Southport Model Railway Village

Southport Model Railway Village stands beside the seafront in Kings Gardens, a miniature landscape built by Ray and Jean Jones and their team. It opened to the public in 1996 and remains the first and only model railway village in the United Kingdom. The attraction covers about 1.5 acres and shows Merseyside and West Lancashire styles at one eighteenth scale. Over two hundred models sit among five hundred metres of G-gauge track that winds through the site. A waterway links two small ponds and adds movement to the scene. The miniature railway runs on one of the largest 45 mm garden railway systems in the country. Five LGB trains travel continuously along five hundred metres of track, bringing the village to life. Each building is designed and built on site using marine plywood and resin, with miniature doors, windows and people cast in-house. The Jones family still organise and run the attraction today. Visitors walk along paths that lead past the running trains and across the waterway. The miniature people and vehicles add scale and detail to the streets and buildings. The ponds and waterway reflect the model landscape, while the seafront setting provides a backdrop of real sky and sea.