Making tracks to world of wonders

FOR those of you planning to visit Markeaton Park on a weekend, there are plenty of attractions that can keep you and the kids entertained.

From the paddling pool to the boating lake, the mini-golf to the craft village, there is plenty to do on summer days.

But there is one attraction which you may not have visited, but which attracts attention from around the world. Famous Trains Model Railway opened to the public in a previously-empty building at the park in April 2014, the brainchild of rail enthusiasts who thought it would be good to have a model railway on the site.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic drastically reducing visitor numbers in 2020 and 2021, the attraction has now welcomed its 50,000th visitor after just eight years, and boasts a five out of five rating on TripAdvisor from more than 45 reviews.

Visitors have come from as far afield as France, Canada and New Zealand just to see the model railway, which is run entirely by volunteers who continue to find innovative ways to refresh the look of the attraction, with new routes, trains and displays.

One of the volunteers, Owen Stevenson, 21, travels from his home in Nottingham around the country because of his interest in trains. This is one of the closest model railways to him, so he comes almost every weekend to help out.

He said: “I feel welcome here and I enjoy operating and maintaining locos and things like that. It gets me out of the house, or I’d end up being on my computer all day.

“I like volunteering and my main hobby is trains, I’ve been into them ever since I was little. I’ve got a set of locos at home and I bring them here and run them as and when I can.”

Getting to the site is easy enough, with the building closest to the main car park just off the ring road and close to bus routes, and it is accessible for wheelchair users. There is also a gift shop on site.

The centrepiece of the attraction is an 18-metre, or 60ft, reconstruction of the four-track mainline railway at Chinley, in High Peak, during the 1950s and 60s. It was once a key junction in the Derby to Manchester Central main line, and 20 model trains run on the layout Volunteers are on hand to answer any questions and share their knowledge about the railways. One of them is Owen, who travels around the country to railway events News

Famous Trains is open from 11am to 4pm every Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the year, although this changes slightly around Christmas and New Year. Tickets are just £3 for adults, £1.50 for children and £6 for families and last all day, and are the lowest admission fees for a model railway in a public park in the country. The admissions are the only income the charity receives

There is a special Harry Potter-themed railway, designed by one of the volunteers. Every tile on the roof of the buildings was handmade, and the volunteer managed to build the entire display from scratch, off a couple of photos, having never seen the films or read the books

This Hornby set is more than 100 years old and uses clockwork to run. The exhibits are changed every few weeks to ensure it is always offering something new, and a new display is currently being built

The fictional Darley Green is a highly-detailed model of a quintessential Derbyshire village. Visitors can press buttons around the displays to make certain parts move, meaning it is interactive for all ages