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OK, this is really cool, I don’t know if you are a train buff (and you really don’t have to be to appreciate this), so you just might like to take a look at what must be the largest train layout in the world. The video that follows is of the world’s largest train set, covering some 1,150 square meters (12,380 square feet). It features almost six miles of track and is still not complete. It is overseen by twin brothers, Frederick and Gerrit Braun (41) of Germany, who began work on the “Miniature Wonderland” in 2000.

The set covers six regions including America, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany, and the Austrian Alps. The American section features giant models of the Rocky Mountains, the Everglades, the Grand Canyon, and Mount Rushmore. The Swiss section has a mini-Matterhorn. The Scandinavian part has a 4' long passenger ship floating in a “fjord”.

The entire exhibit is expected to be finished in 2014. At that time the train set will cover more than 1,800 square meters (19, 376 sq ft) and feature almost 13 miles of track. It will contain detailed models of parts of France, Italy, and the UK. Currently it comprises 700 trains with more than 10,000 carriages and wagons, the longest train is 46ft long.

The scenery includes 900 signals, 2,800 buildings, 4,000 cars — many with illuminated headlights, and 160,000 individually designed figures. Thousands of kilograms of steel and wood was used to construct the scenery. The 250,000 lights are rigged up to a system which mimics night and day by automatically turning them on and off, and the whole system is controlled from a massive high-tech nerve center.

In total the set has taken 500,000 hours and more than 8 million to put together, the vast majority of which has come from ticket sales. Gerrit said, “Our idea was to build a world that men, woman, and children can be equally astonished and amazed in.” The following video is a 4 minute look at this Hamburg, Germany site.

A shorter (three minutes and not nearly as impressive) video can be found here. This one is narrated (in German), and doesn’t spend nearly as much time on the exhibit.