Hamburg Model Railroad Museum

[fwdguy]

Has anyone ever visited the Hamburg Model Railroad Museum?

It is the worlds largest operating HO layout.

It is barely possible to describe this layout in a few sentences.

More than 450 trains with 7,000 cars will run on this completely DCC-controlled layout. Realistic train schedules are made up and managed by computers.

Ca. 50,000 trees, 65,000 figures, 3,000 cars, 7,500 meters track, 3,000 structures and bridges, more than 1,000 signals 1,000 turnouts, and a superb scenery will make for a superlative layout.

20,000 lamps light up houses, lanterns, cars (head and rear lights) etc.! Every 15 minutes we will simulate a whole day. It dawns, night falls, and the next day rises. But not as on the usual layouts: Every single of the 20,000 lamps is controlled individually by a computer.

There will be push buttons with which small and grown-up kids can activate many gimmicks throughout the layout. For instance: a mining train starts, there's a "GOAL!" - yell from the soccer-stadium, a wind-driven power generator starts to rotate, and much more. The visitor is fully integrated into the layout.

There will be things never seen before.

The first building phase (which divides into part 1, part 2 and part 3) will encompass a pure layout area of 282 m² (square meters). The 2. lot (divided into part 1 (Hamburg) and part 2 (America)) will have another 240 m², making up for a total layout area of more than 500 m².

http://www.miniatur-wunderland.de/data/cms/en/000/