By Larry Alexander
Intelligencer Journal
December 7, 2007

STRASBURG, Pa. - Santa’s Paradise Express is about to pull out of the station.

The popular holiday train ride features Christmas carolers, brass horns and a personal visit with Santa during its 45-minute journey through the Amish countryside.

Festivities will begin as soon as the visitor reaches the train platform, said Kathy Gochenaur, Strasburg Rail Road’s Christmas coordinator. Carolers will be strolling past the shops, all of which have been decorated with lights, ornaments and metal Christmas stars fabricated at the railroad’s own workshop. Two metal Star Trees, also made on site, will be on display.

A heated rail coach on a siding will be the home for holiday story-telling, and visitors may go inside the J tower, an old switching tower, for a bird’s-eye view of the approaching train long before it enters the station.

Inside the ticket office will be a display of old photos and decorations from Christmases past, on loan from the National Christmas Center.

On the train, which consists of six coaches, a dining car and a first-class parlor coach, more carolers will stroll car-to-car, as will a pair of brass horn players.

Starting from the opposite end of the train, Santa will make his way along, saying “hi” to all the children and handing a gift to those between ages 3 and 11. The singers, musicians and Santa, will all pass each other as they traverse the train.

“That way everybody, at some point during their trip on the railroad, will see Santa Claus, the carolers and hear the horn players,” Gochenaur said.

Carols will be sung by two groups, all high school students — the Madrigal Singers from Lampeter-Strasburg High School and a group of home-schooled students. Each ensemble will feature 10 to 12 voices.

“They’re a delight to hear,” Gochenaur said.

Each car will be heated by a pot-belly stove and decorated for Christmas, with the parlor coach being the most festive, with a live tree and lights.

“That coach is decorated extra-special because it is first class,” Gochenaur said.

This is the 49th year that Santa’s Paradise Express will rumble along the rails between Strasburg and Paradise, and Gochenaur said its popularity has only increased. In recent years, she said as many as 10,000 people have ridden the rails at Christmas.

Santa’s Paradise Express will roll out of the station Saturday and Sunday, as well as Dec. 13-16. Trains run throughout the day on the weekends with special 7 p.m. trains on Thursday and Friday.

Coach fare tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for children 3 to 11 and $4 for children three and under. For first class, tickets are $18 for adults, $13 for children ages 3 to 11 and $7 for youngsters under age 3.

Santa’s Paradise Express, Sat. and Sun. (also Dec. 13-16), 45-minute train ride with Santa, carolers and musicians, plus storybook readings, holiday decorations and more, Strasburg Rail Road, Route 741, Strasburg, $4-$15, 687-7522.

In Lancaster, Christmas as it used to be

By Theresa Gawlas Medoff
The Inquirer

December 2, 2007

LANCASTER - Jim Morrison recalls the Christmases of his youth as a magical time. The season commenced the day after Thanksgiving, when the entire family rode an early-morning bus from Haddonfield to Philadelphia, where they joined the crowds on the sidewalks awaiting the unveiling of the stores’ Christmas window displays.

“I knew exactly what Santa’s elves looked like because I saw them at work in those windows,” Morrison says.

The kid-size monorail and giant tree at Wanamakers, the miniature train set-ups in hardware stores, the department-store Santas who gave out clear toy lollipops - Morrison remembers it all as if it were yesterday. A collector of all things Christmas, he opened the National Christmas Center in Lancaster to showcase a staggering collection of Santas, crèches, ornaments, toys, cards, books and artwork - both his own and items on loan from other Christmas aficionados.

The life-size dioramas and animatronic figures in the Tudor Towne exhibit tell an enchanting children’s story of how a town of animals celebrates Christmas. Another exhibition uses lifelike statues to show Santa Claus figures from around the world. This year, Morrison is adding a “Memories of Philadelphia” display with historical photos - ephemera like a Sealtest paper wreath, and children’s books given out by Gimbels, Lit Brothers and other bygone Philadelphia businesses.

A large, walk-in room re-creates an early Woolworth’s store at Christmastime - the first successful Woolworth’s opened in Lancaster in 1879. The display is a sentimental favorite of Morrison’s; he bought his first Christmas collectibles - three houses for a miniature Christmas village - at Woolworth’s as a 7-year-old. And, yes, those three houses are now part of the exhibition.

