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.”

Past Players visit local sites to share ‘their’ Civil War-era tales
By Larry Alexander
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
July 20, 2007

STRASBURG, Pa. - Stepping out from behind the veil of time, Pennsylvania Past Players spent Thursday mingling with modern-day visitors at two county tourist attractions.

The Past Players, 18 actors and Civil War re-enactors dressed in period attire, spent Thursday afternoon in Strasburg, strolling the grounds of Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and riding the rails at Strasburg Railroad.

Each actor has adopted the persona of a mid-19th-century Pennsylvanian to educate modern Americans about the state’s past.

“We have come back and stepped out of the pages of history to walk the trails and to tell our stories and inform today’s people of life in our time,” said the group’s leader, “Mary Bennett.”

Three members of the Past Players took part in Thursday’s visit to Strasburg. They were “Bennett” and “Mary S. Beatty,” both of Harrisburg and dressed in hoop dresses and bonnets, and Hanover entrepreneur “J.W. Gitt,” in a low top hat and swallow-tailed coat.

Like the other members of the group, Bennett, Beatty and Gitt are not their real names. The Past Players do not step out of character to divulge their true identities.

The 18 members of the Pennsylvania Past Players, which includes several Lancaster County residents, were recruited earlier this summer and underwent extensive training to prepare for their roles as guides and interpreters of the state’s Civil War and Underground Railroad history.

They began their duties July 5.

Pennsylvania Past Players is part of the state’s Civil War Trails/Prelude to Gettysburg and Pennsylvania’s Quest for Freedom programs, all of which will lead up to the 150th anniversary commemoration of the Civil War, which begins in 2011.

The group is jointly sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development’s Cultural & Heritage Tourism program and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, which owns the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.

“This is one example of two state agencies working together to improve the visitors’ experience at all of the different historical sites across the state,” said David W. Dunn, executive director at the Railroad Museum.

“It’s fun to see the people in character and the visitors’ reactions to them.”

The group, which includes Union soldiers and civilians, covers Lancaster, Dauphin, York, Adams, Franklin and Cumberland counties. Some days the group works together, such as Wednesdays at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg and Saturdays in Gettysburg.

Other times the Players operate in teams and hold simultaneous programs in places such as York, Columbia, Mechanicsburg, Carlisle and center city Harrisburg.

The players will be at the Railroad Museum on Thursdays from 11 to 11:45 a.m. and from 2 to 3 p.m., through Sept. 13.

“In each of the locations, we share stories, just as we are doing here today,” Bennett said.

While the characters are supposed to be inhabitants of the 1860s, they are aware of their modern surroundings.

Bennett said what astounds her most about Pennsylvania in 2007, aside from women’s clothing which, in her day, would have been deemed highly immoral, is the role women play in modern society.

“The thing that fascinates me the most on coming back is seeing the power women have gained since our time,” she said, staving off Thursday’s humidity with a hand-held fan. “We have women who fight in wars. We have women who run for Congress and even run Congress. That is unheard of in our time. I am very pleased about that.”

Beatty said what surprised her most was the state of communication, a far cry from the telegraph system of her day.

“With what you call a cell phone, I can speak with anyone in the world,” she marveled.

Most of all, the two women were happy to see the state has prospered and grown since they walked the earth some 140 years ago.

“I am so happy to be in this time period, to see the progress of this wonderful state of Pennsylvania,” Bennett said.

To read the entire article please visit Lancaster Online.

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.

Strasburg Rail Road Marks 175th Birthday
By Cindy Hummel
Lancaster New Era
June 7, 2007

LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa - Strasburg Rail Road president Linn Moedinger told a crowd of about 200 people on Wednesday that the railroad, “never did anything in a normal fashion.”

In a re-creation of a whistle stop tour of political campaigns gone by, Moedinger spoke from the back of an observation car after it pulled into East Strasburg Station.

“This year is the 175th birthday,” he explained, “and next year is our 50th.”

Moedinger explained that 175 years have passed since the railroad was incorporated in 1832. The railroad gained its second life in 1958 as a group of 24 people bought it at a sheriff’s sale and brought it back to life.

Although the railroad began in 1832, the economic depression known as the Panic of 1837 prevented much progress from happening until 1859, Moedinger said. After trolley service in Strasburg lured away passenger service around 1900, he explained, the Strasburg Rail Road carried mostly freight. A leader in the industry, Strasburg Rail Road was among the first to get rid of its steam locomotives.

Lenwood Sloan from the Pennsylvania Tourism Office read a proclamation from Gov. Ed Rendell honoring June 9 as the 175th birthday of the Strasburg Rail Road.

“Making it against all odds,” County Commissioner Sharron Nelson told the crowd, “the Strasburg Rail Road is a true legacy.”

The speeches were followed by the Hans Herr Elementary School fourth-grade band’s presentation of the Strasburg Rail Road song, written in 1986 by composer Joe Ambrosia after a visit to the railroad.

Lampeter-Strasburg Superintendent Robert Frick explained that the school district has had a long relationship with the railroad.

Several years ago, Frick said, the railroad donated $10,000 to L-S as well as to the Pequea Valley School District. The train runs through both districts. L-S used the gift as seed money for its fourth-grade strings music program. Since then, Frick said, the railroad has continued to give the district $5,000 per year, which has been used mostly for science equipment.

Millersville resident Michael Kuntz said he was so impressed by how far the students, including his niece Lauren Kuntz, had progressed.

“Most kids,” pointed out Hans Herr principal Andrew Godfrey explained, “were not playing an instrument at the beginning of the year.”

Moedinger invited the crowd to learn more about the last five decades of Strasburg Rail Road history by returning next year for the 50th anniversary.

To read the entire article, please visit Lancaster Online.

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.”

To read the entire article, please visit Lancaster Online.