Ben the Hershey syrup man's layout

[FJ and G]

Ben, whose handle is BennysRR2, lives atop a hill overlooking Amish farmland in Lebanon County, Pa. The hill gets quite a breeze. On Saturday when I visited him, the wind was whipping up so much that the only train that would stay on the track without blowing away was a colorful ACL RS-3



Some koi have taken up residence in the layout's pond. Hey, if you get bored watching trains, you can always go fishing! Just be sure to return them, as Ben doesn't like the idea of guests eating his fish.

Notice Ben's engineering skills with his trademark aluminum bridge. He apparently used a lot of trigonometry and other types of math to get the curves just right. And even with the strong wind, the bridgework does not sway one bit. I took a closeup photo of the construction to copy.





Ben has a giant indoor layout as well that perfectly complements his wall of trains (top shelf is the actual running train, which goes all around the top of his basement.

Notice all of the Hershey's trains, some of which are handpainted? Why so many? Well, Hershey, Pa., is a stonesthrow away from his house for one. Also, Ben retired from Hershey's plant, working in the syrup department. What a sweet job!





Moving again outside, we see that Ben makes use of common materials for the layout. Take this chimney flu, which makes a nice tunnel. Many of his structures are indoors being refurbished in time for the spring running. He favors the low-cost bird houses. He simply plugs up the holes and uses them as buildings, as shown here. The birds are not too fond of him closing up their dwellings, however.





A couple of points of interest on the layout; one of a mine that had a cave-in due to some rodent activity. Also, note the covered bridge. Covered bridges are not just a New England thing. There are several in Ben's neck of the woods as well.





An overview of a portion of the layout does not do the layout justice because the many hundreds of flowers are not in bloom. To see Ben's layout at its best, one would need to return in the spring on a day that's not too windy. We like to make fun of N scale trains blowing over at a mere sneeze, but G scale stuff can blow over too, when Mother Nature breathes too hard.

[Karl Reichenbach]

Dave,

Nice photos. Sometime you are traveling up I-95 towards Delaware you will have to stop in and see my Garden Railway, and also my large inside o-gauge layout.

Karl

[Anonymous]

F J AND G
DAVID thanks for stopping by my house and taking the pictures of my inside and out side lay outs, dave was visiting the area and asked to see my lay outs . THANKS FOR POSTING THE PICTURES. BEN[:D]

[tmcc man]

Hey Ben, I will be going to Hershey in the summer I believe, maybe even earlier. I will email you when I am leaving. Would you mind if I came to see it? I might see you at ECLSTS before that.

[tmcc man]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Karl Reichenbach

Dave,

Nice photos. Sometime you are traveling up I-95 towards Delaware you will have to stop in and see my Garden Railway, and also my large inside o-gauge layout.

Karl

Where in Del. do you live? How much O gauge do you have, because that is my other obsession, O gauge.

[Karl Reichenbach]

tmcc man,

I do not live in Delaware. I am in Maryland just off of I-95. My indoor O-gauge layout is a 44' x26' highrail pike.

Karl

[tangerine-jack]

I find myself in Delawhere quite often, usualy around Capt Bob's in Georgetown/ Milford area. I could arrange a visit to Karl fairly easy.

You still have a great looking layout, Ben! I can't wait to see it again in full bloom with the Canis I gave you last year. I'll be sure to let you know when I'm in the area. I had to turn down going up there to see you this time with Dave, he was kind enough to even offer to drive, but the timing just didn't work out.

Keep up the good work!

[Anonymous]

Tangerine Jack
I hope you can make it up this year, when the flowers are blooming. In December i replaced a pump in the pond, today that same pump broke down again, called the dealer where i got it , i said it should have lasted longer than 6 weeks, he told me come get a new one, i did .tomorrow i'll put it in .it's7-30 and dark .it Wednesday, the 25fifth and windy. Ben

[Anonymous]

TMCC MAN
If you come to hershey before the ECLSTS, let me know , alittle ahead of time. if not i'll be at the show in york on friday the way it looks . what will you be doing at the show ,
are you working on a stand for a dealer??? ben

[tmcc man]

Ben, I will be at a Module Display, the South Eastern Pennsylvania Garden Railway Society. I will be the only kid running the display, so you should not miss me. By the way, I wil not be coming to Hershey in the Spring, my parents decided to include me in a Disney trip I had no idea about (just greeeaaatttttt[:(!][V]) The only god thing out of the trip is the fact that I help fire up the steamers on the Disney Railroad. We have not decided when Hershey will be scheduled, so I will see what is up. If I see you at York, I will tell you about the decision. What time will you be there? I am leaving my house at 6AM, and will be there by 8AM to start setup, so see u then.

