World’s largest train set gets even bigger after latest expansion

Miniatur Wunderland record-breaking train set is now even bigger, thanks to a new section based on Monaco. 

The Hamburg-based attraction in Germany officially set new records for the largest model train set and largest model train set (scale length) on 14 August.

Miniatur Wunderland has been the largest model train set since 2011 when the track measured 12,000 m (39,370 ft), but this hasn’t stopped them from expanding farther.

The railway was expanded to 15,400 m (50,525 ft) in 2015 and now measured 15,715 m (51,558 ft 4.78 in), an increase of 315 m (1033.46 ft) (that's longer than London Bridge!).

This latest record is thanks to the opening of the 'Monaco Provence' section which has joined nine other sections: Central Germany; Austria; USA; Switzerland; Italy; Knuffingen; Hamburg; Scandinavia and Venice. The future mini Monaco will eventually consist of around 245 buildings, 20 trains, 1,500 trees, 170 ships and over 50,000 figures and be complete by November 2020. 

But that's just a drop in the ocean compared to the total number of trains, buildings and other scenery items, for Miniatur Wunderland contains:

• 1,040 trains
• 9,250 cars
• 130,000 trees
• 263,000 figures
• 52 flights from its working airport

As well as the overall record, the German modellers have the largest model train set (scale length) at 1,367.2 km (4,485,564 ft 3.73 in), which is how long the railway would be if it was full size.

The team at Miniatur Wunderland have vowed to "never stop building" and have an expansion schedule planned until 2027. Not only do they plan to recreate Monaco, but Miniatur Wunderland want to reconstruct Provence, South America, Central America, The Carribean, Asia and even “The World from Above” in miniature form. 

The newest addition to Miniatur Wunderland will be the new fun fair, completely revised and more than doubled in size from the previous section. Spanning 9 m², new rides, around 100,000 LED lights and other technical gadgets are being installed for the official opening in November this year.