The Model, Military or Railway tour of '24 - Part 5

The weather had finally changed to the better, and there were good conditions for riding motorcycle again. Staying in Linköping overnight, I had a good starting-point to visit an old narrow gauged heritage railway located just some 35km outside of the town. I have a soft spot for narrow gauge railways. This has a gauge of 600m.

Risten - Lakvik Museum Railway 

This heritage railway is run by a group of most friendly and helpful enthusiasts, so they took me on a tour through their engine shed.

There they had a German steamlocomotive in running condition with WW2 battle damage (chimney shoot off, patches in the roof to seal of bullet holes and shrapnel markings on the suspension):

There was one other engine in the shed that really caught my interest. This is a original German military HF130C of the same type I made from a LGB-model. This locomotive had been used at an industrial railway since 1948. I did not know that the engine in these locomotives are identical to German submarine engines.

There were even an old disused model railway stowed away in the shed:

They did not have any 'museum-shop' except for an excellent café:

And that was actually the one thing on today's to-do list. While heading west wards I passed this:

More than 2600km ,a new rear tyre and several experiences later it's perhaps time to start thinking about returning home as it will take another day just driving home again. Besides I think my youngest son misses me:

I hope those of you who have followed me on this tour had a good time and enjoyed yourself. Thank you for reading, and especially thanks to those of you who commented! 

On Monday there will be another update on this blog again, but on a completely different subject.

Please follow. 

The Model, Military or Railway tour of '24 - Part 4

Those museums and places I like to visit closes 'early' in Sweden,  so if you like to visit more than one such place a day, some careful planning is necessary due to distances and travelling time. Let's see how many I have time for today.  Først one is:

Miniature Kingdom 

This is a large commercially built model railway display located in Kungsör. It is pretty new as well.

It shows different regions in Sweden with a lot of key elements and cameos. This 'Sweden in Miniature' is also built to a very high standard and the scenery is not 'overloaded' with details. And it's not too many trains running at the time to 'disturb' that impression.

And in model:

Stockholm:

The heritage narrow gauge railway at Mariefred:

Famous Swedes:

And some military presence:

Boden fortress

They are expanding with new construction stages. Perhaps this will reveal what to expect?

They have collected a couple of layouts that's been appearing in movies or tv-series.

They also have a layout for kids to operate.

A small and simple layout contained key elements from the city where I spent last night, Eskilstuna

Many of the layouts buildings are built after the Swedish originals and are 3D-printed in parts (with a FDM-printer).

They even had a table that would probably be interesting for the wargamers.

The shop was small though...

So time to move again to see if I have time for the next attraction today (which I had).

The Swedish Air Force Museum 

Sweden had the world's 4th biggest air force during the cold war, and have so many aircrafts to exhibit so they don't need to display many models. It was very interesting though as this museum has several aircrafts which the only sample left is exhibited here.

Gloster Gladiator was also used by the Norwegian air force.

...the 'Storch' too...

One cabinet of models:

And some at the entance:

Interesting that Sweden used Saab Tunnan jets in UN service during the Congo Crisis. On the ground you can see a couple of the KP-cars from my previous post yesterday:

I'm quite not sure which 'craft' this is:

Actually it's a Futoro

The shop was interesting too...

Their Café was to high standards, and a nice place to spend some time while waiting for the rain to stop. -Which it didn't...

Tomorrow's plan is very weather dependant...

The Model, Military or Railway tour of '24 - Part 3

I went from Finland (back) to Sweden by ferry last night.

On my way to today's destination I was coincidentally passing one of the stations of the Swedish heritage narrow gauge railway "Lennakatten", where they were  firing up a steam engine for today's service.

So, after this little unplanned 'disruption' it was off again for today's destinations:

Modelljärnvägens hus 

There is no good way to translate this, as this is it's name. Translated it would be something like "The House of Model Railways', and it's a small family driven business. 

They displays several own layouts, and cudos for letting kids run different trains on them (!)

H0 Layout with 4 seasons. One each side

Z scale (1:220)

H0e

Both the station and the train I saw earlier today in 1:1, now in 1:87. Same but different:

They also has a couple of trains running continuously on a lovly garden railway:

They have also collected and displaying several 'famous' Swedish layouts and collections which has appeared in books, magazines and in different "how to-" descriptions. 

N-scale

Hans Svenssons "Glad-bygge", converted H0 models into larger scale narrow gauge 

Forced perspective; 1:32 in front of the tracks, 1:35 at and right behind the tracks and 1:45 in the background 

They did not have much in their shop except for magazines and books....

...but they sells great food and coffee in their splendid café!!

What are these? German panzers??

Sweden bought several German panzers after WW2 for evaluation (as they manufactured their own tanks). They even bought a Tiger II. 

So perhaps the German panzers above are on their way to Arsenalen, The Swedish Tank Museum. I think I'll head that way too:

The Swedish Tank Museum, Arsenalen 

One and a half hour later I arrived the Swedish tank museum. They have a huge collection reflecting that Sweden has made many of their own armored vehicles due to their neutrality.

It was especially this section of their collection that caught my interest as it displayed Swedish UN vehicles used during the Congo Crisis (as I often wargaming this conflict):

2 M8 Greyhounds were captured from Katangese forces, re-marked at used in UN service by the Swedes

2 M3 Whites were also captured by Swedish UN 

KP-bilen was a Swedish APC based on a truck  made during WW2, and was in service until the 1990ies. It was also used by Swedes and others in Congo. The design was so successful that UN bought several of them of Sweden:

They displays some of their collection in life size dioramas.

The snow looks so real that it makes you freeze 

They also have some scale models:

Mobile infantry? 

They also have a large display showing the different units in an army, and how they work to support the whole army.

A 15th century regiment 

A diorama of the battle of Stäket August 13th 1719 between Sweden and Russian forces. The diorama is made up of 1600 miniatures.

The museum shop...

... had toy soldiers, but not any high quality ones.

The were priced about the same as the ones at The Finnish Tank Museum at Parola. Not inexpensive...

Their Café is only nice if the weather is...