In a miniature world, climate change and environmental issues loom large

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HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Watching his dad make a brand-new miniature train car look old, placing the wooden parts to weather in the sun and rain, pulled Peter Martinez into the world of miniatures. He recalls his father, who made model trains mostly for collectors or hobbyists, wondering why anyone would pay him to do what he thought was the most fun part of the hobby.

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“But luckily they did, and we were able to build an industry around it,” Martinez said.

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The Argentine family business, United Scale Arts, is now partnering with Germany’s Miniatur Wunderland, a museum that houses the largest model train set in the world, to develop new exhibits depicting parts of South America, including the Amazon rainforest and Atacama Desert. But with miniature power comes great responsibility — and both Martinez’s company and the museum are determined that the miniature world reflect both the good and bad of the real thing.

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Real world problems

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So alongside the perfectly shaded rocks and trees, they depict poverty, crime and environmental degradation. In the exhibits already running in Hamburg, built by a team that has grown over the years to hundreds of people, it means that tiny trains pull tiny coal cars into a mining town, but also, on a city bridge, a tiny semitruck hauls the tiny giant blade of a wind turbine.

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And the builders say it means the new models won’t shy away from illustrating real life in the Amazon: they will include scenes of illegal mining, deforestation and forest fires.

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“These are social problems that exist in the real world, and we need to show them also in the models, because I think it’s important not to make this kind of idealistic view of the world, but also to show reality and to use these tools as a learning experience for everyone that visits the Wunderland,” Martinez said.

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Replicas of famous landmarks

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Visitors have a lot to see in the multistory warehouse that is Wunderland. From Las Vegas to Miami Beach, from Rio de Janeiro to Monaco, cars zoom past tiny replicas of buildings as throngs of people, with heads smaller than your fingernail, mill about famous landmarks.

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Cargo ships dominate the glasslike surface of a tiny bay as they chug in with their deliveries. Planes taxi down the runway of an airport. And of course, plenty of trains roll through every landscape to the delight of kids and adults alike.

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‘A dream come true’

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Twin brothers Gerrit and Frederik Braun joined with business partner Stephan Hertz and took out a loan to create Miniatur Wunderland after they left the nightclub business. Frederik had visited a model railroad shop in Zurich, called his brother and suggested they create their own — but a whole lot bigger.

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Gerrit laughed at first. Unlike his brother, he loved the nightclub. But he eventually agreed and now can’t imagine doing anything else.

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“It’s a dream come true that we sit here 25 years later, and playing all day,” he said, chuckling.

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Serious work mixed with play

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But he takes the work seriously. The brothers came up with most of the initial plans for the museum within two weeks, Gerrit said. It’s grown in scope and ambition since then.

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“Ten years ago, we were looking to the old section and saw the real world has changed in this time,” Gerrit said. They realized they needed to update the exhibits to include technologies like electric cars, wind turbines, nuclear power and more. “I have children, and I believe in global warming and I’m sure that we have done it … So if you believe in this, and you have the possibility to show the images, why not?”