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Germany, 2018 – Miniatur Wunderland

Miniatur Wunderland is nothing short of crazy. Two levels of HO scale model railroading at its finest. It's been around for over 10 years and has nearly seen the population of Australia in visitors! We were on a road-trip in a beautiful XF Jaguar (man, the Autobahns are fun) and I made sure we detoured via this monument.

Miniatur Wunderland is located in Hamburg in a converted warehouse. Actually, they were still converting the warehouse (or the lower levels) when we were trying to enter and had to walk around a team angle-grinding the staircase... Regardless, we made it inside and even beat the queues. As we were leaving it turns out there was a wait to get inside!

The place is split up geographically, but all layouts are completely connected. It then turns where's-wally style with all sorts of trinkets to find. You also then get pushbuttons on the railings to activate random animations on the layout. In the last shot above, the conservatorium, which is a scale model of the actual building in Hamburg, splits open and the orchestra plays. It's pretty damn amazing!

Day and Night are modelled... snow as well! As you traverse the layout you end up going through America and all of the Europes... The model then gets two-level and you get a chance to watch trains tackle some serious terrain.

There's even a train elevator working automatically behind the scenes!

Of course, a lot of people come for the airport. The planes even take off and land! Also, keep your eyes open for whacky vehicles... which also take off and land... and even play appropriate theme songs when doing so!

The control room is also crazy. There were at least 5 full-time staff watching cameras and reports. Some were even sending rescue locos in to bump trains.

And finally... don't forget to shop and eat.

The cafe at the end is modelled as per the internals of a buffet carriage. All train nerds should visit this place!