“It’s all about preserving the essence of Christmas,” says the man who calls himself Santa Jr. and whose hefty stature and natural gray-white beard make him a Santa look-alike. The same could be said of Lancaster County during the holiday season. Lancaster done right, that is - avoiding the strip malls, outlets and tourist traps on the congested part of Route 30 nearest the city of Lancaster.

The Germans who settled this area contributed some of our more beloved Christmas traditions - decorated evergreens, miniature villages served by toy trains, even candy canes. So it’s not surprising that the county evokes Christmas fantasies - a journey that begins when you pull off the highway and onto the two-lane back roads of this primarily rural area.

Rolling farmlands alternate with small towns where the sidewalks are lined with hundred-year-old homes that have front porches designed for neighborliness. Here, it’s the automobiles that seem out of place, not the horse-drawn carriages of the Amish and Mennonites.

Visitors to the Landis Valley Museum walk through the streets and buildings of a living history village that represents the Pennsylvania German culture of 18th-, 19th- and early-20th century Lancaster County. For years museum volunteers had adorned the village with evergreen branches and other small holiday touches, but only in the last five years has the museum highlighted extensively old local holiday traditions, a mini-lesson in Christmas history.

The museum’s early-1800s tavern, for example, features an evergreen tree hung upside down from the ceiling to prevent mice from nibbling its adornment of edible cookies and dried fruit. The Landis Brothers House incorporates a Victorian-style feather tree and traditional German miniature “putz” nativity scene.

At the museum’s Country Christmas Village (Friday through Sunday and Dec. 14-16 and 26-28) visitors will encounter Belsnickel, a gruff peddler in tattered clothes who carries a switch to punish bad children and candies to reward good ones. The German Belsnickel was a precursor of our Santa.

The pleasant scenery on Route 741 west of Gap evokes Sunday drives of old, when the journey itself was the enjoyment, but a reward lies ahead in Strasburg, where the railroad is still king. Those who grew up with a miniature train layout under the Christmas tree will delight in the oversized display at Choo Choo Barn, the outgrowth of a setup that began about 50 years ago in the basement of the Groff family, which still owns and operates Choo Choo Barn.

The 1,700-square-foot walk-around display features 20 operating O-gauge trains crisscrossing the farms and villages of a miniature Lancaster County, over bridges, through tunnels and past a ski slope. Electricity brings to life more than 150 animated figures, including an Amish barn-raising, dairy farm, three-ring circus, amusement park and baseball game.

The operating layouts at the National Toy Train Museum in Strasburg are neither as large nor as elaborate as Choo Choo Barn’s. This museum instead focuses on the history of toy trains, displaying hundreds of locomotives and cars from the late 1800s to today. Train collectors will be fascinated. A recent visit found numerous families with little boys enjoying the museum, too, but if you go to only one place to see toy train layouts, make it the Choo Choo Barn.

Train lovers can experience the real thing by taking a ride on the Strasburg Rail Road, one of America’s oldest short-line steam railways. Operating hours are abbreviated in December, but special events include the popular Day Out with Thomas and Santa’s Paradise Express.

Across the street, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania exhibits more than 100 cars and locomotives, including the interiors of sleepers and dining cars.

Lancaster County offers visitors a chance to shop the way we all once did - strolling the streets of a real downtown, patronizing small, locally owned stores and, best of all, escaping much of the crowds. The little town of Intercourse has more than 30 craft, food, gift and furniture stores within walking distance along Old Philadelphia Pike (Route 340) and East Newport Road (Route 772) and within the Kitchen Kettle Village complex. Among the out-of-the-ordinary gifts available are locally made quilts, traditional folk arts and crafts, and local food specialties.

Downtown Lancaster makes an enjoyable shopping excursion, mostly near Penn Square on Market, Prince, King and Orange. At the heart of the district is Central Market, the oldest continuously operating farmers market in the country. The current building is a modest 114 years old, but the market itself has been operating on this site since the 1730s.

Market stalls offer Pennsylvania Dutch meats, baked goods and preserves alongside Greek specialties and organic foods. Pick up some traditional springerle molded cookies and hand-painted ornaments from the Springerle House market stall.

