Summer of 19 - #10 - Hendersonville Railway Club & County Heritage Museums

Wednesday August 21st, 2019
We stayed in town today and looked around a couple of local attractions.
As we drove, I looked up and saw this cow looking down on me!!!!!

Apple Valley Model Railroad Club was first on our list.  It's only open on Wednesday and Saturdays.
There is a VIDEO on You Tube that explains the club, how the tracks are built and run. It's quite interesting.  The club/museum is setup in the old train depot.

Little Pauline is over a 100 years old and is a working steam model.

There is a morse code machine that you can try and see how it worked.

We went outside to see the outside railway that has been built.  There are a lot of apple orchards here in Hendersonville and this painted apple had "Historic 7th Avenue, the "core" of Hendersonville" painted on it.

Outside, the trains were stored in this "engine shed".

In one of the carriages was an "Oscar Weinermobile"

Cranky even made an appearance

The tracks were well laid out and they had two trains going around.

Thomas just travels the world, doesn't he?

Thomas carriage disappears into the tunnel

The models and layouts are very detailed.

Next we went inside to see the indoor layouts.  Thomas was inside as well, he just gets everywhere.

Bryan & I both saw this sign at the same time.  We both looked at each other and laughed. We first saw these Chick Fila billboards as we drove in Orlando.  This slogan is obviously made up by the museum. We have seen different slogans, but the cow is always draped over the sign or on the sign somehow.  Eat Chikin, Save a Cow is what they're trying to say. The cows are trying to save themselves!!  I just think it's hilarious and very clever advertising.

Eat Chikin or I'll Jump

There were more layouts than I expected and they were very intricate.  As the video that I posted at the beginning explains, the trains are worked by individual hand held controllers.  There are signals that really work and change as needed.  Each train is controlled by a person, who programs it where to go.  It is not just put on a track and goes round and round on that track.  There is a computer chip in each train and it needs to be told what speed to go and where to go.  This also means that the person has to follow the train around, which seemed to result in some areas getting very crowded.

There is a section where children can work the trains as well and there are steps that you can stand on so you can get a good overall view of the whole layout.

There are several rooms next to each other with different setups and some interact with each other.

The scenery is very good.

They are building a small track, complete with scenery and it will be raffled off.  Someone will win a lovely setup. 

There was an old caboose outside.

with an old igloo cooler inside.

There were some good layouts and everyone was enjoying themselves.  A good place to volunteer and go back to your childhood.

As we left, the heavens opened up and it poured with rain.  It was hard to see where we were going but thankfully we didn't have far to go.

Next was Henderson County Heritage Museum.

We parked on the road, close to the entrance and waited for the rain to stop or slow down.  The water was gushing out of these drain pipes onto the pavement beside the car.

It finally almost stopped, and we got out and went into the museum.  

A lady showed us around the exhibits, explaining a little about all of them and then we were allowed to walk around on our own.  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed, so we have nothing to show you and I really need the pictures to prod my memory as to what was there.  I did pick up a newspaper that was in there though.

I have put links that explain the different exhibits below for you.

 The Coming of the Railroad Exhibit was the first room we went into, it had the history and a display built by the Railway museum that we had just left. 

The Civil War Exhibit with some good artifacts, including two old flags.

The Shepherds Store Exhibit - Turn of the century country store with a video host from the past.

The Let Freedom Ring Exhibit - 1940 - Present, videos and audio recordings from military members telling of their experiences.  Many artifacts and memories.

The Life Along The Ridge Exhibit - Early days in the Dana, Tracey Grove & Upward communities and information on the moonshine process.

Revolutionary Hall - Honoring heroes of the Revolutionary War and information on two famous battles.

The Courthouse Room was upstairs and we didn't see it.

There were some interesting exhibits and facts and it was worth the visit. I would have loved a picture of the Gunners Mate Uniform from WWII to show Ryan.

When we went back outside the rain had stopped thankfully, so we walked around a little.

This time capsule is due to be opened in 2038.

There were several Bear Statues that are due to be auctioned off later this year.  Here's a few of them.

A best friend can change your life

The small squares and benches are a nice place to sit and relax.

It is set out very nicely.

That was our day today.  We purposely chose museums as the weather forecast wasn't great, and it worked out well.  Tomorrow we will be back out searching for waterfalls, weather permitting.