Have any of you seen the pictures or articles of the world's largest model train layout? It is being done by twin brothers, Gerrit & Fredrick Braun. They have been working on the layout for 9 years, and don't expect it to be done until 2014. It is absolutly amazing! Here is a link to an magazine article about the 2 brothers. www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2339182.ece I recieved an e-mail from a friend with pictures of this awsome layout. Enjoy! Tony
Miniatur Wonderland is in Hamburg, Germany. I plan to visit there someday! The place defies description, and that's only from seeing the pictures!
The biggest one I have seen in person was the one they have at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. I remember going there a few times as a kid, and the first place I would be hollering about was to go see the trains. It was two stories tall. You used to stand over it on the 2nd floor looking down over it, or standing at floor level at it. It was huge, but I can't remember how big exactly, I was a little kid, so it probably looked bigger to a kid than it really was, but I do know it took some time to walk completely around it. It was HO. I had heard that they still have it, but now it is N scale I think?
Here it is now I think.. Museum of Science and Industry | What's Here | Exhibits | The Great Train Story
The Santa Fe funded original MSI layout. It was O scale with 2 rail track. http://www.msichicago.org/whats-here/exhibits/the-great-train-story/the-exhibit/history/ The current MSI layout was funded by BNSF and is HO scale. Too bad they didn't go with N[ormal] scale. (I had to get the "N" tie-in.) Yes, the layout at MSI was always the first thing I wanted to see, too.
How Large is the Chicago Layout Here is a link to the reconstruction of the Chicago Museum's Great Train layout rebuild. The original O scale layout was changed to H0 scale in the rebuild. I would like to compare the size of these two layouts. The Wonderland layout will be 1800 square meters when finished in 2014. I can't see to find the size of the Chicago layout. I remember that it was approximately square or rectangular shaped. [Edit no.1] This link has pictures of the original O scale layout. It states that it was 3000 square feet. I would think that the newer H0 scale layout would be about the same size.
cool.. thanks for the correction. All I remember was it was the coolest thing to see when I was a kid. The last time I seen it was well over 30 years ago.. I have very fond memories of that place..
Now to get the same units, the 3000 square feet would be 278.7 square meters, thus a bit less than one sixth of the Wunderland in Hamburg. Nevertheless pretty good size. Need to go there next time I'm in Chicago.
The link to Miniatur Wunderland is here (also an English version, type on the British flag). It is not just a big model railroad, but entertainment for the whole family. I visited it because it is a day trip from where I live, and it is worth the visit. Whether it is the biggest or not, is not really important. But they attract visitors from all Europe, and probably the world. On thing should be clear: it is not a layout with the highest level of detail, like a master builder's layout, but entertainment for the visitors, and you can see that the people building it had a lot of fun. There are lots of funny scenes on the layout. The technical effort to control everything is amazing, trains, cars, ships, all computerized. Only one "weakness": it is H0
I think this is better for a layout this size with all the visitors having to look at things from some distance. Also, there are probably less problems with pick up of electricity. And that couple in the sunflower field would leave even more to the imagination.
You know, when MSI Chicago started building their new HO Scale Layout, I did Halloween Camp-In with my friends. We set up camp and slept right over where they were doing work on it. It was fun to hang around and watch them doing work on the layout. I was also there for the very first Run. EDIT: For those unfamiliar, there is a balcony level that overhangs. We were up there not directly on the floor with them.
It's a great place, if you are ever anywhere near Hamburg, Germany, you (and your family) would enjoy it immensely. I personally think that much of the modeling is spectacular, and there are many spots on the layout that are superbly detailed in nearly a craftsman's way - the portions representing Europe and especially Hamburg itself, for example .... the Scandanavian snow scene is superb.... the North Sea... etc. Arguably, the USA portions of this great layout are such that we Americans might say "Hmm, that's rather impressionistic, not exactly the way we USA people might model it".... but then, if we Americans tried to model our impression of Europe, can you imagine how we Americans wouldn't have first-hand knowledge either. Frankly, I think we as Americans would in general be less good at modeling Europe, than the Europeans who clearly are good at modeling USA. Here's some photos from my November 2005 visit : Miniature_Wonderlands photos and albums on webshots And their official corporate YouTube video: [nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_oDdGmKyA"]YouTube- Broadcast Yourself.[/nomedia] I can't imagine how the layout has improved in the 4 years since I've been there.
