Miniatur Wunderland (German for miniature wonderland) is a model railway attraction in Hamburg and the largest of its kind in the world, built by the twins Gerrit and Frederik Braun. As of January 2011, the railway consists of 12,000 metres (39,370 ft) of track in HO scale, divided into seven sections: Harz, the fictitious city of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. Of the 6,400 square metres (68,889 sq ft) of floorspace, the model takes 1,150 m2 (12,378 sq ft).
The construction of the first part started in December 2000 and the first three parts were completed in August 2001. Since then over 10 millionen people from all over the world visited the Miniature Wonderland.
By 2020, the exhibit is expected to have reached its final construction phase, including at least a total of ten new sections in a model area of over 2,300 m2 (24,757 sq ft). The eighth section covering an airport opened in May 2011. The exhibit includes 890 trains made up of over 11,000 carriages, 300,000 lights, 215,000 trees, and 200,000 human figurines. The creators will work on models of Italy (section nine, opening planned for summer 2015) and France (opening planned in 2017) now that the airport section is completed. The airport is named Knuffingen International Airport and is modeled after Hamburg International Airport. The opening of the eleventh section, England, is planned for 2019. Possible future additions include Africa, or a futuristic landscape.
[responsivevoice_button voice="UK English Female" buttontext="Listen to this Post"](Latest update: 21 August 2022) Now it's back to business: The European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Günther Oettinger has presented the draft of the new EU budget and as we already know: Money can end...
