Model railways aren’t the most expensive hobby, unless of course you have one of these…
For trains, the most expensive I’ve come across is a solid Gold train shown in the US in 2010 (see below) which went for $150,000, roughly £100,000. Many would argue that this can’t be classed as a genuine train for model railways but it was a model train.
Trumping this, is a genuine model railway by one of the most well known railway enthusiasts – Pete Waterman. The music mogul is selling his model railway collection for £1million as reported here.
Then of course there’s this ‘Railway resort’ home in Oregon, which recently went on the market for $3.5million (approx. £2.3million at time of writing). The garden railway runs around a 19.67 acre estate, passings through tunnels and over bridges and includes a station, a miniature rail yard to service the trains.
But these don’t touch what is surely the most expensive.
Worth a staggering £10million (€15million), Miniatur Wunderland in Germany is by far the biggest and most expensive model railway in the world.
The Hamburg based layout has been constantly growing since 2001 and now has seven areas, including recreations of Hamburg, the Alps, America, Switzerland, Scandinavia and a fully operational airport with 930 trains and 14,450 wagons running over 13,000 Meters of track.
Watch this video just a hint of this amazing creation:
Andy is a lifelong modeler, writer, and founder of modelrailwayengineer.com. He has been building model railways, dioramas, and miniatures for over 20 years. His passion for model making and railways began when he was a child, building his first layout at the age of seven.
Andy’s particular passion is making scenery and structures in 4mm scale, which he sells commercially. He is particularly interested in modelling the railways of South West England during the late Victorian/early Edwardian era, although he also enjoys making sci-fi and fantasy figures and dioramas. His website has won several awards, and he is a member of MERG (Model Railway Electronics Group) and the 009 Society.
When not making models, Andy lives in Surrey with his wife and teenage son. Other interests include history, science fiction, photography, and programming. Read more about Andy.