Worlds Largest Model Railway – Guinness World Records

Miniatur Wunderland – Hambur

Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg Germany, has now been officially recognised as the worlds largest model railway by Guinness World Records. This huge HO scale layout is located in a dockside warehouse on the banks of the river Elbe, the city of Hamburg is well worth a visit. Miniatur Wunderland covers several floors within in the building & the team responsible for building the layout, haven’t finished yet. With more sections planned which will include France, Monaco, Britain amongst others in the planning. Check out Guinness World Records video below on this record-breaking layout:

So far the layout has the following areas/regions:

Middle Germany
The fictional town of Knuffingen
Austria
Hamburg
USA
Norway
Sweeden
Finland
Denmark
Switzerland
Italy
Venice
Knuffingen Airport
Venice

The layout features a fully working airport with planes taking off & landing!! Day & night time, working road vehicles, animated scenes, visitor operated push button animated scenes. On the Scandinavian section, it features a fiord (the layout is built into a 3o liter tank) with ships sailing on it. This section also features a massive winter scene….bbbbbrrrrrrr!!

On the USA section many features, such as Las Vagas, the Everglades, NASA launch site complete with space shuttle taking off, the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore. On the Italian section features an erupting volcano, the Italian alps, Rome, Venice.

The team have also constructed a world first a railway tunnel to link the USA with Europe. Okay this is in model form of course, but one feature to look out for on your visit there. Just five centimeters below the floor, trains can be seen below your feet. The tunnel roof is protected by 20mm thick strong bulletproof glass, which allows you to see the trains pass below your feet. The tunnel in the floor was excavated with heavy machinery over a length of five meters long and by ten centimeters deep. The tunnel sidewalls were fitted with 400 LEDs to allow you to see the trains. Care has been taken in waterproofing the tunnel seams, so no humidity can seep through despite the daily cleaning of the floor. However, I hear you say, but what if a train derails in the tunnel? The longest arm of the tallest team member is only a meter long! So if derailed in the middle of the tunnel, they send in the Thunderbird rescue train of four locos. They find that four locos are enough to force out or recover the derailed cars from the tunnel.

The facts & figures are truly amazing, to say the least!! The current state of the layout is as follows:

7,000 m² Rented Space
1,499 m² Layout Size
9 Theme Worlds
15,400 m Track Length
1,040 Trains
more than 10,000 Rail Cars
14.51 m Largest Train Length
1,380 Signals
3,454 Switches
50 Computers
389,000 LEDs
4,340 Buildings
263,000 Figures
9,250 Cars
130,000 Trees
795,000 Working Hours
over 300 Employees
21,000,000 Euros Construction Costs

That’s some staggering figures!! However, once the layout has been completed these are the facts and figures they expect after preliminary completion.

10,000 m² Rented Space
2,300 m² Layout Size
13 Theme Worlds
20,000 m Track Length
1,300 Trains
17,000 Wagons
14.51 m Largest Train Length
1,900 Signals
4,000 Points
64 Computers
500,000 LEDs
6,000 Buildings
400,000 Figures
11,000 Cars
200,000 Trees
900,000 Man Hours
300 Employees
30,000,000 Euro Construction Costs

That’s some mind-boggling figures!! The team are looking at still building & expanding the layout over the next ten years. Part of this future build is to build a bridge across the canal to an adjoining warehouse. This the team say will be classed as the English Channel section & intend to build the Channel Tunnel section across the bridge. This will link up with the planned British section that will be going in the adjoining warehouse. Going by what they’ve done so far & in the teams own words…

“According to today’s plans, the bridge across the canal would become part of the exhibition as well. Upon stepping onto the bridge one would cross the English Channel and find a gigantic England theme world on the other side. We would elaborately depict the mother country of trains on several hundreds of square meters.” When the British section is completed, it’ll surely be the biggest model railway of the UK built to date.

If you plan to visit it’s worth pre-booking your tickets to skip the queue to get in. Allow at least one full day for your visit.

To find out more about this amazing layout please visit their website: https://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/

We’ll leave you now with this overview video of Minitur Wunderland:

In the gallery below is a small selection of photos. Hit the left & right arrows to scroll through the photos. Have you visited this layout? If so share your experiences & photos below.

Happy Modelling