If you kids is train mad - this is the place for them. A model railway with hands on displayer and films to delight children. There are also 'Steam Age' exhibits, large locomotives and 'trains without wheels'.

Our eldest son (who is nearly 3) loves trains and in particular Thomas. When we read the quote "If your kids are train mad - this is the place for them" we checked out the website and it seemed OK (if a little thin on details) so we decided to pay a visit. I'm afraid we were very disappointed when we ended up at what looked like a train scrapyard with a number of blue portakabins. Two of the "buildings" were for storage, one was a prayer room and one was a meeting room. The remaining buildings contained a number of pretty dull exhibits consisting of model trains, pieces of old track and some old engine parts. A hardened trainspotter would struggle to find something of interest, nevermind a young boy hoping to see some trains.

The mini cinema did show an interesting film which lasted about 10 minutes but this was on a continuous loop. The model railway was OK but we have seen better (and were expecting a lot more) while the environmental maze was a series of fairly dull photographs culminating in some Thomas pictures for the kids to colour in. The outside exhibits were even worse - the massive Hovertain was simply there to be looked at as was the Maglev train. The coup de grace was a Rover Metro sitting amongst the portakabins recovered from the police as it had been stolen - I still haven't figured out what the purpose of this was.

- Matt Worster June 07

http://www.railworld.net/