Not slot cars, but an H.O. wonderland!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=e98_1237657552&p=1

Holy cow! That's awesome!

D A N G :eek:

200,000 miniature figures! Double Dang! :eek::eek:

Sure beats the Children's Museum in Indy.

just one more reason to visit Germany.

Last I checked they were working out how to do an airport with planes that take off and land...

Amazing! :thumbsup::thumbsup: rr

Wow!! It just keeps growing!!!! :freak:The last I saw of this it was just the city. This layout was the inspiration for my lighting cars up. FYI, the vehicles in this video are Faller Road System. They are steered by wire under the roadway and a magnet on the front of the vehicle. They are battery powered, and are programmed to drive themselves to a charging station when the power reaches a certain level. Most of the driving operations are programmed in the computers and they pretty much drive themselves. They stop at stoplights (with brake lights lit) and signal their turns.. Awesome micro technology!!! I'd love to see this layout in person someday!!! Hey I can take the train now that the bridge to Europe has been built!! :lol:

Yup Joe,

This is where I pilfered the fiber optic idea. How'd ya like to work...er...play for these guys?

Imagine the cleaning and maintenence requirments. Probably never ending!

I do believe that would be a dream job.. a never ending dream job!! Someday Bill we gotta go check it out!!!

I do believe that would be a dream job.. a never ending dream job!! Someday Bill we gotta go check it out!!!

I want to come too...Please!

Bob...Whoooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaah...zilla

Yes Bob... you can enter the daydream with us I'm sure!! :lol:

Walthers has a little Faller road systems for sale. I think it was an N scale bus.

AWESOME!!! I would find it very difficult to call "working" there work... This hobby of mine has kept me sane, broke, happy, disappointed, amazed, and many other verbs... But never in the half o century of enjoying the hobby did I ever call it "WORK". Thanks a bunch for the link.

Jeff

Hi folks,

I was in Hamburg last November when a buddy and me together with our sons went there for an HO slotrace event. Of course we just HAD TO take a day more off to visit the "miniature-wonderland"...!

Although we were one of the first visitors on a Monday morning, the queue in front of the entrance (on the 3rd floor) was looong (on weekends you have to wait up to 2 hours - unless you order your tickets online like we did...).

Here´s a shot of the building that thing is located in (price question: Which car is mine? :-) )

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_01.jpg

Really lots of nice and lovely arranged and detailed scenes are to be discovered (besides of the enourmous RR and CarSystem tracks):

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_02.jpg

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_03.jpg

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_05.jpg

Here´s a shot of their fully computerised command central:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_04.jpg

One of the larger RR stations:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_06.jpg

A look inside the soccer stadium with 1000s of Preiser figures (and 100s of flashing cameras!):

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen-de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008.07.jpg

A wonderful camping scene at the riverside:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_08.jpg

A couple more pics to follow...

Claus

BTW:For more information here´s the English version of their official website:
http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/

P.S.: Still wondering why they didn´t acquire a native speaker for their video... ;-)

Here we go with a couple more of my impressions:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_09.jpg

Mountains as high as 2 building floors:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_10.jpg

One of those uncounted "hidden scenes" built into the underground of the structure:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_11.jpg

Lots of LED´s...:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_12.jpg

A rock concert:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_13.jpg

RR station at night (they slowly turn down the lights to simulate night and day every 15 minutes - a little annoying after a couple of hours...):

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_14.jpg

Vegas at night:

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_16.jpg

In the background you see the huge pond ("Norh-Estern sea") with RC ships (they were working on an auto-pilot system for navigating the ships, but w/o success so far...)

http://www.aus-dem-rahmen-gefallen.de/slotcars/forum/miwula_2008_17.jpg

As someone mentioned above working there must be pure fun: It sure isn´t all fun!

I´ve seen a documentation on TV a while ago when they were looking for new staff members thru a "casting show" - it´s hard work! Not only you have to be able to work under the eyes of 1000s of visitors each day (the work areas all have windows!), but the guys behind the "miniature-wonderland" are real managers(!).

We were attending a "look behind the scenes" (cost 15 EUR extra...) and met one of the Braun brothers in person. He was "not amused" at all when our group stumbled into the future airport area (which will be amazing!) where he was testing a kind of catapult - I wouldn´t wanted to be the girl who lead us there...!!!

O.K. - so far for today. Hope you liked the pics. A lot more (and better ones are on their website I already posted).

Oh, and if you really plan on going there: Be prepared to spend some extra $$$ - err: EURos at their shop! Lots of cool RR stuff, kits etc.!!!

Greetings from Germany,

Claus

Thanks Claus for the pictures and the link!! There went 2 hours of my morning!! :lol: As far as guessing which car is yours.... I'll bet it was silver, grey or black.. :jest: I'll take a wild guess and say the black smart car?? under the UR in hamburg??? Just a guess.. As much as I would love to work there, I'm afraid I am not qualified.. and by noon on my first day I'd probably have learned most German swear words :eek: and be led to the door with walking papers.. :tongue:

I would still like to go someday.. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

As far as guessing which car is yours.... I'll bet it was silver, grey or black.. :jest:

Yepp! :-)

I'll take a wild guess and say the black smart car??

Nope! It´s the silver Skoda... :rolleyes:

I really wouldn´t wanna have a Smart - maybe as a city quad with a roof, but definitely not for a 1200 km Nuremburg-Hamburg-Nuremburg trip on the Autobahn!!! :freak:

Greetings from Germany

Claus

Just when i thought i saw it all....GREAT!:thumbsup:

Clause,

Thanks for taking the time to post all these pics. I sure enjoyed looking at them all and will be back again soon to check them out.

Bob...Not a smart car fan either...zilla

those pictures are insane