Road Trip - Cabin Fever and more.

This weekend I did a road trip to Pennsylvania and New Jersey.  The main purpose of the trip was to attend a family event in New Jersey on Saturday, but the trip diversions are probably of more interest to the blog readers.

On Friday I visited Gettysburg, PA on the way to my mom's house in Lebanon, PA. It was raining steadily when I got to Gettysburg. So I just made a quick stop at the Toy Soldier Shop to pick up some miniatures for the layout. I stocked up on Perry American Civil War Cavalry and another set of Zouaves to join the set I already have. 

These Perry figures are injection molded plastic and are very nicely done. The cavalry are molded in several pieces. The horses are two pieces, while the men have various options for arms, hats, and weapons. Being plastic they are easy to modify.

On Sunday I stopped by the Cornwall Furnace in the morning. This is a museum and state historic

site based around a 18th century iron works. It is part of a National Historic Landmark District, and America's most complete remaining charcoal fueled ironmaking complex. The museum was not open when I was there, but I got a few shots of the furnace. It operated until about 1880 and provided ordnance to Union civil war armies. It is definitely worth a visit while it is open.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the Cabin Fever Expo 2014, the largest model engineering meet in North America. This was the first time I attended this event. I caught the end of the show and some of the displays were being removed. Nonetheless, I saw some very interesting models and tools.
The event includes live steam trains in all scales. The largest one I saw was a Union Pacific Big Boy that weighed over 3,000 pounds including the tender. Several of the Accucraft Gauge 1 live steam models were on display and for sale.  The fellow at the left was kind enough to pose behind his Pennsy T-1 to demonstrate the size of the model. 

The Sandy River and Rangely Lakes engine was impressive in large scale too.

This LST model caught my eye. It is a 1/96th scale model with HO vehicles on board. This model could be used to depict the LST railroad ferries used in the D-Day campaign. For more information you might want to check out my book when it comes out. I have a chapter on the D-Day operation.
 There are several 1/96th scale LST kits available for sale, but this would not be that hard of a ship to scratch build in HO, 1/87th scale.

 The business end of the LST. For a model railroad, this end of the ship would have the doors open and railroad tracks laid to the deck.

For those of you interested in O scale, the Scale Shipyard is producing a kit for a 1/48th scale LST. Now that would be a cool model and  layout!

There was a large temporary pond for radio controlled ships, as well as this dirt pile for construction equipment. There were also live steam tracks, a paved circuit for R/C cars and trucks, and a enclosed net for R/C aircraft..










The video below shows some of the models and tools I found interesting.