WROXHAM MINIATURE WORLD review

[Selkent]

Went yesterday to one of the UK's only permanent  model railway exhibitions in Wroxham in Norfolk, and hoped for a English version of the Hamburg set up with the marketing leaflets promising lots but reality not worth the £9.95 entrance with only one or two of the 8 or so layouts being of exhibition standard.   

 

The Japan themed layout was interesting and only let down by all the trains running at max speed so looked out of place scale wise.  The promise of the UK's largest OO gauge British layout was a joke with scenery reminded me of a first attempt at doing hills, all covered in grass matting and buildings plonked down here and there.  Surprised they didn't add a Hornby plastic tunnel to add to the effect they tried to create.    See photo attached to see what I mean.  I know peoples idea of scenic layouts is subjective, but advertising as the UK only full time layout exhibition, I do expect layouts to reach a certain standard as can be seen at exhibitions around the UK each week for far less money.    They also had a Alpine railway which consisted of a 10ft high perfect round paper mache cone painted white representing  a mountain with a couple of skiers  perched on its side dominated a very small alpine village again with the odd train zooming past at a scale speed of 200 mph. 

 

The onsite model rail shop consisted of a shelf with some scenic scatter grass (mostly scenic grass obviously bought and never used as opted for basic grass matting on their layouts instead)  a couple of Airfix kits and some pens and kids toys.  Again what a waste as they have the space for a fully stocked model rail shop.

 

Wroxham it seems everything is owned by someone called Roy, who runs the shops, petrol garage, garden centre, car parks and dominates the small High Street,go there and see what I mean.   Not sure if they run this attraction also, but if they are branching out into visitor attractions, I'd stick to running all the local shops instead. 

 

Perfect idea and in perfect spot for visitors and attracting many holidaymakers but really badly planned and executed.  A real case of quantity in trying to build massive layouts instead of quality. 

Edited April 13, 2018 by Selkent

[RichardS]

Roy's of Wroxham, a well respected local trader with many stores across the county, does not to the best of my knowledge have any involvement in WMW. At least it didn't when it opened.

[russ p]

I went when it first opened and wasn't too impressed.

If you want a model shop the Bure valley and Great eastern aren't too far away and are both great shops