, we have our Generation 3 trough that we have launched and we’re continually promoting our carbon reduction efforts. Since 2023, we have reduced the carbon content of all the products we make for the rail industry.”
Ray Perkins of LB Foster is often seen at RIN events but hasn’t been on an exhibition stand for a while. “It’s the first time we’ve been here,” he confirmed. “We’ve done a lot of walking around these shows and we thought that it’s about time to put our name and face out to the public. We’re obviously looking for leads this week – we are promoting friction-management systems, both trackside systems, and onboard systems.
“The show looks busy at the moment and hopefully it’ll be even busier later.”
Steve Whitmore of enGauged is another fan of RIN. “We’re here to demonstrate our capabilities as enGauged Limited in civil and structural design in the rail industry,” he said.
“RIN is a great opportunity to come together as a supply chain. It’s good business-to-business.
“It’s a half-day format, which means we can turn up without much luggage and we don’t need a big stand. It’s nice and easy to get set up and gives us a lot of value for money.”Network Rail was also at RIN, both with a stand and as part of Meet the Buyer. “We’re here to support the event, and we’re here with eight of our Tier 1 suppliers,” Mark Lawson explained.
“It’s a tremendous event. We came up to Scotland last year – it was fairly successful, and it’s even better this time round.
“I’ve supported RIN through Network Rail down in Derby, London, York, and Harrogate over the past few years. It’s the kind of rail supplier event we need in Scotland.
“It’s our number one event in Scotland, definitely. I think the other regions are now catching on to the fact that they should be getting more involved.”
RIN Glasgow 2027 will take place on Thursday 27 May 2027 in Hall 3 of the SEC. Before then, RIN Derby is on 17 September, RIN Harrogate on 12 November, and RIN London on 18 March 2027. If you haven’t yet had the RIN experience, register for your free visitor ticket at www.rinevents.co.uk.
Image credit: RIN Events