Wednesday, July 30, 2025

A 'Blitz Excursion' to Sweden - Part 2: Ljungby Miniature World

Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg

Today's destination was Minivärden i Ljungby or the Ljungby Miniature World:

Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Ljungby Miniature World are created upon a donation to Ljungby city given by a late local doctor under the condition that it would be exhibited to the public. The donation was the doctor's private model railway from 1953. So this very old style layout is the first you see when you enter the premises. It's not built to today high standards, but keeping in mind that his "Landet Somewhere (The Country Somewhere)" was built back in the days when modelling supplies were not as readily available as today it certainly has it's charm. To be a doctor I think the builder included surprisingly many 'alcoholic' industries on his layout:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
It was fun to see that the doctor had (scratch-) built his own house, in which this old layout was located in the cellar:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
The model builders at Ljungby has also started to create a narrow gauge layout in H0 on their own, based upon the different narrow gauge lines in this county, Småland.  The layout is set to a 50ies style as all the lines ate closed now. This layout is built to a very high standard, and everything is scratchbuilt:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
They are not quite finished with their 'Småland in miniature' layout quite yet, and they are expanding it. -So this is a reason to revisit this layout in the future:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
They had also made some simple layouts visiting kids could operate:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
The effort to move and display the doctor's original 50ies layout, had collected a lot of different local modellers, who was into all kind of different models. This was represented with own displays showing a big range and diversity in modelling to the public. More trains collections in differentscales and makes...
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
...but also military modelling and dioramas...
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
There was also a big collection of diecast cars. This Tintin collection...
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
...made me think of several of some the readers of this blog. It's made to 1:43,5 scale:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
The "car collection" also included unique scratchbuilt gas-station dioramas in 1:24 scale. All of them former prototypes from Ljungby, but all are gone now. This is actually one of the two such collections in Sweden:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Even more military modelling and dioramas. Even a whole section was devoted to this:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Columbus "discovering" America:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Battle of Hastings:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Stalingrad diorama:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Battle of Narva year 1700  recreate with Prince August 40mm tin soldiers:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
A battle from the AWI:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
This diorama is made by 'flats', and the opposing forces are just painted on the background (!):
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
More flats, Swedes vs. Danes medievals:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
I think this submarine was 3D-printed:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
They also had a own sections for models made with Meccano:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
And a own section for Lego:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
This 1:1 scale model made by Lego reminded me that it was time to "fika" again:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Their Café and 'specialty' is very recommendable:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
This is their shop, where you can by very cheap second hand items:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg
Their map of visitors is very interesting. I wo understand if the one from England is a viewer of this blog? I placed my 'dot' and it was time to move on. If you have a 'dot' on the map, please let me know in the comment-section:
Minivärden i Ljungby. Ljungby Miniature World. Ljungby's greatest tourist attraction. Småland Modelljärnväg

I think this must be one of Ljungby's biggest tourist attractions, as Ljungby is a small, quiet and very lovely town in southern Sweden. If you are in the area I recommend you to pay Minivärden I Ljungby a visit, and place a dot on your home location. It's run by a bunch of friendly modellers, who will gladly tell about their approach to the modelling hobby.

Please stay tuned as it seems like the weather forecast for tomorrow permits a motorcycle ride and another destination...

Tuesday, July 29, 2025

A 'Blitz Excursion' to Sweden - Part 1: Ohsabanan

Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden

Last summer I went on a short, but very eventful, trip on my motorcycle to Finland and Sweden to visit military museums, public model railways and heritage railways. If you missed it you can find the blogposts here:

I did actually plan a couple of more 'stops' and places of interests to visit on my way home on day 5, and possible a 'day 6'. -But it was late in the summer season and several of the places I had in mind was either closed for weekdays or the season, so I didn'tget to visit them.

This week I have some days off from work, so I decided to make a quick mini excursion to Sweden to visit some of the places I missed last summer. I hope you will join this virtual trip, and I'll update the blog as soon as it's possible regarding time and Internet connection the following days. -And if the weather permits. So to get started I had to move out by (very) early dawn. I traveled light to travel fast; not much luggage). I think my wife was wondering why I was up that early:
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Some 450km later I arrived today's destination; Ohsabanan, or the Ohsa Narrow Gauge Heritage Railway. The railway itself is made to 600mm gauge and runs 14,5km between the industrial place of Ohsa and the village of Bor, where it connected with the standard gauge railway. Some inclines on the line is up to 4%. Ohsabanan was constructed in 1910 and was in service until 1967. It opened as a heritage railway in 1970 and has since then operated heritage trains on the whole line.
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
A typical Swedish 'mid summer stake' at Ohsa railway station. The dry brownish colors reminds us that's mid summer is over, and we are slowly moving towards the winter again

Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
There are a lot of inspiration to find when coming to paint and weather G-scale rollingstock:
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
So, why was this one of my places of interests? They have military narrow gauge locomotives like several Simplex':
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Some German counterparts:
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
But my main reason to visit Ohsabanan is that they have 2 ex-German WW1 Heeresfeldbahn Brigadeloks in running condition. Some 2500 was manufactured, and after WW1 several was sold off to other civilian railways as surplus:
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Too bad  none of the Brigadeloks were running this day. The replacement was also made in Germany in 1944, and saw service in East Prussia:
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
The 'terminus' is at the village of Bor, and it's time to turn the train and have a cup of coffee:
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
And then it was time to head back to Ohs again. Tender first:
This is a 'modelling blog' after all, and in the ticket office at Ohs I found this non operational H0e-display:
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Before leaving Ohs it was time for 'fika' (Swedish for coffee and something to eat). This was another Swedish specialty; Köttbullsmacka (bread with meatballs):
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden
Now it was time to find somewhere to sleep for the night. This is not the hotel where I am staying, but I was passing the 'Old West' theme park, High Chaparral on my way and stopped just to take a couple of photos. They also operates a narrow gauge steam railway made to look 'American' and on a large loop. I didn't go inside the park this time though. 
Ohsabanan. A narrow gauge heritage railway in Sweden

It's about time to make plans for tomorrow, so please visit my blog again for updates.

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