1For the second in our series about locally-run businesses, we meet Simon Winridge,
2co-founder of the hugely-successful Winridge Forest Railway Park.
3Welcome, Simon.
4Now, perhaps you can begin by telling us a little bit about how it all started.
5Well, during the 1970s, my wife, Liz and I had just acquired 80 acres of sheep-farming land,
6and we decided to settle down and have children.
7Pretty soon we had a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Duncan.
8The place was wonderful for the kids:
9they particularly loved trains and gradually built up an enormous network of miniature railway track.
10I began to develop larger-scale models of locomotives
11but we didn't think anything more of it until I went on a trip to a theme park near Birmingham
12and decided we could do a much better job!
13So we set up a small one ourselves based on the miniature railway
14and we opened to the public for just a month that year, 1984 -
15in July - our driest month -
16because our children said they didn't want our guests to have a miserable, wet visit.
17I dealt with park business and Liz carried on with the farm work.
18It soon became clear that we were onto a winner.
19We began to extend the railway track and lay it among more interesting landscape by planting trees,
20which in turn attracted more wildlife,
21and by making cuttings through the rock.
22Nowadays, we're open all year round
23and we're pleased to say that Winridge is one of the most popular visitor attractions in the area -
24with 50,000 visitors a year -
25a million and a half people have been through our doors since we opened.
26All these visitors mean we have had to expand our operation
27and it's now a truly family concern.
28I'm near to retirement age so...
29I only concern myself with looking after the mechanical side of things - keeping the trains going.
30Liz now devotes all her energies to recruiting and supporting the large squadron of workers,
31which keep the place running smoothly.
32We're really pleased that after some years away teaching,
33Sarah has now returned to the park and makes sure the visitors are kept fed and watered,
34which keeps her pretty busy as you can imagine.
35Our son, Duncan, has been a stalwart of the park for the last ten years,
36taking over from me in the area of construction -
37and I'll say a little bit more about that in a moment -
38and his new wife - Judith, has also joined the team in charge of retail.
39That's becoming a tremendous growth area for us -
40a lot of people want to buy souvenirs.
41So have you finished your development of the site for the moment?
42Not at all!
43We're constantly looking for ways to offer more to our visitors.
44The railway remains the central feature
45and there's now 1.2 kilometres of the line laid but we'd like to lay more.
46Because of the geology of the area, our greatest problem is digging tunnels.
47But we're gradually overcoming that.
48We're also very pleased with a new installation of the Go-Kart arena
49which is 120 square metres in area.
50Again the problem is the geology;
51we had to level the mounds on the track for safety reasons.
52We wanted to enable 5 to 12 year olds to use the go-karts.
53And the main attraction here is the Formula 1 Kart.
54We've known fights to break out over who gets it!
55And then, finally, to our most recent...