ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS: Which is the world’s largest model rail set?

QUESTION: Which is the world’s largest model rail set?

Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, is the world’s largest model railway system. It is home to a miniature railway that stretches over ten miles (16,491m).

The model world includes miniature versions of Hamburg, the German Alps, France, Italy, North America and Scandinavia. 

It is home to 1,231 trains, over 12,000 wagons, 5,278 buildings, 292,110 figurines, 11,080 cars and trucks, 157,000 trees, 1,403 signals, 3,627 switches, 521,500 LED lights and 47 planes.

Miniatur Wunderland was started in 2000 by twin brothers Frederik and Gerrit Braun. Frederik was the ideas man, Gerrit the strategist and engineer who made Frederik’s dream a reality.

The UK’s biggest model railway, Heaton Lodge Junction, is two-and-a-half miles long. It was businessman Simon George’s dream to recreate his favourite childhood spot -a railway junction near Mirfield in West Yorkshire.

The longest model railway track ever assembled was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary, The Biggest Little Railway In The World, hosted by Dick Strawbridge and Claire Barratt. This was a temporary 71-mile model railway that ran from Fort William to Inverness.

Dominic Curtis, Newcastle upon Tyne

QUESTION: Did Pope John XXIII ask a comic author to rewrite the catechism of the Catholic Church to make it more accessible?

Giovannino Guareschi (1908-1968) was an Italian humourist and political journalist. He gave us The Little World Of Don Camillo. These were short stories about Don Camillo, a Catholic priest who has a friendly rivalry with Peppone, the Communist mayor of his little village. 

The hot-headed priest consults with Christ on the altar cross in his church, and the reader is privy to the Lord’s often provocative answers.

The two men have a grudging affection for each other, despite their ideological differences. The stories are some of the most popular and charming works in Italian literature, beloved of clergy and laity alike.

In 1959, Pope John XXIII, a great admirer of the stories, invited Guareschi to write a new catechism (a summary of the official teachings of Roman Catholic beliefs, including creeds, sacraments, commandments and prayers).

This new catechism was to feature Don Camillo — however, Guareschi declined the offer.

Sonia Glenn, Woking, Surrey 

QUESTION: Near-death experiences (NDEs) are mainly Christian-orientated in the West. Have there been NDEs involving other religions?

In his 1975 book Life After Life, psychiatrist Raymond Moody coined the term ‘near-death experiences’. 

Moody has since documented numerous NDEs, discovering that many of these experiences share common features, such as the feeling of being out of one’s body, the sensation of travelling through a tunnel and encountering a bright light, meeting dead loved ones and reaching a ‘point of no return’.

In 2010, Dr Rajiv Parti, an anaesthetist of Indian descent, had a near-death experience following complications from cancer surgery. He reported an out-of-body state where he could see his physical body on the operating table and the surgical team working on him.

Parti described encountering several spiritual figures and deities. He also encountered a ‘being of light’ and ‘angels’.

He recorded his experiences in Dying To Wake Up: A Doctor’s Voyage Into The Afterlife And The Wisdom He Brought Back.

Sam Bercholz is an American teacher of Buddhism who had an NDE following coronary bypass surgery. Bercholz experienced a vision of the underworld, a place of unending suffering where human souls go to meet their karmic retribution. He wrote about this experience in his book A Guided Tour Of Hell.

Mellen-Thomas Benedict was a U.S. artist and agnostic who specialised in stained glass, and, in 1982, was suffering with terminal brain cancer. During this time, he claimed that he was dead for more than an hour and a half, rose up out of his body and went into ‘the light’.

Curious about the universe, he was taken far into the remote depths of existence and even further, into the ‘void of nothingness’ beyond the universe.

Benedict returned to life, fully recovered from his cancer.

His experience is often cited in discussions about consciousness and life after death. He recorded his story in his book, Journey Through The Light And Back. Benedict finally passed away in 2017.

Janice Brand, Redhill, Surrey