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Post date: Apr 27, 2015 11:47:24 PM
We spent a full day immersed in train-related activities in Strasburg, PA. There were four different locations: 1)The Strasburg Railroad 2)The Pennsylvania Railroad Museum 3)The Choo Choo Barn and 4)The National Toy Train Museum.
We began with a 45-minute round trip from Strasburg to Paradise and back. The Strasburg Railroad was established 183 years ago. Restoration began in 1958. The tracks had to be completely replaced - in some cases, they were completely buried under farm fields. The 1882 station (see photo at left) was purchased in 1960 and moved to Strasburg
in sections from East Petersburg, PA. The steam engine was also purchased in 1960 and had its inaugural trip that year. The cars are fitted out with well-upholstered seats and wood-framed windows that really open! It was a beautiful day, the trees were in bloom and you could see acres of neat Amish farms on either side of the train.
After our train trip, we walked across the street to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. This is the biggest collection of rolling stock that I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of railroad museums!
The interior reminded me of the Gare St. Lazare in Paris, but better lit. It is a huge assembly of engines, passenger cars, freight cars, mail cars and cabooses. They even have a luxury car that was used by the Rockefellers and FDR, among others, and we were surprised to see the Virginia City & Truckee engine "Tahoe" (1875), whose sister engine we saw in the Carson City Museum! In addition, they have created a little 19th century village of storefronts and as if that weren't enough, a learning center where kids can put together their own trains and run them and a complete Lego train setup! All of this in a huge, open building with floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on the gorgeous countryside.
Next, we drove down the road to the "Choo Choo Barn." This contains one of the largest model train layouts I've ever seen, and definitely the most detailed. It was all built by one man, Tom Groff, and according to their website, choochoobarn.com, it has a 1700 square foot layout with over 150 hand-built animals and vehicles and 22 operating trains (mostly "O" Gauge). He began in 1941 and opened it to the public in the 1950s. His family now runs it.
Gas stations, a ski hut, homes and farmhouses and even people are modeled from real life and almost everything is animated. In one scene, a fire engine roars out of the station to a "burning" house, a fireman climbs a ladder and pumps real water in through the roof, then returns to the station. There is a boy trying to lift his dog up to a treehouse, a Memorial Day service, a circus parade and big top with acrobats and elephants, flowing rivers, skiers on a huge mountain, commuters on an escalator and a flag flying in a phantom breeze and everything was scratch built! Now, a day later, we're sure we missed a lot and are wishing we had gone around it one more time. It is really wonderful.
Finally we visited the National Toy Train Museum. This is a collection of model train cars, engines an accessories dating back to the early 1900s. There are also some working layouts here, complete with buttons you can push to start the trains and the accessories.
Really fun. There is real charm in the old tin and cardboard engines and the beautifully stylish stations. Most of the early work was done by Lionel but Germany has always excelled at this, particularly a German firm called LGB. They are the gold standard in the Garden scale model train community to this day. Unfortunately, people believe that model trains are just for boys. That's wrong, but they do. Model train societies are 99.9% men because 99.9% of model trains purchased are intended for little boys. The gender gap in this world-wide hobby is worse than in Silicon Valley. We did see a couple of so-called "girls' train sets." They were pink.
Click here for photos of our day in Strasburg.
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