09.05.08 at 12:09 hrs

Weekly Report No 393, CW 19

Messrs. Knaack Krane were ready to help us with this project and sent on of their largest telescoping cranes. This monster ( 60 tons net weight) was positioned in our parking lot. (Please excuse the bad picture quality; they have been captured from a video)

We watched - fascinated by this monster - as the workers of Messrs. Knaack set up their crane. In addition, 70 tons of counterweights were attached to the crane to prevent tipping it over.

After roughly two hours of steup-time, our part was fastened to the hook and learned to fly. Cerrtainly not an easy job for the crane driver since he had to completely rely on the commands of the positioner.

Within half an hour the job was done. The part was safely in our workshop and the crane could be dismantled. We once again thank Messers. Knaack for their support and look forward to the next 'heavy lift' over our roof.

Last week we invited Hamburg's taxidrivers to explore our layout free of charge and after the regular hours. This was our way to say 'Thank you' for recommending the Miniatur Wunderland to their customers and thus make the Wunderland successful.

Every once in a while we are asked how far we got with the ship control. Currently there's not much to report about this since right now Axel and Sascha have to take care of more important and special solutions for the airport section. We will need several new controlling features like the one Axel is just working on: Airplane control.

Another special which Sascha is working on, is a stepper-motor control for the airport section. Unfortunately we cannot use any standard control since the stepper-motors are directly driven by Gerrit's light control units. The two (Sascha and Axel) will participate in many more projects for airport and so the ship control will have to wait another round...