diff --git a/NOTEPAD.md b/NOTEPAD.md
index 502ce83..ec503eb 100644
--- a/NOTEPAD.md
+++ b/NOTEPAD.md
@@ -35,10 +35,6 @@ Deferring because out of scope is fine, but don't mention deferring than.
   (`ui/segmented.tsx`, `Common/RangePicker.tsx`, and the flow screens). The
   dashboard no longer shares them — it has its own, one per look — so
   unifying the remaining three is now purely an app-side job.
-- CHORE/UI: a panel's rail runs the full height of the canvas whatever it
-  carries, so two dashboards leave most of a tall pill empty. Hugging its
-  contents and centring would read better; the column it reserves stays the
-  same either way.
 - CHORE/UI: the house panels are laid out for 1280x800 — twelve columns, twelve
   rows. A chart's fixed chrome is now its legend alone: the range picker moved
   to a column down the right-hand edge and gave its row back, so a third chart
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/glass/Surfaces.tsx b/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/glass/Surfaces.tsx
index 9dff9ed..910e777 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/glass/Surfaces.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/glass/Surfaces.tsx
@@ -158,7 +158,11 @@ export function Rail({ entries }: RailProps) {
       aria-label="Dashboards on this panel"
       data-testid={TESTID.rail}
       className={cn(
-        "gl-surface gl-rail pointer-events-auto absolute inset-y-3 left-3 z-10 flex w-12 flex-col items-center gap-1 p-1",
+        "gl-surface gl-rail pointer-events-auto absolute left-3 top-1/2 z-10 flex max-h-[calc(100%-1.5rem)] w-12 -translate-y-1/2 flex-col items-center gap-1 p-1",
+        // As tall as what it carries, centred in the column it reserves: a
+        // rail of two stretched to the height of the panel is mostly empty
+        // pill. More dashboards than the panel is tall still scroll, but no
+        // bar is ever drawn — a wall panel is swiped, and there is no room.
         "overflow-y-auto [scrollbar-width:none] [&::-webkit-scrollbar]:hidden",
       )}
     >
diff --git a/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/material/Surfaces.tsx b/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/material/Surfaces.tsx
index b8a585a..cbe7edd 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/material/Surfaces.tsx
+++ b/frontend/src/components/Dashboard/ui/material/Surfaces.tsx
@@ -124,9 +124,11 @@ export function Rail({ entries }: RailProps) {
       aria-label="Dashboards on this panel"
       data-testid={TESTID.rail}
       className={cn(
-        "m3-rail pointer-events-auto absolute inset-y-3 left-3 z-10 flex w-12 flex-col items-center gap-1 p-1",
-        // More dashboards than the column is tall still scroll, but no bar is
-        // ever drawn: a wall panel is swiped, and there is no room for one.
+        "m3-rail pointer-events-auto absolute left-3 top-1/2 z-10 flex max-h-[calc(100%-1.5rem)] w-12 -translate-y-1/2 flex-col items-center gap-1 p-1",
+        // As tall as what it carries, centred in the column it reserves: a
+        // rail of two stretched to the height of the panel is mostly empty
+        // pill. More dashboards than the panel is tall still scroll, but no
+        // bar is ever drawn — a wall panel is swiped, and there is no room.
         "overflow-y-auto [scrollbar-width:none] [&::-webkit-scrollbar]:hidden",
       )}
     >
diff --git a/frontend/tests/panel.spec.ts b/frontend/tests/panel.spec.ts
index 0f2b228..eaadefd 100644
--- a/frontend/tests/panel.spec.ts
+++ b/frontend/tests/panel.spec.ts
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ import { api, apiPage, deleteAll } from "./utils/api"
  * is inside the canvas, scaled with it, and wearing the dashboard's own look.
  * Drawn outside, it was a strip of the app's design bolted to the edge of
  * somebody's wall panel — and on a scaled canvas it did not even line up.
+ *
+ * It is also as tall as what it carries. Stretched end to end, a panel with
+ * two dashboards showed a pill nine tenths empty.
  */
 
 const flowName = `test_panel_${Date.now().toString(36)}`
@@ -114,6 +117,17 @@ test("the rail is drawn on the panel, in the panel's own look", async ({
   )
   expect(inside, "the rail is drawn outside the panel it belongs to").toBe(true)
 
+  // As tall as what it carries rather than as tall as the panel: a rail of
+  // two stretched end to end is mostly empty pill.
+  expect(
+    box.height,
+    "the rail is stretched to the height of the panel",
+  ).toBeLessThan(canvas.height / 2)
+  const centres = Math.abs(
+    box.y + box.height / 2 - (canvas.y + canvas.height / 2),
+  )
+  expect(centres, "the rail is not centred in its column").toBeLessThan(2)
+
   // And the arrangement keeps clear of it rather than sitting under it.
   const tile = (await page.getByTestId("widget-frame").first().boundingBox())!
   expect(tile.x, "a widget is drawn under the rail").toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(