Hi, my name is David. I am the general contractor for the Great Train Story at Chicago's Museum of Science & Industry. The GTS is among the ten largest HO scale layouts in the United States. As contractor I am presently responsible for all purchasing, repair, maintenance, and day-to-day operation. The museum website is

http://msichicago.org/exhibit/great_tra ... index.html

I am traveling to Europe in two weeks and have scheduled an entire day, March 7, 2008, in Hamburg to visit Wunderland. I emailed your contact source but have not received a response. I would like to make arrangements for the day's visit.

In addition to the museum, I sponsor a personal traveling layout that models the Northeast Corridor Amtrak electric operation in HO scale. That website is

http://web.mac.com/msibnsf/iWeb/Acela%2 ... Speed.html

I await your repsonse. Thanks

David Harrison

[color=green]My visit to Minatur Wunderland was just as advertised....exciting!! Your guide, Sonja, was a perfect match. When I returned to the USA, I reminded myself that I had not asked about how the layout was kept so clean. Not to worry, there will be a second visit by the month of May. In the meantime, a shipment of American Railroad BNSF hats is on its way to Sonja. And yes, Erhard, there's one for you too.javascript:emoticon(':shock:')javascript:emoticon(':wink:')

I also rode the fast trains while in Europe. On Tuesday it was the Eurostar, on Wednesday, the TGV Lyria, on Thursday ICE, followed by the Thalys on Saturday. Of course the German ICE was the best with the view from right behind the driver on one of the new ICE-3 trainsets. And better still on the 200 MPH new track.

Our layout at the museum is certainly among the ten largest in the USA. Now I undersgtand what we coculd do if we had a staff even one half as large as Wunderland. We're only two staffers, LOL.javascript:emoticon(':lol:')

David Harrison[/color]