Abbotsfield Park Miniature Railway

Abbotsfield Park in Flixton looks at first sight like any other small park. It's a recreation ground the size of a couple of football pitches with a small children's play area.   However, just as you're crossing the bridge to the entrance you're drawn to a plume of steam coming towards you at some speed. This is the Abbotsfield Park Miniature Railway and miniature is the word. It's the smallest locomotive you've ever seen outside of a domestic train set. Our son watched rapt as this tiny engine thundered past with half-a-dozen people in tow.   He couldn't wait to get on and do a ...

Anderton Boat Lift

The Anderton Boat Lift in Cheshire is a spectacular feat of Victorian engineering and was the first of its kind in the world when it was built in 1875. It's a 50-foot vertical link between two waterways - the River Weaver and the Trent and Mersey Canal.   It's hard to describe and do it justice but it makes for a brilliantly different day trip. You can choose a lift trip - where you sit on a large glass-topped boat that sails from its mooring into the lift cradle and you either go from top to bottom or vice versa. Alternatively you can take a river trip - a gentle one-hour cruise in the...

Brookside Miniature Railway

We always have a fun time here - in fact it's always a struggle to drag the kids (and their dad) away from it at the end of the day! Brookside, located at a garden centre, has five locomotives - three steam engines and two diesel.   The trains are located at their very own station, Brookside Central, which is a replica West Country station with authentic buildings, sidings, turntable and original signage on the miniature platform. Inside the waiting room (which doubles as a gift shop and museum), you purchase your ticket then it's all aboard!   The train takes you on a half-mile ...

City Airport (Barton Aerodrome)

If you have driven over Barton Bridge on the M60 or visited The Trafford Centre you must have noticed the light aircraft coming in to land or taking off from City Airport, locally known as Barton Aerodrome. One clear late Saturday afternoon, as we were driving this way, we decided to stop off for a closer look.   Don't be put off by the security barrier and seemingly private nature of the airfield - it IS open to the public! Immediately on entering the airport's grounds you're up close and personal with the planes, as the airfield is slap bang next to the car park and although it is wel...

Dragon Miniature Railway

The Dragon Miniature Railway is located at a garden centre in Marple. There, just by the side of the car park, you'll find a little station with two trains (one diesel and one steam) running alternately on a half-mile track. For 70p each you'll be taken through a tunnel, alongside a river, via eccentric displays of garden gnomes and blow-up dinosaurs - you'll even get the chance to stop off at a small picnic and children's play area filled with Little Tikes style toys - open Mar-Oct.   The railway is run by enthusiasts and is a nice way to while away some time before popping into the ga...

East Lancashire Railway

Arriving at Bury's Bolton Street Station is like stepping back in time. There are traditional ticket booths, lovely signage and helpful staff. We decided to go from Bury to Ramsbottom but for a longer ride you can take the train from Heywood all the way to Rawtenstall. There is a pay and display car park at Bury Station which is free on Sundays.   At Bury Station The Trackside pub, situated on Platform 2, does children's meals at £2.25 for sausage or fishfingers with chips and beans, and they are will warm up bottles or baby food. Baby- changing is in the disabled toilets at the e...

Hills Miniature Railway

Run by South Stockport Model Engineering Society, this delightful railway can be found at Hills Garden Centre, just south of Knutsford. There's an authentic station shop where you collect your £1 ticket (this doubles up as a gift shop selling toy trains and accessories) and the train puffs its way around the perimeter of the garden centre, taking in the odd tunnel along the way.   Also at Hills is a Toby Tram - a self-drive tram popular with younger children, and a nine-hole miniature golf course. There's a lovely café but it does get busy and isn't very big so get there ea...

Manchester City Bus Tour

A beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in September found me, partner, a three-and-a-half year old and a seven-month old running madly down Liverpool Street, bags flapping (not as much as me), waving frantically at one of Manchester's bright red sightseeing tour buses to stop and let us on... yep, we'd been waiting at the wrong bus stop near MOSI so rather than wait another 45 minutes for the next one, we decided to plead, and generously the driver allowed us to board. It was a bit of a kerfuffle - the pram wouldn't fit on without being collapsed and we really did have quite a lot of baby-associ...

The Airport Hotel

From the front The Airport Hotel looks rather like an unassuming pub, but the rear sits just 50 feet from the final approach for Manchester Airport's Runway 23R, and the close-up views of aircraft landing are superb.   The car park at the pub is a small pay and display, but for £3 for one hour you get a £2 voucher redeemable against food or drink purchased inside; £5 for up to four hours' parking entitles you to a £4 voucher. A word of warning: do not park on the road as you're likely to end up with a £60 parking ticket. At the back of the pub you'll find a...

The Aviation Viewing Park

A £5 note gains you entry to the large piece of grassy land adjacent to the runway at Manchester Airport that is always full of people with binoculars. It is somewhere I'd often wondered about as my plane came into land at the airport.   Summer 2009 saw the Aviation Viewing Park re-open after a £1 million facelift. All the facilities have been improved with a smart new restaurant offering meals (including a well-priced children's selection) throughout the day, a more casual take- out cafˇ where you can grab coffee, hot snacks and ice cream and a fun shop selling more aeropla...

The Heights of Abraham

If you fancy a trip in a cable car... well, it's not impossible, but it's a bit of a drive. An hour and a half south in fact, through the Peak District to Matlock Bath in Derbyshire. If it does take your fancy, it's a good trip, as it's through stunning countryside, taking in the likes of Buxton, Bakewell (try a tart - nothing like the shop-bought ones) and Chatsworth.   The Heights of Abraham was Britain's first alpine-style cable car when it opened in 1984. It's now a beautiful trip up over the Derwent Valley to Hilltop Park at the Heights. Once up there, as well as the fantastic view...

The Wheel of Manchester

Every trip into Manchester city centre for the past 12 months has been dogged by our three-year-old pleading to go on the big wheel. As a vertigo sufferer, I've sought to avoid this, so he's been the beneficiary of a ridiculous number of bribes to divert attention. However, with friends to stay who were also desperate to go up, I found myself in a pod with another nervous father and two highly excitable toddlers.   Up we went, with the kids dashing from side to side, each outdoing the other spotting buses, trains and trams. My little boy started to point out places we'd been to and was ...

The Yellow Duckmarine

If you are visiting the Tate Liverpool, it is an ideal trip to combine with The Yellow Duckmarine, otherwise known as the Wacker Quacker. This is a fleet of World War Two amphibious vehicles painted bright yellow and used to provide guided tours around the city.   The tour guides are jokey and informal and the vehicle is unusual enough, what with its roll-up polythene windows etc to keep young minds and hands occupied. However, all of this pales into insignificance compared with the moment when children realise the bus is actually going to drive into the river. You hurtle down the gangp...