Southport Model Railway Village is a

tourist attraction A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural b ...

located in

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

, England. It is a

model village A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, built from the late 18th century onwards by landowners and business magnates to house their workers. Although the villages are located close to the workplace, they are generally phys ...

with a focus on trains and railways.Southport Model Railway Village
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History

In 1995, Southport residents Ray and Jean Jones were granted permission by Sefton MBC to design and build a model village at Kings Gardens, Southport. Together with their team of craftsmen they transformed an area within the seafront into a miniature landscape.About Southport Model Railway Village
/ref> This became the first model railway village in the United Kingdom, due to the focus of the attraction on the miniature railway. When it opened to the public in 1996 it was the largest outdoor display of

G gauge Large scale or G scale (, G gauge) is a track gauge for model railways which is often used for outdoor garden railways because of its size and durability. G scale trains use a fixed track gauge of to accommodate a range of rail transport mod ...

railway in the United Kingdom. The Jones family still run Southport Model Railway Village today.

Railway

Movement is generated in the model railway village by one of the largest 45 mm garden railway systems in the United Kingdom. It has five LGB trains continuously running on 500 metres of track.2 August 2012
Visit Southport’s Model Railway Village during the summer holidays
''Southport Visiter''

Miniature landscape

The site is approximately 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) and the miniature landscape is set at 1:18 scale. There are over 200 models along with 500 m of model train track in the village. The attraction features architectural styles from

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

and

West Lancashire West Lancashire is a local government district with borough status in Lancashire, England. The council is based in Ormskirk, and the largest town in the borough is Skelmersdale. At the 2011 Census, the population of the borough was 110,685 ...

. Buildings are constructed with

marine plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

and resin. Each building is designed and constructed on site by an in-house manufacturing base, which supplies miniature resin items such as doors, windows roofing sections and miniature people. Spanning the site is a waterway which connects two natural ponds. Notable features include:

In popular culture

Television appearances include: *

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

One Foot in the Past ''One Foot in the Past'' is a British television series on BBC 2 that ran from 1993 to 2000. It considered the cultural heritage and history of Britain. Each programme ran for 30 minutes. Presenters included Kirsty Wark and also: * Joan Bakewell ...

(aired 1996) * Various regional television news items *

Granada Tonight ITV News ''Granada Reports'' is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Granada. Overview ''Granada Reports'' is produced and broadcast from studios in the Orange Tower at MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. Before this, the ...

To Buy or Not to Buy ''To Buy or Not to Buy'' is a British reality television series made between 2003 and 2010 for BBC One in the UK. The final series was the eleventh and contained 90 episodes, in one of two formats—either 30 or 45 minutes in length. It aired on ...

(Series 8 Episode 12) To Buy or Not to Buy (in Southport) - Series 8, Episode 12 of 38.
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References

{{reflist Tourist attractions in Southport Miniature parks Southport Miniature railways in the United Kingdom Model railway shows and exhibitions Tourist attractions in Merseyside