Numerous art galleries sprinkled throughout the downtown area sell high-quality local crafts as well as fine arts from regional and international artists. Two museum stores worth a look are those at the Heritage Center Museum on King Street and at the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum on Market Street.

Visit the Quilt Museum itself to see the “Lancaster Christmas” exhibition introduced last year. The sentimental re-creation of Christmases past was curated by the National Christmas Center’s Morrison. Eight life-size room settings depict Pennsylvania holiday celebrations through the years, from the simpler decor of the 1850s to the 1960s, when aluminum trees lit by color wheels were all the rage. Woolworth’s 5-&-10-cent store makes an appearance here, too.

Downtown Lancaster’s Old Fashioned Holiday Weekends, the first three weekends of December, feature horse-drawn carriage rides, trolley tours, and Santa himself.

Strasburg’s tiny downtown, at the crossroads of Routes 741 and 896, has a few shops worth visiting. Eldreth Pottery specializes in traditional salt-glazed stoneware and Pennsylvania redware pottery. Springerle House has its main store here, and 70 antiques and collectible dealers showcase their wares at the Strasburg Antique Market in a restored tobacco warehouse.

Lancaster County seems to have more than its share of theaters, and their holiday shows tend to cost less than those in larger cities. Sight & Sound Millennium Theatre’s Miracle of Christmas presents a musical rendition of the birth of Jesus with a large cast, live animals on stage, and impressive special effects.

Amish Family Christmas at Freedom Chapel Dinner Theatre depicts the holiday celebration of the fictional King family, and Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre presents Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, a musical based on the 1954 Bing Crosby movie.

American Musical Theatre boasts that its Christmas Show “is constantly compared to Radio City Music Hall.” At $32 for adults and $16 for children, ticket prices for the Lancaster variety show go for considerably less than those to Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular.

Holiday time brings nostalgia for the “good old days,” when to many people, Christmas seemed simpler and more meaningful. Lancaster County in December can’t bring back those days, but it offers a chance to recapture the feeling.

Lancaster County Christmas

Lancaster County, west of Philadelphia, is about a 60- or 75-minute drive. The leisurely trip is along Route 30, also called the Old Lincoln Highway, where traffic can be heavy. The Pennsylvania Turnpike is the fast way to reach the county by car or truck. Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses run between Philadelphia and Lancaster.

ABC 27 News
November 21, 2007

Whitaker Center is welcoming the holiday season with it’s first annual model train display.

“A gift of a train for a child is almost a dream come true,” said Whitaker Center’s Steve Bishop. “There’s a natural connection between the holidays and trains.”

The exhibit, on loan from the Strasburg Rail Road, has different themes including a childrens favorite, Thomas the Tank engine, and a holiday favorite, The Polar Express.

“In the film ‘Polar Express,’ there’s a tree and we’ve imitated that design,” Bishop said, “and the train resembles the train that transport kids to the North Pole.”

In addition to checking out the locomotives and Christmas trees that are all decked out, children can use their imagination and build their own model train tracks.

Kids can also climb on board the Whitaker Express and take a ride through a winter wonderland.

“It’s a little model steam engine,” Bishop said. “Parents and kids can ride along. It holds up to 18 people and travels 4 miles an hour.”

It’s a chance for families to spend time together and enjoy the magic of the holiday season.

Windsor-Hights Herald
October 2007

A Tale of Many Cities
Visitors spending a long weekend in Pennsylvania Dutch Country have their choice of several charming hamlets. The village of Bird-In-Hand offers the cozy Bird-In-Hand Village Inn & Suites, a grouping of 24 quaint, country style guest rooms spread over four brick buildings; the oldest, built in 1734, holds court on the National Register of Historic Places. Just across the road, a farmers market beckons with aisle after aisle of fresh meats and produce, unique jarred goodies, candies, jewelry, clothing and souvenirs.

The nearby city of Lancaster, the county’s hub, boasts rows of antique shops, art galleries, restaurants, outdoor cafes and the region’s most popular farmers market. Vacationing families should check out Dutch Wonderland, an amusement park featuring more than 30 rides, games and coasters for kids. History buffs can stop by the Landis Valley Museum, the largest authentic Pennsylvania Dutch Country Living History Village, where 19th – century German life, customs and artifacts unfold before you. And if you’re in the mood for an old-fashioned constitutional stroll around the manicured grounds, it’s a real treat on a sunny fall day.

If you’re looking for some upscale charm, spend an afternoon in Lititz, Lancaster County’s own version of New Hope, PA. With its trendy shops and chic restaurants, it promises visitors a little cosmopolitan-meets-old-country charm. Feeling twisted? Stop into the historic Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, America’s first commercial bakery.

Seasonal Availability
Pennsylvania Dutch Country shines during late autumn, when barns, silos, covered bridges and farmland compose the panorama.
Soak it all in with a horse-and-buggy ride; while you’ll cover limited ground, Amish buggy drivers reveal their deep sense of regional pride and knowledge of the countryside.

Another don’t-miss option? The Ride to Paradise on an old-time train departs from Strasburg Rail Road – America’s oldest short-line railroad – and takes guests on a 45-minute jaunt through several miles of farmland. On the return trip, passengers can disembark at a scenic spot to enjoy picnics, hayrides, apple cider, as well as the Amazing Maize Maze in the aptly named township of Paradise. Then, hop another returning train and, upon arriving at the station, visit the Choo Choo Barn and National Toy Train Museum.

By Liz - Liz’s Point Blog
Lou & Liz in the Morning - WJLK - FM
94.3 The Point

November 5, 2007

I’ve taken the trip to Lancaster plenty of times…..a very kid-friendly vacation. And I’ve gotten so many listeners requesting details when I mention it on the air that I thought I’d give you a quick overview in case you haven’t yet taken your children to Lancaster County, PA.

My boys adore every detail of our trip. I must say that it almost rivals Disney for younger kids. So let me make a couple of recommendations: Try for at least three days if you’re doing it between Memorial Day and Labor Day to get in all the major attractions. My boys’ favorites: The Strasburg Railroad and Train Museum….two separate attractions. Go for a ride on a steam train through the Amish farmland…..Thomas The Train even stops by on occasion!

My kids will spend three to six hours at the train museum across the street climbing onto the real trains and playing with the toy train displays. There are also two other toy train museums within blocks of the big train museum. You can stay in a real train hotel (the Red Caboose) and eat in a train restaurant. Our favorite hotel is Willow Valley Family Resort, where the boys will swim ’till 11pm every night in the indoor kiddie water park and five pools. They also love the numerous buffets around the county, especially Miller’s and the one at Willow Valley, where they can eat all they want without having to wait. There are also some wonderful family-style restaurants like Good And Plenty.

Dutch Wonderland is a fantastic kiddie amusement park for the little ones. That’ll take up a whole day, too. Then there are the numerous Amish farms where you can get horse and buggy rides through covered bridges and interactive life-on-the-farm activities. You can even stay at some of these farms and get up to feed the chickens and milk the cows, then eat Amish meals with the family you’re staying with. I love the smell of a farm, the beautiful rolling hills, and the feel of being someplace so different than the Jersey Shore without having to get on a plane. The boys just beg to go back time and time again.

By Tom Knapp
Intelligencer Journal
November 5, 2007

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - The history of warfare is linked indelibly to transportation.

From aircraft and naval vessels to jeeps and motorbikes, the military always has had to find better ways to get where it needs to go. That’s where the histories of trains and troops overlap.

“Railroads really were the key to transportation for all the conflicts from the Civil War on up to the war in Iraq,” David W. Dunn, director of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, said Sunday.

“Trains & Troops” was a two-day event in Strasburg that celebrated those joint histories with an array of memorabilia, much of it exhibited by uniformed re-enactors who knew the stories behind each item on display.

Richard Gabryszewski Jr. of Baltimore was decked out in the drab fatigues of a Korean War soldier. He and his father, Richard Sr., manned an exhibit showing the evolution of the American soldier through the 20th century.

“It’s a love and a passion for me,” said Gabryszewski Jr., who’s working on a master’s degree in military history at the University of Maryland.

“We usually focus on World War II,” he said, “but for this, we thought we’d show the transition … of the GI from 1900 to 2003.”

A centerpiece of the Gabryszewskis’ collection was a World War II-era poster showing a muscular Uncle Sam standing tall in a rail yard, promoting the use of rail “from troop trains in the U.S. to armored trains prowling Europe.”

“Some of this stuff people might not know about. Some of it they might remember,” Gabryszewski said. “I love modern trains, so this is a beautiful blend of my interests.”

All of the exhibits, including a wide variety of military jeeps, were set up among the massive engines, carriers and passenger cars that make up the Railroad Museum’s permanent collection.

Although the primary focus of the event was World War II, there also was plenty to examine from the Civil War right on up through the Gulf War.

Tim Kress of Hanover centered his exhibit on a Korean War jeep, which he had restored with his uncle, a Korean War veteran.

“Korean War re-enactors are few and far between,” Kress said. “Everybody seems to do Civil War, Vietnam or World War II.”

But Kress, himself an eight-year U.S. Army veteran, said he grew up on his uncle’s stories, which led to his interest in the era.

With a degree in secondary education, a specialty in American history and a collection 15 years in the making, Kress enjoys sharing his knowledge with others.

“I like for the kids to touch, feel and smell,” he said. “You can get a kid’s attention a lot quicker pulling up in this than you can trying to tell him a story out of a book.”

Even transportation on the home front was affected by war. Sunday’s exhibits included gas ration cards from World War II, along with charts to aid in the identification of airplanes passing overhead and posters requesting civilians to conserve rubber tires and cut down on unnecessary travel.

It all got good reviews from the people who passed through the exhibit hall; Dunn said the weekend crowd exceeded 2,000 guests.

For 7-year-old Noah Workman, who came from Landenberg with his dad, Ralph Workman, and his Cub Scout pack, the best part of the day was “the army stuff — the helmets and the trucks and everything.”

Ruth Bryant brought her family from Hummelstown, both to support her parents, who were working a World War II home-front memorabilia table, and to help her daughters learn more about U.S. history.

“This is fun,” said 8-year-old Maeve Bryant. “I liked going on the trains the most.”

Her mom said Maeve and 3-year-old Tess also had great fun looking at antique typewriters — they couldn’t figure out how to plug them in — and the women’s fashions from World War II.

“This is interesting,” Wayne Carson, who drove in from Plainsboro, N.J., said Sunday. “We’ve been here for this before, and I enjoy the history.”

By Ryan Robinson
Lancaster New Era
Oct 29, 2007

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - Here’s a scoop: Ice Cream is helping to save a 63-acre Amish farm in Fulton Township.

Turkey Hill Dairy in 2005 began giving a portion of the proceeds from sales of its All Natural Recipe ice cream to the nonprofit farmland preserver, Lancaster Farmland Trust.

Through the end of 2006, that effort amassed $51,000, which will pay for most of the $60,000 cost of preserving a dairy farm at 115 Arcadia Trace Road, Peach Bottom.

Turkey Hill and trust officials planned to be at the farm today when the farmer signs the conservation agreement, which prohibits future development of the farm.

“Look what one locally based business has done to help save farmland in Lancaster County,” Karen Martynick, executive director of the trust, said in a press release. “Turkey Hill wisely understands the importance of farmland preservation to the success of their products, and so they’ve made this wonderful commitment.”

“Lancaster County farmland is truly a national treasure,” Quintin Frey, president of Turkey Hill Dairy, said in the release. “We believe it’s critical to preserve this irreplaceable resource and to preserve what is so special about Lancaster County.”

Previously, Turkey Hill donated funds to support the trust in general, not to preserve a specific farm.
Turkey Hill also gives considerable in-kind gifts to the trust such as products and sponsorship of events including the Turkey Hill Classic bike race.

In a similar partnership, Strasburg Rail Road in 2005 began giving five cents from each ticket it sells — excluding Thomas the Tank Engine events — to the trust to help preserve farms in the railroad’s viewshed.

That was thought to be the first arrangement of its kind between a business and a private farmland preserver in Pennsylvania, and perhaps in the country.

The Strasburg Rail Road has given the trust a total of $30,516 in 2005 and 2006.

The trust is still pursuing other such arrangements with area companies in an effort to raise more money for preserving farms.

More than 15,000 acres of farmland have been preserved by the trust, which receives more than 85 percent of its funding from private donations.

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

By Keith W. Strandberg
New York Times
October 14, 2007