Miniatur Wunderland
The Miniatur Wunderland ( proper name without hyphen, short MiWuLa ) in Hamburg is the largest model railway in the world. It is located in the historic warehouse district and is operated by the Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg GmbH. On the 1300 square meter ( m²) large contact surface a total of 13 kilometers of track are in scale 1:87 ( H0 nominal size ) on which 930 operate digitally controlled trains.
- 5.1 Small additional portions
History
In the summer of 2000, Frederik Braun, one of the founders of the Miniatur Wunderland, in Zurich on vacation. There he came in a model railway shop the idea to the largest model railway in the world. At home looking Frederik e- mail addresses from the Internet and launched a survey on the popularity of real and fictional sights of Hamburg. The Miniatur Wunderland has been, even though it did not exist, elected by the male respondents in 3rd place.
According to the company of the brothers Gerrit and Frederik Braun, the original idea for the MiWuLa including financing plan was built on two A4 sheets. Donors was the Hamburger Sparkasse, supported by guarantees from the owners and later for the construction of a first bistros of Bürgschaftsgemeinschaft Hamburg.
After the start of construction in December 2000, went on 16 August 2001, the first three plant sections ( Knuffingen, Central Germany and Austria ) in operation. Since then, constantly new components have been added. Ever since the section of coast in November 2002 completed, the Wonderland is the largest model railway in Europe. The extensions in December 2003 ( USA) and July 2005 ( Scandinavia) finally brought the hamburger to its goal to build the largest model railway in the world. Meanwhile, more than ten million people have visited the plant. In 2010, a new visitor record was set with about 1,070,000 visitors. In 2011, this increased to 1,200,000 visitors again. So far, the founders have invested around 12 million euros; at the same time the plant was financed without any public funds.
On 26 March 2010, the company's founder Frederik and Gerrit Braun and Stephan Hertz got for her social commitment to the Order of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany awarded. In 2012, the Miniatur Wunderland for the Michelleti Award was, as the best technology and industrial museum in Europe nominated.
On December 5, 2012, the ten millionth visitor was welcomed in the Miniatur Wunderland.
Model railway layout
The visitors go into a long corridor between different rooms back and forth. Trains run to the room walls and on peninsula -like bulges. The system consists (as of May 2011) of eight completed sections of 100 to 300 m model area:
- The first three sections were created in parallel. Show central and southern Germany with the resin, it also has a long ICE high- speed train line.
- The fictional city Knuffingen received as a special feature a road system with moving cars.
- In the section Austria involved the interpretation of the theme Alps, including through a multi-storey spiral, trains from the other sections change from which the corridor side above the heads of visitors.
- The next stage comprises the portion with the theme Hamburg, German coast.
- The United States section contains, among other things, Las Vegas, Miami, something the Wild West, again a system with moving cars and a spaceport.
- The section Scandinavia sets the focus with a real water surface: In the 30,000 -liter " Kiel " sea bath will in future operate computer-controlled ships. At the moment that is still controlled manually. Also tides are simulated here. The 'sea' is crossed by a Storebeltbrücke. A mining operation is reminiscent of Kiruna.
- The two floors reaching Swiss Alps were completed in November 2007. Through a ceiling opening on a total area of 100 m², the mountains reach almost six meters in height. The visitors reach this new level by stairs, while the trains overcome covert sweeping and in a Loklift the height differences. At the landscapes of the cantons of Ticino and Graubünden should be remembered.
- The section " Knuffingen Airport " was opened after around six years construction and development time and 3.5 million euro investment in May 2011. You can see a 150 m² large airport with a globally unique airport control.
- A small section is the HafenCity with the Elbe Philharmonic Hall. In May 2012, starting with the planning and in August of the same year with the construction. A total of 9m ² were available, on this surface 10 selected houses were built. The opening was on November 13, 2013, and was streamed live.
Special
The special features include a simulated daily routine, in which repeat every 15 minutes twilight, night and day. This includes an automatic lighting control, which switches to match the more than 300,000 lights in the daytime.
