HO, HO, HO

When visiting Wrostercheister, I took my son to view the famous railroad switchyard. All manner of locomotives, passenger trains and freight cars were in action coupling, uncoupling and changing tracks, accompanied to a cacophony of groaning engines and screaming whistles.

We entered the large stationhouse and were surprised to find the ground floor almost fully occupied with an extensive model railroad. The HO model was, we realized, a switchyard, the same switchyard as outside, but on a scale of 1/87. No one ran the model trains; it was computer controlled to exactly mimic the movements and clamor of the real trains outside.

Imagine our astonishment when a guide approached and lifted off the roof of the model stationhouse to reveal a 1/7569 scale model of the same switchyard complete with moving,1mm long locomotives and train cars. I strained to see if I could spy a miniscule model of myself peering over the tiny railway.

The guide with tweezers then carefully lifted the 3mm roof of that stationhouse and pulled down a ceiling-mounted microscope to allow visitors to view the 1/658503 model railroad within.

A copy of its 0.03mm stationhouse 1/57289761 model-filled interior could be viewed nearby under a more powerful microscope. An even smaller silicon railway with nano-trains could be seen in the next room on an electron microscope.

Returning to the car, we noticed excavations for an immense stadium-size building that would cover the entire switchyard. The billboard displayed its design: a scaled up railroad stationhouse.