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Wednesday, 26 August 2015

My visit to Miniatures and Trains Park

This visit was not planned. I was spending summer holiday with my family at the Baltic Sea when I saw a banner advertising the Miniatures and Trains Park. Quick check at the map and I found out it was only 16km away. I simply could not pass that opportunity.

Seaside Miniatures and Trains Park (http://www.park-miniatur.pl/) is located at the outskirts of the city of Dziwnów in the north of Poland. The place would be difficult to find if it wasn't for all the ads leading to it. So even though you have to navigate some local roads to get there, you won't get lost for sure.


The park is quite big considering it's a private owned area. There are paths to walk and benches to sit but also snack, ice-cream and souvenir stands. It's definitely a place where you can spend more time than what is just needed to see everything. You can simply stay there and enjoy the day.


The park focuses on two major topics.

Topic #1 is the miniatures of real world lighthouses. I did not count them but it felt like I've seen at least a dozen. And they were big. They're supposed to be in the 1:10 scale with some models reaching over 4m (~13ft). The biggest ones are definitely impressive.


Topic #2 is of course trains. Those are just well-known G-scale sets from LGB, PIKO and Bachmann. Some of them are equipped with sound, some are not. I've counted 10 running trains at the time of my visit and they were definitely fun to watch.


Of course the trains and the lighthouses do not really fit together because of the difference in scale. And the park does not even try to present them very close to each other. So both topics are independent and are meant to be enjoyed separately.

A few more words about the train layout...

It definitely feels huge. It's supposed to be over 1km of track and it does feel like it. Even though that entire length is split into three smaller layouts (one being reserved to Thomas & Friends theme), the longest loops will make you lose the track of the trains completely. That's really cool!

Of course with a long track and a large area comes a lower attention to detail. Unlike the indoor layout I visited previously, the park does not offer a lot in terms of 'scenes from life'. It does have 4 train stations which are very nice and fit perfectly but that is all. No towns, very few people figures and almost no cars.

All in all, I enjoyed my visit to the park very much. My family had a great time, too, even though my daughters are not interested in trains. Side activities were good enough for them to make the time spent there a pleasant experience. And I highly recommend the place to anyone travelling in the area.

Here's a video I shot during the visit:


And quite a lot of photos: