History Channel chugs into town to film locomotives.
By Jon Rutter
Sunday News
At one minute past 11 in the morning, Andy Sellers opened the throttle and sent the six-car Strasburg Rail Road train steaming into history. Make that The History Channel.

A camera crew visited the railroad Friday to take a special excursion and collect footage for an upcoming installment of the network’s “Modern Marvels” series.

Producer, writer and director Greg DeHart said he expects the Strasburg steam engine to puff across television screens sometime in March.

DeHart said his project will showcase the technology and the human story behind railroad locomotives.

The Los-Angeles-based documentary filmmaker returned from exploring locomotives in Panama two weeks ago.

After Strasburg, he said, he’ll travel to Canada to check out a modern-day locomotive builder and to France to see “the fastest locomotive on earth.”

DeHart will also visit the Brookville Equipment Corp., a steam engine maker in northern Pennsylvania, among other destinations.

Seven more shooting days are planned.

The Strasburg line, with its coal-black engines towing carefully restored coaches past Amish farms, will star in the documentary’s romance chapter.

Even if you don’t like locomotives, DeHart said, you can’t help but admire the massive symmetry of the steam engine.

“They look so complicated but there’s something aesthetically beautiful about them.”

Locomotion
DeHart, whose previous work for the History Channel included a 2002 look “Inside Pol Pot’s Secret Prison,” said he didn’t start out raving over locomotives.

But then he became fascinated.

Friday, he arrived at Strasburg to capture the sights and sounds of the iron horse with cameraman Dan Lantz and soundman Adrian Sam, both out of Philadelphia.

“We’re really here to get the ins and outs from a technical standpoint,” DeHart said.

In fact, said Hope Banner of Scheffey Integrated Marketing, which represents the Strasburg Rail Road, the shop where Strasburg rebuilds locomotives weld by weld was a key factor in wooing the filmmakers.

The shop is rebuilding a Rio Grande Southern narrow-gauge 10-wheeler trucked in from Colorado, among others, said machinist Erich Armpriester.

“Most of the parts are custom-made. Obviously, you can’t just go to Baldwin Locomotive supply and order parts off the shelf anymore.”

But you can still commute 3 1/2 miles by steam on the country’s oldest short-line.

Before setting out, Sellers, whose friends call him “Doc,” swooped his hands through the air, explaining the geometry of Engine 90.

The cylinder bone is connected to the piston bone, said Sellers, standing before steel drive wheels nearly as tall as a man.

Up in the cab with the filmmakers, he stomped on a pedal. Angled doors parted, exposing a firebox stoked to a volcanic red glare by fireman Richie Maggs.

A feather of steam hissed from the boiler-top safety valve outside, letting off pressure.

The engine was made in Philadelphia and hauled freight for the Great Western Railroad in Colorado before Strasburg got it in the late 1960s.

Each locomotive has quirks that make you love — and sometimes hate — them, said Strasburg Rail Road President Linn Moedinger.

So does the terrain, added Moedinger, who once piloted an engine up a slippery hill by getting a run for it, just as a car driver would.

Number 90 waited in the freezing morning air, panting softly.
That characteristic sound means the locomotive is pressurizing the air brake system, explained conductor Mark Andrews.

“If you don’t hear panting we don’t have brakes.”

Andrews called “All aboard!” and climbed into the turn-of-the-20th-century Boston & Maine Railroad coach he had helped restore.

Number 90 jingled its bell and chugged out of the station on its special journey (the line is normally closed to tourists in midwinter).

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Moedinger before stepping into the coal stove-warmed coach. “We’re thrilled” to be featured on The History Channel show, he added.

Driving in reverse for the first half of the trip as usual, the train ambled northeast up the track, introducing the filmmakers to classic “Road to Paradise” sights.

Seven bundled-up Amish kids stood at a crossing and waved as the coaches trundled by.

The train paused once and blasted its whistle across the bare fields until an answer echoed back.

The “ghost whistle” is supposed to be from an engine on the long-defunct Lancaster, Oxford and Southern Railroad, Andrews explained with a twinkle in his eye.

Coal smoke perfumed the air. Puffs of backlit steam whiffed past the coach windows, as if the train were flying in and out of the clouds.

