World's biggest train set revealed
The set is being built by two German brothers in an empty building on the banks of the Elbe in Hamburg and includes six regions including America, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany and the Austrian Alps.
The American section features giant models of the Rocky Mountains and Mount Rushmore; the Swiss section has a mini-Matterhorn; and the Scandinavian part has a 4ft long passenger ship floating in a 'fjord'.
It is expected to be finished in 2014, when the train set will cover more than 1,800 square metres (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.
It comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons. The longest train is 46ft long.
The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars - many with illuminated headlights - and 160,000 individually designed figures.
More than 4,000kg of steel was used to construct the scenery along with 700kg of artificial grass.
And the 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system which mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off.
Brothers Frederick and Gerrit Braun, 41, began work on the 'Miniatur Wunderland' in 2000.
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.
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 used to extend the original.
Gerrit said: "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."
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5043428/Worlds-biggest-train-set-revealed.html
VIEW VIDEO AT:
http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/exhibit/video/4-minutes-wunderland/