Lancaster Lures Visitors with Living History Lessons
By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.Com
September 9, 2006

…The region also has a rich railroad legacy.

The steam-powered Strasburg Rail Road, America’s oldest operating short-line service, takes passengers on a nine-mile, 45-minute round trip through rural Amish farmland. The East Strasburg depot, a handsome Victorian edifice, was moved to its present site from its original 1882 location, 20 miles away. It’s even older than the line’s ancient locomotives (including one built in 1902).

The right-of-way is flanked by farms that depend upon wind, water, and animal power.

There’s also a unique tourist attraction called the Maize Maze, where kids carrying tall, flag-topped poles try to find their way through a maze carved through a thick cornfield that some youngsters consider their own personal Field of Dreams.

In addition to its regularly-scheduled service, the Strasburg runs various specials, including one that marked the 125th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1988. That train took the same route Abraham Lincoln rode after the Gettysburg Address.

The railroad, founded in 1832, runs daily trains during the summer, operates on weekends into December, then shuts down for the winter.

Weather poses no problems for the adjacent Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, a deserving member of the National Register of Historic Places. Its tracks, trains, turntables and artifacts date back to the 19th century.

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