Germany: Miniatur Wunderland Is The World’s Largest Model Railway

Hamburg’s Miniatur Wunderland has recently been awarded by Guiness World Records: Offering its guests a track length of 15.4 kilometers it is the world’s largest model railway. Last week, Wunderland grew by 2.4 kilometers of track length when the last section was attached between the Italy and the Swiss area in the framework of the presentation of the “Guiness Wold Record” book for 2016. Thus, the new Italy area is part of the facility now. Construction works for Italy started in 2013 (cf. EAP News from July 2, 2013) and are expected to be completed in summer next year. Marco Frigatti, head of the global records management team for Guinness World Records, handed over the certificate to the founders of Miniatur Wunderland, Frederik and Gerrit Braun. “In its history, Miniatur Wunderland has already broken several records. It is a lot of fun to playfully approach a challenge and to reach something that has never been reached before. We will try to break even more records in the future,” Gerrit Braun explains. Apart from its record as the world’s largest model railway Wunderland also holds the record for the largest miniature airport which occupies a space of 125 square meters. The next years will see further growth of Miniatur Wunderland: In addition to the opening of the Italy area there are plans for the introduction of a Monaco, an England and a France area. According to its own statement, Wunderland welcomes more than 1.2 million visitors each year. (eap)