Miniatur Wunderland

[Martijn Meerts]

They're having it constructed by professional bridge builders. It'll be an actual full size bridge for visitors to walk across as well. Of course, with the whole corona thing, it's all been delayed somewhat, but construction is ongoing.

[roadstar_na6]

It‘s really not that far between the two buildings, the water streets there are very narrow, around 20 meters.

 

I‘m very excited for their next projects and a new visit is due sometime soon. I‘ve been there last year but a lot has happened since then.

[disturbman]

6 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

Structurally, it will be challenging, and also it has to be weather proof...🙂

It will probably be a normal skybridge.

[Pauljag900]

I was fortunate enough to be working on the Airbus a320 final assembly line in 2002 and flew the family over for the weekend and we visited this place,it was unbelievable,it’s just so vast,so many floors,and that was 18 years ago,lots more has been added since then,like the airport.

just for the record,it was this visit and seeing the fair that got me back in to model making! Admittedly it took me another 12 tears to get started! 😂😂👍

[Madsing]

I visited Miniatur Wunderland 3 or 4 years ago with my family during a trip to Europe. Really incredible! We spent one entire day there! Highly recommended. We will go back.

[cteno4]

It’s on the list here!

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

On 6/9/2020 at 10:34 AM, disturbman said:

It will probably be a normal skybridge.

 

Actually, they're planning on making it a fully sceniced section of the layout. Obviously from the outside it's just going to be a simple bridge for pedestrians, but I do believe they want to have trains running through it, and also scenery elements showing miniature people actually travelling to the other building. 

 

There's been very little info about it all apart from the video I linked, so it remains to be seen. They're quite a bit behind schedule due to all that's been going on as well. 

[disturbman]

I meant "normal" as in "enclosed". These are fairly normal. I don't think I ever say a bridge between buildings that are not enclosed.

[Yavianice]

 

They kept themselves busy during lockdown

[Szdfan]

49 minutes ago, Yavianice said:

 

They kept themselves busy during lockdown

I don’t think I had any idea how massive this display is until I saw this video. 

[cteno4]

So it looks like LGB chipped in some for the track maybe? Wondering if they are going to sell the glasses in the gift shop as being part of a world record...

 

neat way to keep staff spirits up and hilight the layout in an interesting way.

 

jeff

[Yavianice]

7 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

So it looks like LGB chipped in some for the track maybe?

Im pretty sure they cooperate with märklin and get a hefty discount on everything, since the whole layout uses Märklin/Trix. LGB is Part of the Märklin brand

[Yavianice]

5 hours ago, Szdfan said:

I don’t think I had any idea how massive this display is until I saw this video. 

Not shown in the video is the bridge they are building across the canal to another building where they will build an Asia themed layout.

[cteno4]

Track could also be laser etched as a record breaker and sold! 
 

what happened with the South America deal they did last year?

 

jeff

[Jaco3011]

26 minutes ago, Yavianice said:

Asia themed layout.

Asia, as Japan, Taiwan, PRC, India, North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Thailand...?

[roadstar_na6]

Asia is looong in the future tho, the first region they'll be building in the new building will be South America. @cteno4, they quite recently posted an update on that topic on YouTube 😉

[cteno4]

Wow, didn’t realize the layout was being constructed in Rio de Janeiro and the South American family they were talking about were the folks creating most of it. Great to use South Americans as they noted to make sure to get the right visuals and feel.

 

funny I was at the Custom Model Railroads shop when they were slicing up a ver big custom layout they did for a museum i think in Puerto Rico a long time back. Same process chop shop, then big crates, then container. They had a big metal base on each with retractable wheels and just slipped a big crate top over it.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

Super interesting. Thanks jeff.  I just found a mini-series about the process on YouTube.

 

 

[cteno4]

Sorry I should have posted those! Yes quite a family.

 

it was funny as I had it in my head some rich family was bankrolling the south American layout, not making it!

 

I love how he engineered a flexible base on the power poles so a small bang would let it give and not snap. Going to have to give that a thought in the future. One of the biggest broken things on our Ttrak are street lights, power poles and traffic lights.

 

jeff

[Robsr]

I’ve seen it on lots of videos and plan to go in 2024. 
I’m trying to get things from my real life into the layout I’m going to build and I’m building up a stock of vehicles and buildings from places I’ve lived.

one of my interests is cruising and I know they’ve got a model 2.2m long.

id like one as a backdrop but can’t find a suitable model and a local model making company would charge me too much. 
would a side-on photograph blown up to the correct size look realistic as I’ve noticed a lot of commercial back scenes are photographs now. 

[Martijn Meerts]

I visited Miniatur Wunderland for the 2nd time a few weeks ago. Previous time I visited they were still working on the airport, so it was quite a while ago. Seeing the airport all finished now was absolutely amazing, it's definitely one of the more impressive parts of the layout, even if there are very few trains running around there.

 

There wasn't much yet in the new building, but I have to say, walking across their bridge was pretty crazy, especially considering I've been following Miniatur Wunderland since they were (sort of) joking about building that bridge. The new building is still pretty empty, but seeing the few bits of Patagonia and it's narrow gauge and dual gauge tracks motivated me to work more on my own H0j / H0e project.

 

Getting tickets was crazy, the place is almost always sold out. I ended up getting a combo ticket for a boat ride through Hamburg's harbour, and afterwards get access to Miniatur Wunderland. The boat ride started around 18:45 and lasted around an hour, so we didn't have a huge amount of time to see the layout, and I probably missed a lot of details, but it was still a lot of fun.

 

[cteno4]

Bummer it was such a short visit, but it’s GOOD it’s so popular and thus thriving.

 

jeff