National New York Central Railroad

 If you like train museums, South Bend Indiana has a nice museum. We were there for about two hours. We have been to train museums in Chattanoga Tennessee and a few others. I like trains, Mary tolerates them. This museum had an old diesel electric locomotive in the yard. You can squeeze into the cab then get into the engine and see the diesels and generators up close. You are real close since there is not a lot of room. It reminded me a being in a submarine except you walked down the middle of the submarine. In the locomotive, you can walk on both sides of the engine. Working on either one would be very difficult hard work. When it was running, I bet it was HOT and very loud! 

This is an "O" gauge model railroad in the museum. This is one half of it. 
I had the smaller "HO" model railroad when I was about eight years old. 
Mine was on a 4x8 plywood panel. 
Dad set it up for me before Christmas each year.

Lots of "O" gauge locomotives and cars. They said Lionel still makes them.

This was working coal fired model train.

Tools they used for light repair. Those are hydraulic jacks on the floor.

This model is constructed entirely with toothpicks!

This is the diesel electric locomotive that I looked at on the inside.

Engineer's seat and view. I don't see any air conditioning in here.

Close, hot and noisy when it was running.

Shipshewana Indiana

Shipshewana was our favorite town. We should have stayed there in one of the two nice camp grounds. There is a huge flea market Tuesday and Wednesday. There are Amish families everywhere. Several nice restaurants and Amish history are in Shipshewana. Amish are all over the entire area but seem to be concentrated here. 

Horse drawn buggies are everywhere. 

Shipshewana stores all have horse hitching posts for the horses.

This is Walmart in Goshen. They have covered horse hitching posts.

You see plenty of buggies on the streets and county roads in Shipshewana. They do leave lots of brown road apples on the roadways.The state highways provide extra wide lanes for the buggies. 

If you are looking for RV furniture, this is the place. They are out in the country, south of Shipshewana. The Amish family owns and builds the furniture in this building. We ordered a new theater seating double recliner from Lambright Comfort Chairs to replace our sofa sleeper. Jerramya was very helpful as we made two trips to measure and select the right recliner. Amish built and not inexpensive but it will last many years. The lead time is eight weeks so we are coming back the first week of October from Two Rivers Landing in Tennessee to have it installed.

Elkhart Indiana is RV Central

Our next stop was the Elkhart area. We stayed for ten days at the Eby Pines Campground near Bristol, not recommended for future use. Bristol is near centered for the cities that have RV manufacturing. Most of the big names are in these cities. Elkhart, Goshen, Middlebury, Shipshewana and others. All types are there as well as enclosed trailers, manufactured homes and other special types. Two exceptions are Tiffin in Red Bay Alabama and Winnebago in Forest City Iowa.  We did the factory tour at NewMar. Last year, we looked at NewMar Class A's but we chose Tiffin for our Class A motor home. Here a a few photos of the manufacturers in the area.

Battle Ground Indiana

I am way behind with blog posts. Internet access has been a problem. I think my Verizon Jetpack has a problem. Battle Ground is about a mile north of Prophetstown Sate Park. Lafayette Indiana and Purdue University is nearby. The campground is nice and has some full hookup sites. We were there July 28 and stayed one week.

There is quite a history with Battle Ground. The Indiana and settlers had a battle there and was the last of the Indian problems in the Indiana Territory. There is a nice museum and the battle ground is enclosed in a fenced area. It's worth visiting if you are in the area. Try this link for more information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Ground,_Indiana

Summer 2017

We have been staying in Indiana this summer, no exciting places to add to our blog. Our grandson Adam married Sarah the first weekend of June so we had to be close by for that. My gallbladder was removed in July at Christ Hospital so that took a couple weeks to rest after that. I don't know where my unneeded part is now but I sure feel better without it. I had been sick most of the winter while we were in Florida. We were in Lafayette Indiana last week, staying at Prophetstown State Park. We are now in Elkhart Indiana. More on these two places coming soon.

Versailles State Park

Big South Fork Scenic Railroad

We took the Big South Fork Scenic Railroad train ride today and it was great. The train station is located at Stearns, Kentucky. This is in the Big South Fork National River and Recreation area of the Daniel Boone National Park. If you are in this area, take the train. Tickets are $25 each and well worth the price. We had a very good lunch at the train station before the train departed. The McCreary County Museum is across the street and free with the train ticket purchase. This Daniel Boone Forest and Big South Fork are in both Kentucky and Tennessee and almost better than the Smokey Mountains. Lots of things to see and do.

The train ride is about 40 minutes each way. It stops for 90 minutes at the Blue Herron Coal Mine with plenty to see while you are there. The National Park Service operates the mine area complete with park rangers. 

Train Station Entrance

Museum with Moonshine Still

Old Gasoline Pump

Museum display of many items from early 1900's

A steam whistle from one of the mines.

They use a diesel engine now with plans for a future steam engine.

The train passes the Barthell Coal mine.
You can rent miner's cabins for overnight stays

Barthell Coal mine "company store"

More Barthell mine buildings.

Of course there is a tunnel.

The Blue Herron was the second coal mine in the valley.

Blue Herron Station, National Park Service.
The train can be seen near the upper left.

The "tipple" had railroad track across the valley to carry coal from the mine to the train cars under the tipple. We walked the entire length.
The mines were in the hillside at the far end of the tipple.

A coal car that traveled across the tipple.

The train cars are below and filled by gravity after being sorted by size.

Coal cars where they load up

The Big South Fork River from the top of the tipple.

Under the tipple

How it looked when in use and how it looks today.

Coal cars.

Heading back to Stearns Station. 
Our next stop is Winton Woods in Cincinnati Ohio.