The 120 -square-foot fantasy city Knuffingen with around 6,000 inhabitants is equipped with over 100 mobile model cars, including numerous fire engines, which in Knuffingen a fire brigade is simulated on average every ten minutes. The traffic simulation is made possible by a modified car system, which is also used in the sections United States, Scandinavia and Knuffingen Airport. The movement of the aircraft on the ground is implemented using a style similar to the car system technology.
The plant is considered rich in detail, as examples are a changing scoreboard at the Imtech Arena and a magnetically controlled cow in a cow patty bingo game, an abortive cheese wheel vise and a miniature BlinkenLights in Hamburg part. With around 200 visitors can switch on the system, control: For example starts a Bergwerkszug, windmills rotate, at the Imtech Arena falls the next goal, a space shuttle launch or a helicopter lifts off.
During special tours, a look behind the scenes is possible. It turns out that the attention to detail does not stop even at non-accessible from the normal public sector bodies.
Knuffingen Airport
After six years of planning and construction period is 4 May 2011 as a special plant section of the model airport " Knuffingen Airport " officially went into operation for the visitors. His buildings are similar to the Hamburg airport. As in fictitious capital Knuffingen there is also a simulation of a fire brigade with four airport fire vehicles. On the 14 -meter-long runway aircraft models on a scale unseen sled can be accelerated and even seemingly realistic stand out by means of two guide rods from the ground and in a (clouds ) wall disappear. Through the guide rods depending on the starting phase, a horizontal inclination of the planes of reality approximation. In contrast to the reality and as a concession to the integration into a system with a change of scenery and railway companies keep on the Airport Station (Line S 1) not only suburban trains, but also long-distance trains.
According to the operator stuck in the 150 square meters adjacent to 150,000 work hours also around 3.5 million euros in costs. The area is not only equipped with lots of taxiing aircraft models but also with hundreds of cars, passenger boarding bridges, car park, airport hotel and individual figures.
Presence in the media
The 106 -minute mirror TV documentary Miniature Wonderland - Behind the scenes of the biggest digital model railway in the world from 2004 gives an insight into the planning, construction and everyday life of the Miniatur Wunderland.
Several times the hamburgers were after the completion of various development stages visited by a team of reporters from the railway romance SWR. Also they have been granted a glimpse behind the scenes. Many television stations, magazines and newspapers have already reported frequently about the Miniatur Wunderland.
In May 2009, the rapper Samy Deluxe turned the video clip to his socio-critical song Mute the Miniatur Wunderland. Within just one night about 100 sequences were included, in which a miniature figure by the system "runs" ( stop-motion ).
On 5 December 2009, the outside bet of the television program was Wetten, dass. ? Miniatur Wunderland instead.
The plot of several episodes of the Hamburg police series Großstadtrevier played in the Miniatur Wunderland.
Scale fidelity
Some of the reality wholly or partially modeled structures do not conform to the system underlying general scale of 1:87, but are sometimes presented significantly reduced. To measure the start and runway of the airport operator in the length of about 14 meters instead of the scale indicated 30 to 45 meters and in width significantly less than the proportionate 50 to 70 cm. The replicas of the Heinrich -Hertz- Tower and the St. Michael's Church are significantly lower than the required heights of 3.20 m and 1.50 m respectively. The football field in the arena is also shorter than those of the corresponding gauge 1.20 m and correspondingly narrower with the scale 1:150 corresponding length of 70 cm. The slope angle of the dikes are in the reality of clearly exaggerated to require a smaller width. Neuschwanstein Castle is built on a scale of 1:120. In the new "section HafenCity and Elbe Philharmonic Hall ", another scale was also used as well. The buildings are all on a floor plan of 1:120, so they had upset and some floors are even missing, so that the figures (which also there are in 1:87 scale ) fit into the building. The Elbe Philharmonic Hall itself is at a scale of 1:130 again somewhat smaller: If you look at building from below upwards, they seem much larger than if one looks down as in this model, from the top of the building.