Several years ago (maybe as much as 15) my wife and I were traveling through Pa. on I 76 and stopped at a very large layout. Several thousand sq feet. I tried to google it to find it, but have had no luck. Does anyone remember the name of it or if it was still there? I think it was close to Lancaster. I believe it was an O scale layout. They did a short show bringing you through a 24 hour day. You sat on small wood bleachers to watch.
Ok. I found it. It is the Great American Rail Road "Northlandz" U.S. 202, Flemington, NJ.. I thought it was on the Pa. side. I have no idea when it became Northlandz. Maybe it always was. Now I get to take my grandson this summer.
Chris, the Choo-choo barn is the one you described. Northlandz is an HO scale display that you walk around. It is almost a mile walk through the exhibit. It is worth the walk.
"Chris" wrote in news:4b954e01$0$32100$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:
If you ever get to the Cincinnati, Ohio area, be sure to visit 2 exhibits involving trains:
1 - The Children's Museum located in the old Train Terminal building. There is a large model of greater Ciccy trains O guage AFAIR. You can also go up into the dispatcher towerand look over the yard. There are "old-timers" there who actually worked in the yards when they were fully operational.
2 Entertrainment Junction
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located in West Chester, exit 22 off I-75 north of Cincy. This is all G scale, and is one of the most detailed layouts I have ever seen. It is constantly expanding - I take my grandson there several times a year. It is a fabulous sight to see. Most of the labor is done by volunteers and finaiced by a local businessman. They also have play areas for children and a Thomas train for rides.
I ahve no business interest in these exhibits - I only get pleasure visiting them with my grandson.
The old O-scale layout was removed several years ago, and replaced by an even bigger HO scale layout. It attempts (with only some success) to cover the entire USA on one huge model railroad. While that's overly pretentious, many of the individual scenes are quite nice.
The HO scale Chicago is quite remarkable, with many recognizeable buildings and the "EL" running around the "loop". I've never seen a major city modeled anywhere near this well. It is, of course, HUGE!
Many of the other cross-county scenes are also recognizeable. When they get to Seattle, there are other recognizeable buildings.
It's certainly the best LARGE display layout I've seen. The quality of the modeling is very good for such a huge undertaking. If you take it scene by scene, it largely avoids the very toylike quality that is normal in such undertakings. Looking at it overall, there are problems, such as being able to see Chicago from Seattle! :-(( Still, it's impressive and respectable. See:
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And, YES, the real U-Boat, U-505, is also well worth a look. It used to be outside, not it's INSIDE the museum, in a specially costructed sub-basement. That's really good, because the Chicago weather had started to take a toll on the hull. see:
They also have an original shovel-nosed CB&Q Zephyr trainset that has been recently restored, and a bunch of other railroad exhibits.
The whole museum impressive and lots of fun. As the name implies, it's full of all manner of sceientific and industrial exhibits. Highly recommended!
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