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.
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 (!)
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| H0 Layout with 4 seasons. One each side |
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| Z scale (1:220) |
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| 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.
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| N-scale |
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| Hans Svenssons "Glad-bygge", converted H0 models into larger scale narrow gauge |
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| Forced perspective; 1:32 in front of the tracks, 1:35 at and right behind the tracks and 1:45 in the background |
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:
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| 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...
