Miniatur Wunderland

About

The Miniatur Wunderland (German for: Miniature Wonderland) is, according to Guinness World Records, the largest model railway system in the world. It is located at the historic Speicherstadt in Hamburg and is one of the most popular and most visited sights in Germany. The exhibition includes around 1,230 digitally controlled trains with more than 12,000 wagons. The Wonderland is also designed with around 5,280 houses and bridges, more than 11,800 vehicles – of which around 350 drive independently on the installation – 52 airplanes and around 290,000 figures. The system features a recurring day-night lighting cycle and almost 500,000 built-in LED lights. Of the 10,000 m2 (107,639 sq ft) of floorspace, the models occupies 1,694 m2 (18,234 sq ft). As of May 2025, the railway consisted of 16,491 m (54,104 ft) of track in H0 scale with 3,600 switches and 1,400 signals, divided into twelve sections: Harz mountains, the fictitious town of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, Switzerland, a replica of Hamburg Airport, Italy, Rio de Janeiro, Patagonia and Monaco/Provence. Planning is also in progress for the construction of sections for Central America and the Caribbean...

In the summer of 2000, Frederik Braun, one of the four founders of Miniatur Wunderland, was on vacation in Zurich. In a local model train store he came up with the idea for the world's largest model railway. Back in Hamburg, he searched for email addresses online and started a survey on the popularity of real and fictional sights of the city. In the process, the Miniatur Wunderland, which did not yet exist, was ranked 3 by male respondents. [ clarification needed ]

According to Braun and his twin brother Gerrit, the initial idea and business plan for Miniatur Wunderland fit on just two pages. The financial backer was Hamburger Sparkasse.

The Miniatur Wunderland is controlled by the Delphi programming language.

After construction began in December 2000, the first three sections ( Knuffingen, Central Germany and Austria ) opened on 16 August 2001. Since then, several sections have been added. With the completion of the Hamburg, German Coast section in November 2002, Wunderland became the largest model railroad in Europe. The United States was added in December 2003, followed by Scandinavia in July 2005. On 10 September 2015, the Brauns added the final piece of track between the Switzerland section and a new Italy section, extending the track length from 13,000 meters (43,000 ft) to 15,400 meters (50,500 ft). An observing Guinness judge presented the certificate for the newly established world record.

The 190 m 2 (2,000 sq ft) Bella Italia section was opened on 28 September 2016 after four years under construction, involving 180,000 man hours and costing around €4 million. Work on the Monaco / Provence section started in August 2019 and, when completed, added another 315 meters (1,033 ft). As of 2019, the total length of 15,715 meters (51,558 ft) therefore corresponded to 1,367.21 kilometres (849.54 mi) in real length, making Miniatur Wunderland the largest model railway layout in the world by all measures.

In 2020, a bridge connected the original Wunderland to a building across the canal opened. The new space features depictions of Antarctica and South America, including Rio de Janeiro. Construction on Monaco and Provence, featuring a Formula One circuit, concluded in 2024.

Other future projects include Central America/Caribbean and Asia. The creators say construction on Great Britain will begin in 2028.

Visitors explore different rooms throughout a long corridor. Trains run along the walls of the rooms and on peninsula-like protrusions. The layout consists (as of September 2016) of nine completed sections of 60 to 300 m 2 (650 to 3,230 sq ft).

- The first three sections were created simultaneously, showing central and southern Germany with the Harz mountains and featuring a long ICE - high speed train track.

- The Austria section involved the implementation of the Alps theme, including a multi-level helix from which trains from the other sections change corridor sides above the heads of visitors.

- The next stage of expansion includes the section with the theme Hamburg, German Coast.

- The United States section includes Las Vegas, Miami, some Wild West, another system with moving cars and a spaceport.

- The Scandinavia section has a real water area: in the future, [ when? ] computer-controlled ships will operate in the 30,000 liters (6,600 imp gal; 7,900 U.S. gal) "North Sea" sea tub. At present, [ when? ] they are still controlled manually. Tides are also simulated here.

- The Swiss Alps, extending over two floors, are modeled on the landscapes of the cantons of Ticino, Grisons and Wallis and were completed in November 2007. Through a hole in the ceiling on a total area of 100 m 2 (1,100 sq ft) the mountains reach almost six meters (twenty feet) in height. Visitors reach this new level via stairs, while trains negotiate the height differences in concealed switchbacks and in a locomotive lift.

- The Knuffingen Airport section was opened in May 2011 after around six years in construction and development and an investment of 3.5 million euros. On display is a 150 m 2 (1,600 sq ft) airport with a globally unique airport control system.

- A small section forms the Hamburg HafenCity with the Elbphilharmonie concert hall. Planning began in May 2012 and construction began in August the same year. A total of nine square metres (ninety-seven square feet) were available, and 10 selected houses were built on this area. The opening was on 13 November 2013.

- In 2014, a trip was made to Italy to gain lots of impressions of the country. These were brought into the 9th construction section Italy. In this section, some sights of Rome as well as landscapes like Tuscany or the lava-spewing Vesuvius can be seen. The construction section was presented in a specially created blog and opened in September 2016.

- In February 2018, the Venice section was opened at only 9 m 2 (97 sq ft) in size. Involving around 35,000 man hours, it is the most elaborate section in relation to its size.

Special features include a simulated daily routine where twilight, night and day repeat every 15 minutes. This includes an automatic lighting control system that activates more than 300,000 lights to match the time of day.