In Paradise, where the Strasburg corridor parallels the trunk line between Philadelphia and Lancaster, Sellers shuttled Number 90 to the other end of the cars before heading back.

Suddenly, an Amtrak express shot past at more than 90 mph, dragging the falling-note blat of its horn behind it.

The scene made a perfect picture of locomotives then and now.

“If they would let us back on the main line,” Andrews joked, “we would’ve caught ‘em.”

Strasburg Rail Road, America’s oldest short-line railroad, will be featured on the History Channel’s Modern Marvels series. Modern Marvels is a series that tells the stories of everyday items, technological breakthroughs and man-made wonders.

The episode featuring Strasburg Rail Road will focus on locomotives and steam engines. The Modern Marvels crew filmed at the railroad all day on Friday, January 4th. The show is expected to air in March of 2008.

Watch WGAL news coverage.

Strasburg’s No. 10 a perfect ten to rail buffs
By James Buescher
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
July 16, 2007

STRASBURG, Pa. — While the rest of Lancaster County celebrated the Fourth of July with fireworks and picnics, Strasburg Railroad engineer Steve Weaver was getting ready for a moment he had been anticipating for nearly a year: flipping the main electrical switch in the newly refurbished Reading Car No. 10.

“You’re always a little concerned, because you don’t always know what’s going to happen,” Weaver said. “But when we flipped that switch, the whole inside of the car lit up like Wanamakers on Christmas.

“It was such a beautiful moment for us here at the railroad,” he said. “We helped make the car come alive again.”

As part of the celebration for the 175th anniversary of its charter, Strasburg Railroad will unveil the refurbished Reading No. 10 President’s Car today. It was built before World War I for George F. Baer, then president of Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and reportedly used on Harry Truman’s famous 1948 “whistle stop” presidential campaign.

The car will be hooked onto trains departing at 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. starting today and running through Labor Day. Because wine will be served on the car along with hors d’oeuvres, patrons must be age 21 and over to ride.

“We’re a great destination for families, of course, but we’re also always on the lookout for new ways to reach people traveling without children or couples who are looking for a fun experience,” Strasburg Railroad spokeswoman Hope Banner said.

“Having this car … allows folks to have a more intimate experience on the rails, to mix and mingle in a train car that, in the early part of the 20th Century, was the last word in prewar luxury,” Banner said.

Featuring settees with Victorian brocades, vermilion mahogany walls with rosewood inlay, Edwardian staterooms and even a crew and service area with an original nickel-plated anthracite range, efforts to refurbish the car took more than five months and $150,000 to complete.

“We wanted to make the car operable, but we did not want to disturb its historic fabric. The plumbing still worked, and we kept the original 32-volt Victorian light fixtures, for example. But we also outfitted the car with a state-of-the-art air conditioning system plus redid the brakes,” Weaver said.

As railroads in the United States began to decline in the early 1960s, Weaver said, the Reading Co. decided to mothball the luxurious railcar because of the costs involved with its operation. Eventually, though, the company put the car on the auction block, where Strasburg Railroad purchased it in May 1964.

“Our thinking here at the Railroad is that it’s important to bring visitors in, but it’s even more important to give people the kind of experience that will make them want to come back,” Banner said. “And a trip in an authentic refurbished antique railroading car is just the kind of experience that will help do that.

“This car was the Leer jet of its time,” Banner said. “And now, almost 50 years after its retirement, it’s going to be back riding the rails.”

Tickets to ride the car cost $45. For more information, call 687-7522 or visit www.strasburgrailroad.com.

To read the entire article, please visit Lancaster Online.

Shop keeps railroad’s equipment moving, generates income
By Bill Simpson
Central Penn Business Journal
May 11, 2007

“Come on guys. I hear the train.”

A young boy shrieks with delight as he hears the distinctive whistle of a train in eastern Lancaster County. Kids of all ages move closer to the tracks. A hulking steam locomotive pulls half a dozen passenger cars into the station in Strasburg. Cameras click. Excitement builds. The train pulls to a stop, and new passengers wait impatiently for riders who have just completed their journey to Paradise to disembark.

This scene is the visible face of the Strasburg Railroad. It plays out many times a day throughout most months of the year, but it could never happen without the efforts of the men and women who work behind the scenes to keep the trains running.

