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Wroxham / Miniature World
You have to pass under the main line station to reach Roy's town - Wroxham. Its a short walk pass Roys car-park, Roys Garden centre and Roys department store, before you reach Roys food hall, which is directly opposite Roys toy shop. For those that haven't been to Wroxham, Roy is the prominant retailer, although he has allowed one or two others to set up cafes and the occasional small shop. We purchased food from a non-Roys site and sat perched on a rail at the side of the water, watching the various comings and goings on the water. As in life in general, just sit anywhere for a short period of time and you will always see the two extremes of life. Being at Wroxham is no different except the differences take place on the water. boats of all shapes and sizes, from the family on probably their first trip in a boat they can just about afford, to the ones with more money than sense, lauding it on their floating gin palaces. After lunch we wander into Roys department store, just to look at what was on offer and at what prices. Fair to say prices seemed average and products of good quality. Next stop, before returning to Aylsham a trip to Miniature world to see how the worlds largest OO gauge model railway was progressing. Ben and I came here in 2016, when the proposed layout was starting to take shape, covering the entire back part of the building. It was an impressive sight, even in its raw state, with minimal track laid, but with clear evidence of the scale and varying levels of operation that the trains would be put through. Eager anticipation to see the progress. First disappointment was to find that the once entrance to the exhibits no longer existed. Gone was the cafe at the front of the building which linked to the model shop and the reception. Access now was via a door three quarters of the way down the side of the building. Reception was now also a cut down version of the cafe and I soon realised that we were now in the area where the proposed OO gauge world beater, scheduled to cover an area of 3000 square feet was once housed. There was a track, still in the development stage, but only a third of what we saw laid out two years previous. In the room which took up all of the layout there was now a dividing wall. The track in the development stage butting up to the wall. Having wandered around the displays it was clear that the track you see on arrival is all thats left of the grand plan. The rest of the room behind the partition is now taken up by plane and train simulators, old arcade games and four new smaller OO gauge layouts, three based on England and one Holland. All of the other layouts are still in place and in operation as was the large scalextric and Lego displays. The world beating OO layout is no more, which is sad, for what ever reason, the owners have had to scale back on what I thought was a very worthwhile ambition. Despite the dissapointment I still managed to pick up a couple of ideas for our own home layout from two of the new Uk layouts. Jacob tried to have fun on the simulators but none of them working fully. He wasn't impressed with the old penny arcade games, having never seen them before and of course they had no computer imagery. Not far for us to walk to catch our return train to Aylsham, as "Miniature World" is opposite the main line station.
Pictures of the broads at sunny Wroxham, which is what attracts thousands of visitors every year. The next picture shows what I think is the remnants of the much larger OO guage layout ambitions. The layout Ben and I saw back in 2016 covered the whole of the area of the room that you can see, up to the edge of the layout in the foreground, as shown in the next picture taken during our first visit. The dividing wall is new. at least it wasn't there on our last visit. The final picture is of a design I would like to use to modify one similar I have started, on the OO layout, but never thought right. This could be my inspiration, subject to Jacob's approval of course.
More pictures mostly of the new layouts, the first Dutch, with the recreated tulip fields and inevitable windmills. The others typically english in design. As well as trains they have a wide range of scale models on display, these examples just part of the extensive naval portion.