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Strasburg Rail Road: Tour Pennsylvania's Dutch Country

There's a place in Pennsylvania where time stands still; a place where the romance and adventure of the early 20^th century comes to life. It's a time before cars and traffic jams, before gasoline engines transformed America into a vast network of highways. A time when the distance between two points was measured by miles of track, and powerful steam engines regulated travel and commerce.

The place is Strasburg, Pennsylvania, a sleepy little town in the middle of Amish Country where over forty years ago a small group of train enthusiasts brought an aging railroad back to life. Through personal dedication, sweat and ingenuity, these volunteers restored America's oldest shortline railroad and turned it into a premier tourism attraction drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

Offering the most authentic train ride experience of the period, the Strasburg Rail Road takes visitors back to a simpler time when the only competition for overland travel was the horse and buggy - a mode of travel still prevalent today on Lancaster County roads. From the stable of 100-year-old steam locomotives to the elegantly refurbished railroad cars and Victorian railroad station, visitors experience an important chapter in American history.

The trains run on the same timetable used in 1851 (more or less). The engines and railcars are so meticulously restored that they have been featured in movies such as Raintree County, Hello Dolly, The Wild Wild West and Thomas and the Magic Railroad. The railroad has also appeared in numerous documentaries and videos, including a Smithsonian production.

During the train's 45-minute journey, visitors travel through farm fields still plowed by horses and mules. Amish buggies wait patiently at railroad crossings. Train travelers can even stop at an old-fashioned picnic grove and enjoy a snack while the trains rumble by.

On board are some of the same men who served as conductors, brakemen and engineers when the Strasburg Rail Road first opened as a tourist attraction. These trainmen, such as conductor Walter Minnich, are here because they love railroading, and they share that love with the railroad's visitors. It's not just a job or a hobby. Trains are a passion for these individuals.

"Some of our engineers are doctors and lawyers who maintain their FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) certification just so they can come to Strasburg on weekends and run the trains," says conductor Minnich, who also served as the postmaster of a neighboring town until he retired in 1983. Minnich's been around trains all his life. His father worked 50 years on the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The trainmen are eager to share their stories with curious passengers. Each train has a narrator who tells the railroad's history spiced with a few tall tales. During holidays, the trainmen become actors. In late October the docile train turns into the "Pumpkin Train," and in December Santa Claus joins passengers on the road to Paradise. In the spring, the Easter Bunny climbs aboard. In 2003, the Easter Bunny Train operates on April 19th and 20th. For children, the Strasburg Rail Road assumes a new, more contemporary identity when a full-size Thomas the Tank Engine comes to visit. The dates of Thomas' 2003 visits are June 14 - 22, September 13 -21, and December 5, 6 and 7.

The Strasburg Rail Road offers visitors many reasons to hop on board. But whether it's the lure of a children's storybook character, the hiss of a steam locomotive, the fresh country air from the open platform coaches, or riding in the luxuriously restored parlor car, all visitors seem to enjoy the railroad's pace of a bygone era. It's this special ambiance that's brought visitors to the Strasburg Rail Road for more than forty years.