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VISITING
AUTHOR/EDITOR ARTICLE
NOVEMBER
2009
Miniatur
Wunderland
Hamburg,
Germany
Forwarded
by Jon C. Zimmerman
Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany is the
world’s largest model train set. It measures a whopping
11, 840 square feet, but that size is hard to comprehend
until you watch this video.
This is the world's biggest train set which covers 1,150 square meters (12,380 square feet),
features almost six miles of track and is still not
complete.
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Twin brothers Frederick and
Gerrit Braun, 41, began work
on the 'Miniatur Wunderland' in 2000 |
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The set covers six regions including
America , Switzerland , Scandinavia ,
Germany and the Austrian Alps. |
The American section features giant
models of the Rocky Mountains,
Everglades, Grand Canyon ... |
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...and Mount Rushmore |
The Swiss section has
a mini-Matterhorn |
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The Scandinavian part has a 4ft long
passenger ship floating in a 'ford' |
It
is expected to be finished in 2014, when the
train
set will cover more than 1,800 square
meters
(19, 376 sq ft) and feature almost 13
miles
of track, by which time detailed models
of
parts of France, Italy and the UK
will have
been
added. |
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It comprises 700 trains with more than
10,000 carriages and wagons. |
The longest train is 46ft long. |
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The scenery includes 900 signals,
2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars
- many with illuminated headlights... |
...and 160,000
individually designed figures. |
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Thousands of kilograms of steel
and wood was used
to construct the scenery... |
The 250,000 lights are rigged up
to a system which mimics night
and day by automatically turning
them on and off |
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The whole system is controlled
from a massive high-tech nerve center. |
In total the set has taken 500,000
hours and more than 8 million
to put together, the vast majority
of which has come from ticket sales. |
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Gerrit said: "Our idea was to build
a world that men, woman, and
children can be equally astonished
and amazed in" |
Frederik added: "Whether gambling
in Las Vegas , hiking in the Alps or
paddling in Norwegian fords
- in Wunderland everything
is possible" |
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The
world's biggest model train set.
It
comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000
carriages and wagons. The longest train is 46 ft
long.
The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800
buildings, 4,000 cars - many with illuminated headlights and 160,000
individually designed figures. Thousands of kilograms
of steel and wood was used to construct the scenery.
The set is on display to the public and is so big that
they employ more than 160 people to show visitors around
their creation.
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