Trip to Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg, 27 - 29 November 2009

I'm just catching up with everything after our trip to Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg. Oh what a wonderful place to visit !!

Before going any further I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to those who made it all possible.

The whole idea was the brainchild of NMRA member Alan Deane, who not only acted as Organiser, but was also one of our two coach drivers. Since initiating the trip, a variety of events seemed to conspire against his best efforts. I know that you have lost money on this event but from a personal point of view - and I'm sure I speak for the others as well when I say Alan, that I felt it was all worthwhile in the end.

Alan's co-driver was (soon to be NMRA British Region member) Bob Norris, and both were accompanied by their respective partners. The good commercial 'box office' films included 'Taken', Rails and Ties, (one I can't remember) and my favourite, Emperor of the North.

But the films that caught the attention of the modellers were Bob's 'home movies' of his N scale loft layout. Bob has prepared something which any commercial video producer would have been proud of, not only taking the video, but editing, and playing all the instruments on the various sound tracks he'd added. Bob has indicated that he will soon become a member of the NMRA because he's "looking for advice and inspiration". He seems to be starting from quite a high level and is already able to provide advice and inspiration to others! Welcome aboard Bob. If you want to see some of Bob's efforts do a You Tube search on bobtheteddybear (no spaces) and see what comes up.

What about Miniatur Wunderland. How do you describe it? Awesome? Inspiring? Jaw dropping? All these and about a dozen other adjectives would not be enough. There was so much detail, so much to see, so many different scenes, so much action, so many miniature people, so many miniature trees, so many building, so many working road vehicles and so many trains, from so many different countries. It was, quite honestly, too much to take in.

What was more the same scenery, road vehicles, buildings, and trains changed entirely as day gave way to night. Yes, it literally went from day to night and back again in this wonderland.

There was even one section where an articulated lorry appeared to catch file with flames and smoke coming out of the trailer. To see the police, fire and ambulance vehicles race to the scene from all over the layout area - and see the other vehicles get out of their way - was truly amazing!

As I said in the beginning I'm literally just catching up so can't go on too long now. All I will say is that I will write an article for inclusion in Roundhouse (you have been warned Martin) and on the appropriate section of our web site. Look out for it.

In the meantime, for those who missed this trip, Alan has told me that he has used this one as a 'fact finding' trip and it is extremely likely that he will organise another trip, this time with 2 full days in Hamburg and also the possibility of joining the group 'on location' in Hamburg for those who want to fly rather than travel by coach. Now that we know what to expect I'm sure it will be soon over subscribed so watch out for details and get your name down quickly.

Once again my grateful thanks to Alan, Bob, Tina and Kathy for looking after us. Your efforts were very much appreciated.

P.S. Photos of the trip will be published very soon.

Mike Hughes
Marketing Co-ordinator NMRA British Region

Another NMRA British Region benefit