Hamburg, and a day off with tiny trains

Ray has a show in Hamburg on Thursday evening and so we took the opportunity to go there a day early. We had been invited to view Miniatur Wunderland by Hauke, a friend of Ray, a long-standing Oysterband fan and, for the last 4 years, a modeller and guide at the exhibition. It was too good an invitation to miss.

In July 2000, three friends had the idea to build the biggest model railway set in the world. They found an empty warehouse in Hamburg docks and construction started in December. By August 2001, they had completed a 300 sq metre area and opened to show their first three themed sections – Germany, Knuffingen and Austria. Click here to read more of the history of this amazing wonderland.

The statistics for the exhibition are impressive: 16.5km of railway track; 1100 trains with 300 operating at once; 1,400,000 visitors a year. Dust is a big problem and so they have 70 cleaning trains that go around the track and a network of vacuum tubes to suck away the dust. The lights simulate day and night with 12 minutes of daylight, 3 minutes night time giving a 15 minute day and 4 days per hour!

Each set has hundreds if not thousands of tiny figures. The model of the Olympic stadium itself contains 65,000 figures. Visitors are able to have a 3D model of themselves created that can then be placed in the exhibition.

This is so much more than a model railway. There is a lot of detail to look at. If you look very carefully, or are told where to look, then you see that the modellers have a wicked sense of humour. Some visitors spend all day here. Maximum opening hours can be from 7am to 1am the next day.

This is the warehouse with the main part of the exhibition

The control screens for the trains. Some trains have miniature cameras on the front

The exhibition is arranged in rooms and sets for different countries:

This is a part of Scandinavia

Another part of Scandinavia showing a model of a mine in Kiruna

Switzerland is one of the most impressive themes. They removed part of one floor in order to get the height for the mountains.

A Swiss valley

The sets contain many vehicles which follow tracks hidden in the sets. They are programmed to return to their docking station to recharge their battery when needed.

The buildings are very realistic and although the relative locations of buildings may not be accurate, the modellers capture many significant sights.

In the Scandinavia theme set, there is real water and ships that move. This gives a problem due to the heat generated by the number of visitors. The water must be kept cool at 14C otherwise the evaporation and condensation would affect the sets.

This is Venice

This is another part of Scandinavia.

Night-time is very effective:

Las Vegas at night

A parade in the new Patagonia section.

The exhibition expanded into a neighbouring warehouse and the modellers started building South America last year. The first new section, Patagonia, section opened in February 2023. They are continuing to build more of South America. Visitors can see the new sets take shape as they progress.

This view looks through from one room to others

An example of the sense of humour of the modellers.