In Hamburg’s miniature wonderland, the biggest HO model train installation in the world, a 1:87 fuel cell bus from Mercedes-Benz recently started doing its rounds. The model, sponsored by Daimler AG’s research area, is just 14 cm long and fully operational. Driving power is provided by a miniature fuel cell which, burning hydrogen and oxygen, generates electricity, to keep the bus’s mini-electric motor going. The tank holds fuel for a five-minute drive; after that the bus is refuelled with hydrogen in an ecologically-friendly manner at a solar filling station specially built for the bus. The miniature fuel cell bus follows on the largest practical fuel cell test in the world.

Between 2003 and 2006, 30 buses based on the Mercedes-Benz Citaro operated in large European cities, and three in Australia (Perth) and China (Peking), respectively. The combined distance covered by these vehicles was over two million low-pollutant kilometres and the time in operation was around 135,000 hours. With an availability of 90 to 95 percent, the Citaro fuel cell buses convincingly demonstrated their suitability for everyday use.

The buses participated in the CUTE project (Clean Urban Transport for Europe), with which 31 European partners from commerce and industry, science and politics have promoted hydrogen technology and production - as well as supporting the necessary infrastructure.

The miniature wonderland in Hamburg is an attraction of the superlative. In the biggest HO-scale model train installation in the world, on a surface of over 6000 square metres, there are around 830 trains with 15,000 wagons controlled by 36 computers. A further 200,000 moving miniatures and about 300,000 lights complete the wonderland. Walking through this attraction takes one through many parts of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia. In 2008 it was visited by over 1,000,000 people.