Steam locomotives are remnants of an earlier railroading era, and for modern freight and passenger operations, they’re obsolete. Compared with diesel engines, steam locomotives are highly inefficient. They use large quantities of water and fuel and need significant maintenance.

Despite those drawbacks, steam locomotives have a nostalgic appeal that diesels can’t match, and the appeal of steam is a vital part of the experience at Strasburg.

So, to keep the locomotives belching steam and to keep the passenger cars moving smoothly, mechanics, carpenters, machinists and electricians work diligently to keep the railroad’s rolling stock in top operating condition. Many of the engines and passenger cars are 100 years old or more, so they require regular maintenance.

Keeping the railroad’s equipment in working order is the primary responsibility of the railroad’s mechanical department, but that department is also a source of income. Other railroads send their equipment to Strasburg for maintenance and repair, and the shops at Strasburg have a reputation for excellent work.

Robert Yuill, owner of Historic Machinery Services in Springville, Ala., often uses the railroad’s services to complement his own capabilities. “I think they’re the best,” he said “They do some spectacular things.”

In his work, Yuill repairs many types of old machinery, ranging from steam locomotives to boilers to factory equipment. He calls on Strasburg to fabricate machine parts. “I’ve been using them for 20 years. I know they’ll do it right,” he said.

Steve Lee manages operating practices and is a locomotive engineer with Union Pacific Railroad.

Union Pacific is the nation’s largest railroad, with 8,400 locomotives, 106,000 freight cars and 32,000 miles of track in 23 states from Illinois to California. The rail line operates two steam locomotives as part of its heritage program, and the wheels of both recently visited Strasburg for maintenance and new parts. Strasburg can do work that Union Pacific can’t handle.

“The Strasburg has machine shop capabilities that UP no longer has, and has not had for many years,” Lee said. “We could probably obtain the capability, but we can’t justify an investment in machinery that will be utilized only once every 10 or 12 years. While the Strasburg might be a small railroad, it has capabilities far beyond most existing shops. … The quality of Strasburg’s work is beyond reproach.”

For Linn Moedinger, president of Strasburg Railroad, work done for Union Pacific and other railroads represents a nice source of business, which he placed at 5 percent of the railroad’s total revenues. He stressed that generating income from outside sources is not the primary purpose of Strasburg’s mechanical shops.

“Our mission is the train ride,” he said. “Our own equipment is our No. 1 priority. We have 100-year-old cars in regular service, so we have to be realistic. We can’t market our services too aggressively. Our own equipment may need special attention at any time.”

Safety is a major concern for every steam locomotive, and Strasburg Railroad operates on a strict maintenance schedule for all its locomotives.

The railroad is the busiest tourist line in the continental U.S. It carried 428,000 passengers last year. Many of them were parents and their children who came to enjoy rides behind Thomas The Tank Engine.

Strasburg bought rights to Thomas in 1998. “He” will make three appearances in Strasburg this year. Strasburg Railroad also does maintenance work on the Thomas engines and builds new ones as demand for his appearances increases.

A visitor to Strasburg Railroad’s shops can see equipment that’s a mix of the old and the modern. Some pieces are almost a century old. One piece of equipment that tests air brakes dates back to the 1920s.

Other equipment is new. Doing work for other railroads allows Strasburg Railroad to purchase equipment that it might not be able to afford otherwise, Moedinger said.

Scott Lefever, Thomas events coordinator for the railroad, said one challenge for the shops is to find qualified workers. Vo-tech schools don’t teach steam-locomotive maintenance, so most training takes place on the job. “We look for mechanical aptitude,” Lefever said.

The work is challenging and rewarding, but it doesn’t provide instant gratification. The complete restoration of a passenger car can take as many as 13,000 man hours, and the work can be expensive. The recent restoration of a passenger car called The Warren Benner, for example, cost $635,000. The intent was to bring the car back to its original condition — an expensive proposition. Hardwood mahogany, for example, cost $1,600 per piece.

The work can be expensive, but it seems to create a respect for the equipment among riders. “I’ve never seen anyone carve a name on one of our trains,” Lefever said.

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IF YOU GO

Shop tours are available to the public every day at noon. The tours take place over employees’ lunch hour and last 45 minutes.

To read the entire article, please visit Central Penn Business Journal.