| For the second in our series about locally-run businesses, we meet Simon Winridge, |
| co-founder of the hugely-successful Winridge Forest Railway Park. |
| Welcome, Simon. |
| Now, perhaps you can begin by telling us a little bit about how it all started. |
| Well, during the 1970s, my wife, Liz and I had just acquired 80 acres of sheep-farming land, |
| and we decided to settle down and have children. |
| Pretty soon we had a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Duncan. |
| The place was wonderful for the kids: |
| they particularly loved trains and gradually built up an enormous network of miniature railway track. |
| I began to develop larger-scale models of locomotives |
| but we didn't think anything more of it until I went on a trip to a theme park near Birmingham |
| and decided we could do a much better job! |
| So we set up a small one ourselves based on the miniature railway |
| and we opened to the public for just a month that year, 1984 - |
| in July - our driest month - |
| because our children said they didn't want our guests to have a miserable, wet visit. |
| I dealt with park business and Liz carried on with the farm work. |
| It soon became clear that we were onto a winner. |
| We began to extend the railway track and lay it among more interesting landscape by planting trees, |
| which in turn attracted more wildlife, |
| and by making cuttings through the rock. |
| Nowadays, we're open all year round |
| and we're pleased to say that Winridge is one of the most popular visitor attractions in the area - |
| with 50,000 visitors a year - |
| a million and a half people have been through our doors since we opened. |
| All these visitors mean we have had to expand our operation |
| and it's now a truly family concern. |
| I'm near to retirement age so... |
| I only concern myself with looking after the mechanical side of things - keeping the trains going. |
| Liz now devotes all her energies to recruiting and supporting the large squadron of workers, |
| which keep the place running smoothly. |
| We're really pleased that after some years away teaching, |
| Sarah has now returned to the park and makes sure the visitors are kept fed and watered, |
| which keeps her pretty busy as you can imagine. |
| Our son, Duncan, has been a stalwart of the park for the last ten years, |
| taking over from me in the area of construction - |
| and I'll say a little bit more about that in a moment - |
| and his new wife - Judith, has also joined the team in charge of retail. |
| That's becoming a tremendous growth area for us - |
| a lot of people want to buy souvenirs. |
| So have you finished your development of the site for the moment? |
| Not at all! |
| We're constantly looking for ways to offer more to our visitors. |
| The railway remains the central feature |
| and there's now 1.2 kilometres of the line laid but we'd like to lay more. |
| Because of the geology of the area, our greatest problem is digging tunnels. |
| But we're gradually overcoming that. |
| We're also very pleased with a new installation of the Go-Kart arena |
| which is 120 square metres in area. |
| Again the problem is the geology; |
| we had to level the mounds on the track for safety reasons. |
| We wanted to enable 5 to 12 year olds to use the go-karts. |
| And the main attraction here is the Formula 1 Kart. |
| We've known fights to break out over who gets it! |
| And then, finally, to our most recent... |