Special song to mark RR anniversary
By Cindy Hummel
Lancaster New Era
June 5, 2007

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - Bill Grager has been working as a conductor on the Strasburg Rail Road for a third of a century.

Grager, now an assistant principal of Lampeter-Strasburg High School, also served as music conductor at the district’s Martin Meylin Middle School for more than 20 years.

In 1986, his dual conducting skills played a role in the development of a song, “The Strasburg Railroad,” by a New York composer who rode the rails.

“It seemed like a natural fit,” Grager explains, “being a conductor there (the railroad) and here (the school district.)”

The song can be heard live during the Strasburg Rail Road’s 175th anniversary celebration, which begins at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the railroad, along Route 741 east of Strasburg. Hans Herr Elementary School’s fourth-grade band will perform the piece.

Although Gov. Ed Rendell had been slated to read a proclamation at the event, a high-raking official from his office will now take his place, explains Hope Banner, Strasburg Rail Road spokeswoman.

Grager recalls that the song was born from New York composer Joe Ambrosio’s memories of a ride on the railroad during a vacation here. Upon returning home, Ambrosio contacted the late Ellis Bachman, then the railroad’s stationmaster and vice president of administration.

Bachman provided information on the narrative told to riders and served as a contact between Ambrosio and Grager as the song was written. The song’s world premier took place at Martin Meylin Middle School on May 5, 1987.

Students begin the song by making a sound to represent a steam whistle, Grager explains. Then brass players open up a valve for condensation and blow through their instruments.

The conductor, to be played on June 6 by Hans Herr Principal Andrew Godfrey, calls “all aboard,” and welcomes visitors to the Strasburg Rail Road.

Ambrosio’s arrangement replicates the sound of the train starting slowly and gaining speed. The conductor announces a Cherry Hill stop as the tempo slows down. The brass section again replicates steam.

Students recreate a whistle sound on their instruments as the conductor relates the story of another line called, “The Little Old and Slow (Lancaster­Oxford & Southern), which once passed just over the hill from the train’s next stop. A ghost train from that line, the conductor explains, can still be heard today.

Again students make a whistle sound on their instruments. Three muted horns respond with the sound of the ghost train. The music continues to replicate a steam train until it reaches the end of the line in Paradise.

Hans Herr fourth-grade band teacher Robert Shaubach explains his students had been learning the song before plans for the celebration began.

“I do not teach it every year,” Shaubach says, “but I do have the beginners perform it from time to time.”

The song has become a staple of Shaubach’s music library. The song matches beginning students’ abilities, he explains, and the kids enjoy playing it because of the local interest and special effects.

“Third, and of least importance by far,” Shaubach says, “I’m a huge railroad fan - both full size and model. So it is a good fit for the kids, and I enjoy it as well.”

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