[tangerine-jack]

Tmcc man- You sound just like I did when the Army wanted to send me to Disney World for a week. I told then "H**l no I ain't goin' to spend a week in the Disney resort hotel with a 5 day park hopper pass" So they sent me anyway. The next year they wanted to send me to Reno and I said "H**ll no I ain't goin' to spend a week at the Silver Legacy Resort and Casino!" So they sent me anyway. This year I'm trying to tell them "H**LL no I ain't goin' to Italy!" We'll see if it works this time.

I guess in life we just have to make due with our own misfortunes....................

[Tom The Brat]

A company man, eh?

Sacrifices must be made[:p]

[FJ and G]

TJ,

USMC sent me to Reno (actually) to complete filming of American President when I was a technical advisor back in the 90s.

The key to getting stationed in good places in the USMC is to request a hardship post. The detailers had (have?) a twisted sense of humor and would always send you somewhere you didn't request. Don't know if Army works that way.

I requested going to every major war from Vietnam to Desert Storm and never went. Oh well, I'm still here...

[Tom The Brat]

hehe A guy was grilling me about whether I served or evaded. I said, "Sorry, they didn't draft anybody for Grenada."

[grandpopswalt]

After boot camp and technical training, about a year, I was asked to choose my duty station. My three choices for location were all on the west coast, San Diego, San Francisco, and Bremerton, WA. I also requested the smallest ships available, sea going tug, patrol craft escort, and destroyer. After carefully considering my wishes the Navy assigned me to the commissioning crew of the USS America, the navy’s largest ship whose homeport was in Norfolk, VA. on the east coast. Looks as though the Army, Navy and Marines all use the the same HR manual, let’s hear from the Air Force.

Walt

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Torby

hehe A guy was grilling me about whether I served or evaded. I said, "Sorry, they didn't draft anybody for Grenada."

[(-D][(-D][(-D]We must be near the same age...I was 19 when that happened, and all my friends were carping in their pants that Reagan was going to reinstate the draft.[:0][;)]

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by grandpopswalt

After boot camp and technical training, about a year, I was asked to choose my duty station. My three choices for location were all on the west coast, San Diego, San Francisco, and Bremerton, WA. I also requested the smallest ships available, sea going tug, patrol craft escort, and destroyer. After carefully considering my wishes the Navy assigned me to the commissioning crew of the USS America, the navy’s largest ship whose homeport was in Norfolk, VA. on the east coast. Looks as though the Army, Navy and Marines all use the the same HR manual, let’s hear from the Air Force.

Walt

Well Walt guess its a good thing you didnt say .."I wanna be on the biggest baddest ship in the whole US Navy in the biggest baddest base in America" you would have ended up piloting a leaky harbor taxi in Moosejaw, Alaska .[:D]

[Anonymous]

VIC
did they have large scale RR'S THEN. BEN

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by BennysRR

VIC
did they have large scale RR'S THEN. BEN

Yes, but the stone wheels didnt roll too well on the log rails[;)][:o)][:I][:0][:D]

[tangerine-jack]

I requested 4 times for Afghanistan, twice for Iraq and once for the Balkans. Must be why I'm now sitting in an office in next to a paper mill pumping gas for a Cav unit. Glory and Honor, yeah right................

I suspect all the services work in the same way. Nice to know nothing has changed over the last 10,000 years of recorded human history.

[Capt Bob Johnson]

Ease up TJ, somebody's gotta do the dirty work so that the glory boys can live in the spotlight! Besides, it takes somebody with working knowledge of railroading to make sure all those tank cars full of fuel that Uncle George sends your station get sent back for refill! Wanna buy a set of hip boots?

[tangerine-jack]

No thanks, Bob, I've got a nice set of hip boots and a dozen spares.

I've heard the arguement: "you get to be safe in the rear area while the hotshots go get shot". To which I say "it's also my job to go into the forward area to get the torn up hotshots and recover their shot up vehicle (which probably only has one or two wheels on it), tow it back at 3 mph through the hostile area where they got hit while packing 1/8th the armament that they carried and clearing the road of hostiles without incuring friendly casualties, plus have hot chow waiting for them at the end of the ride so they can look good when the General pins a medal on them for heroism"

Sigh- it was so much easier in the Artillery, front toward enemy and if it still moves shoot it again. I think it's time to pull the pin on the 21 year red smoke.