Miniature Wünderland

We just got some of the photos up -- come back later for captions and explanations! Click here for the stories about Miniature Wünderland.



There are little fire engines roaming around or docked in their fire stations, and about every 10 minutes, a "fire" breaks out in one of the buildings (complete with smoke and flickering lights) or a truck catches fire or jack-knifes and blocks off the traffic, or a brush-fire starts in one of the fields. When that happens, the little fire engines one by one turn on their siren and run over to the fire! After they've all gathered, the fire is "extinguished," or the truck recovers, and the fire trucks return to their fire station or continue to roam.
[Two photos below show the fire engines accumulating in front of one of the "burning buildings." The third photo shows them starting to accumulate beside the flickering lights of a "brush fire" next to the highway.]


Sonya (holding the laser pointer) guides a tour behind the scenes.


About every 15 minutes, the "sun sets" across Miniature Wünderland, starting with the eastern sections and moving west. The sky lights combine blues and pinks to give a warm glow to the sunset, then at "night" Wünderland seems to be under a cool "moonlight". The lights in the buildings are programmed for each room -- office building lights go on in the early evening and then go dark as people leave to go home, and in the homes the lights come on until people go to bed, coming on again in the early morning.


The sections of the layout are connected by hidden tracks and also by a four-track bridge (behind the woman in the white coat below) and a 4-track "chunnel" built into the floor (below, right).


The water in this section actually rises and falls with the tides. The boats are controlled by the young man in green at the back of the display.





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