It’s billed as the world’s largest model train set — a miniature world that snakes along 8 miles of track, amid fields, cities, even the snowcapped Swiss Alps.
And it’s becoming one of Germany’s biggest attractions.
Twin brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun, 41, have turned their boyhood passion for model railroads into a lucrative private museum called Miniatur Wunderland, in an old warehouse along the Elbe River. It opened in 2001 and drew 1 million visitors last year.
“We still can’t believe how successful it’s been,” said Gerrit Braun. “Every year gets better than the year before.”
Prison rattled by toilet chef
CLALLAM BAY, Wash.HAMBURG — An inmate’s attempt to heat up sausages in his toilet went up in smoke when the cooking fire forced a unit evacuation at a Washington prison.
Clallam Bay Corrections Center spokeswoman Denise Larson said 130 inmates were evacuated to a dining hall when smoke was spotted coming from a sewer vent pipe Wednesday evening.
She said the smoke was traced to the inmate’s cell and he admitted to trying to heat up snack sausage bought from a prison store in the stainless-steel toilet. The inmate’s identity was not released.
Officer loses sense of smell — and his job
Police officers who lose their sense of smell also risk losing their jobs, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled Thursday.
A suburban Pittsburgh township had the right to fire Officer David J. Agostino after he lost his sense of smell in an off-duty motorcycle accident because officers must be able to detect drugs, alcohol, hazardous materials, natural gas and other substances, a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel ruled.
Agostino was injured in an August 2004 accident. A physician testified that his anosmia — the medical term for lacking a sense of smell — probably was related to a head injury and was permanent.
Passing gas — and blame
“It wasn’t even me. It was a kid who sits in front of me.”
Jonathan Locke Jr., 15, of Lakeland, Fla., who was suspended for passing gas on a school bus. Officials said there’s no rule against flatulence, but there are rules against causing a disturbance on the bus.
