Exceptionally large layout

[kashirigi]

My own layout is a piddling 4' x 2'. This layout, on the other hand, has six miles (9.6km) of track.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7962573.stm

 

Unfortunately it doesn't encompass Japan, but that doesn't mean it's not impressive.

 

On another note, does anyone know how they make cars move along roads without track (as shown in the beginning of the video?

[bill937ca]

 

Unfortunately it doesn't encompass Japan, but that doesn't mean it's not impressive.

 

On another note, does anyone know how they make cars move along roads without track (as shown in the beginning of the video?

 

Faller markets a car system in Europe.

 

http://www.midlandred.info/faller.shtml

 

I've heard parts are hard to get in North America.

[scott]

I have to admit, having a ridiculously long track sounds great, but:

 

It has six miles of track, cost £8m to build

 

That's almost $2 million per mile of track! Of course, there's a lot more to it than track.

 

[calculates] Hmmm...at $1.50 per piece, you could have a 6-mile long track built entirely of N Unitrack standard straights for $58,486. I'd hate to think how many power packs you'd need, though, never mind finding a six-mile-long club hall. But 960 scale miles of track is a serious model railroad.

[CaptOblivious]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e98_1237657552

[Guest ___]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e98_1237657552

 

Now, that's what I call a model.

[Bernard]

Unbelievable!!  :o :o

Everything I saw was mind boggling, I couldn't believe all the figures for the rock concert and then it even got better.

[to2leo]

Miniatur Wunderland was an awesome place, I was there for 3 hours!  Aside from the over the top scenery and trains, there are also humourous , shall we say XXX scenes!  Those Germans!

 

One thing that was annoying was the number of squeaky wheels you hear there, I guess they don't have time to lubricate the trains!

[SubwayHypes]

Holy crap, i might be visiting germany soon i MUST visit that.  ABsolutely unbelievable especially at night, imagine how baller that would be to have in your basement.

 

Ive been to Tobu World Square in Japan two times, it is sort of similar, a big miniature world out in the japanese countryside, you take a special train the Tobu Express to get there, but im sure you guys already know about that.

[Martijn Meerts]

I've been to miniatur wunderland, and while it's definately impressive, I feel they've been sacrificing detail for size for several parts of the layout. The detailing is still great, but many bits and pieces feel like they've just been randomly placed where ever there was some space. The use of real water is also a rather big failure in my opinion, it looked totally out of place. That said, the newest Swiss extension is VERY impressive, and a behind the scenes tour is great too (I've made sure they got to know about Kato, Tomix and MicroAce when I was there ;))

 

 

I can recommend "Railz Miniworld" in Rotterdam though. It's not nearly as large as Miniatur Wunderland, but Railz has a certain atmosphere that's really great, everything seems to fit in, and the whole layout has been well planned from the beginning. I might be biased though, since the trains and landscape etc. it all based on Dutch prototype =)

 

Railz actually also used to have plans to build a large-ish N-scale Japanese layout, but not sure what happened to those plans.

[Martijn Meerts]

A note about the faller car system that's used..

 

It does run on tracks, there's copper wires hidden under the roads. There's a variety of accessories as well, such as automated bus stops, "turnouts", crossing etc.

 

The car system used in Miniatur Wunderland is heavily modified. The ones you buy from Faller have no lights and terrible battery life. Also, the axles and steering are all plastic and not very reliable. And of course, they can't be computer controlled (miniatur wunderland designed and built their own system for that).

 

What put me off the car system mostly is actually the fact that the cars leave marks on the roads after driving for a while, which just looks bad =)

 

The car system is also available for N-scale, but details are bad and battery life is even worse than in H0.

[to2leo]

Hey Martjin,

Since this is your neck of the woods, do you know if there are any great railway layout in Spain?  I will be in Barcelona, Madrid, and Valencia.

[Martijn Meerts]

Never heard of a layout in Spain. I only know of some in Germany, The Netherlands, and I think Belgium has one as well somewhere.

[scott]

I hear Spain has a pretty interesting 1:1 scale layout.  ;)

[to2leo]

I CANNOT WAIT!  ICE, TGV, and Talgo technologies all in one place!

I will post pictures!

[scott]

Looking forward to it....you don't need a baggage porter, do you?

[to2leo]

Not for now but my next trip back to Japan...maybe ;D

[scott]

I'll buy a language book and a red cap.

[disturbman]

 

Drool...

[SubwayHypes]

^^ awesome video, whats the train at :47-50 seconds?  I love seeing multiples of certain trains, makes the layouts seem more realistic compared to random train line bashing, although most of us arent rich enough to buy 4 sets of Super Hitachis (I have two though!)

[disturbman]

Yes I do know which train this is. It's a Kiha 183-2550 used for HET (Hokkaido Express Train - Hokuto) services. In N goauge only Tomix produces it (Tomix 92649).