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Tenerife Weekly - 12th July 2013 - 18th July 2013
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Model railway In The World
Bruce loved model trains as a kid but it wasn’t until he was married that he started to build models. His hobby got so out of control he added five extra basements to his home to house his collection until he finally raised the money to create Northlandz. He says he has sunk ‘several million’ dollars into the project,
which h a s b e e n open to the public since 1997: ‘I worked 18 or 19 hours a day, seven days a week, non-stop,’ Bruce said. It boasts more than eight miles of track and features more than 100 trains, as well as almost 400 bridges and took some 16 years to complete. Northlandz, in Flemington, New Jersey contains more than 3,000 miniature buildings in cities and villages, 50,000 trees and 40-foot bridges spanning huge canyons. It even has its own theme park, complete with a roller coaster. ‘There’s nothing like it,’ he said. ‘Visitors come out saying it’s one of the Wonders of the World.’ He said the attraction is recognized by Guinness World Records as the biggest of its kind on the planet. On its busiest day Northlandz was visited by 2,000 people. It has even attracted several celebrity visitors - including famed model railroad fan, rocker Rod Stewart, Pee Wee Herman and Neil Young, who went to the attraction in disguise. ‘We didn’t even know he was there until the next day,’ said Bruce. Stewart and other stars signed a special ‘celebrity wall’ inside the exhibit. The path through the exhibit - spread across 16 acres - is almost one mile long. Visitors are told at the beginning it will take at least two hours to make their way through the whole thing.