World's biggest train set

Nine years, £8m and six miles of track later twin brothers present the world's biggest train set


By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 3:00 PM on 25th March 2009

It looks like night has fallen at a busy train station.
Row upon row of carriages wait for the passengers who mill about on platforms or buying last-minute snacks at kiosks.


But this is actually just part of the world's biggest train set which twin brothers have worked on for nine years and spent £8million on.
Stretching for a staggering six miles the track winds its way around some of the world's most famous landmarks, from the mountains of Switzerland to the hotels and casinos of Las Vegas.


Scroll down to see a video of the astonishing model



Enlarge Trains line up at a busy Hamburg station as night falls while tiny figures gather around kiosks

Enlarge Visitors, cameras at the ready, stand in awe at just a part of the six miles of track laid by the twins
The 'Miniatur Wunderland' has six regions including America, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany and the Austrian Alps.
In the U.S. section you'll find intricate models of the Rocky Mountains, the Everglades, Cape Canaveral and the Grand Canyon.
While in Switzerland the mighty Matterhorn mountain rises 6m from the set.
Twin brothers Gerrit and Frederik Braun, 41, from Hamburg decided to make the model so lifelike that they even added 4,000 moving cars, 160,000 figures as well as other forms of transport.

Enlarge With the desert as a backdrop a train rumbles past Las Vegas, lit up in a variety of neon lights

Enlarge A train passes over the Grand Canyon as two planes fly underneath the bridge

Enlarge The twin brothers Gerrit, left, and Frederik Braun who have spent nine years building the model

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Enlarge In this scene from the Swiss Alps the attention to detail is evident from the period bus to the child sitting on her father's shoulders
A music festival in Switzerland is also shown as well as police carrying out an arrest.
The Gerrit brothers say their project is yet unfinished and are aiming to complete their masterpiece by 2014.
'It isn't just a model, but a world that invites visitors to dream,' Frederick said.

Enlarge Change of scene and change of scenery. This winter landscape sees a train moving through a tunnel in the Alps

Enlarge The track runs for six miles through a number of countries and past different scenes from cities to rural landscapes
His brother Gerrit added: 'Our idea was to build a world that men, woman, and children can be equally astonished and amazed in.
'One of our fundamentals has always been to meet every challenge, no matter how hopeless it seems to be in the beginning.
'With this attitude we managed to create technology which amaze our visitors.'

Enlarge So far 160,000 figures have been used on the set which still has another five years to go before it is completed

Enlarge Here the train track passes a horse show taking place in front of a Scandinavian castle
The model has a number of mind-boggling figures. It comprises of 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons. The longest train stands at a staggering 46ft. It even has a control centre from which the train movements are monitored.

The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars and an impressive 160,000 individually designed figures.
Nearly four tonnes of steel was used to construct the scenery along with 110st of artificial grass.

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The attention to detail is extraordinary. Painters work on a fishing boat, left, while police appear to arrest a man after a traffic accident
And the 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system which mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off.
In total the impressive set, as it stands, has taken 500,000 hours and more than £8m to put together.
Frederik added: ''Whether gambling in Las Vegas, hiking in the Alps or paddling in Norwegian fjords - in Wunderland everything is possible.

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A skier takes a tumble while, right, a cyclist ponders his fate having taken a tumble during a race

'And the world continues growing. In Wunderland you can experience in only a few hours many days and nights in different regions of this earth.
'It isn't just a model railway, but a world which invites the visitors in different ways to dream and discover.
"It reflects a diversity of opinion and enables the observer to regard parts of our world from a totally different perspective.'
The Miniatur Wunderland is located next to the River Elbe in the Speicherstadt area of Hamburg, Germany.


Enlarge The control centre for the mammoth set in Hamburg

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groomerguyNWO said:

Very impressive model. Somewhat similar to the one doc posted a few days ago though.........


http://www.forumsforums.com/3_9/showthread.php?p=252561#post252561

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