Environmental impacts of accidental or chronic releases of contaminants to the unsaturated soil zone, either through surface spills or contaminated groundwater, have become a major concern. Models can be helpful in predicting such impacts; however, they must first be tested to inspire confidence. Here, we present a test of our one-dimensional convective-dispersion solute transport model. SCEMR1, developed for long-term predictions of solute transport through unsaturated soil. The model handles contaminants applied at the soil surface or rising by capillary action from contaminated groundwater. SCEMR1 was tested using data collected from a four-year study that monitored the leaching and capillary rise of 1, Tc, Cs, Np, Cr, Mo, U and Th in 80 cores of an acidic sandy soil in outdoor lysimeters. SCEMR1 overpredicted the amount of water drained from the leaching cores after the first year. Investigation of the hydrologic properties of the cores showed that particle movement had occurred, plugging pores at the bottom of the cores showed that particle flow through these layers. After the saturated hydraulic conductivity in these layers was correspondingly lowered, SCEMR1 predicted the annual drainage to within 5% of the observed values. Values of K d at the low end of the observed range and literature values for sandy soils generally predicted the leachate amounts well. Observed and predicted total soil concentration profiles showed that the model performed well when the model compartment-layering and K d values were specified correctly. Both the layering and the K d values used to describe the soil system are crucial to good predictions; the hydrologic properties of the soil are also important. Given knowledge of these parameters, SCEMR1 is suitable for modelling the migration of contaminants in unsaturated soil.