Wine and Cheese Train’s Season Begins Saturday
By Cindy Hummel
Lancaster New Era
April 3, 2007

A railroad experience aimed at adults will head down the Strasburg Rail Road tracks at full speed beginning April [14].

The wine and cheese train is returning, after a successful experiment last summer.

People purchased tickets for last year’s train faster than anticipated, recalled manager Joanne O’Connell.

“We sold out every wine and cheese train,” she said.

To meet the demand, the railroad will again run a wine and cheese train on Saturdays from April [14] through Nov. 24. Additional wine and cheese trains will depart on Thursday and Friday nights during part of the summer.

In addition to the single parlor car with 30 seats used in 2006, the back half of a second parlor car has been added. The new car has been transformed into a parlor car to seat an additional 14 guests.

O’Connell says she is pleased with the design of the new car, which includes green, stuffed velour chairs that swivel. The railroad shop created the chairs, finished on the bottom with fringe, based on a parlor car from 1915.

The four waiters and waitresses will have to walk back and forth between the two parlor cars, but O’Connell doesn’t think it will be a problem.

Some of the wines and cheeses will be different than those served during the inaugural year. Wine and cheese selections are still being determined, O’Connell said, and may change from week to week. One wine sure to be served is a Strasburger Red. Selections will include two red and two white wines.

The wine and cheese train, open to riders 21 and older, is popular because it gives adults a new option, O’Connell said.

“I think people wanted something to do as married couples,” she said.

Co-workers also ride together after work for unusual gatherings, O’Connell said, while other people have purchased tickets as gifts. Weddings and receptions have also taken place in the parlor car.

Besides wine and cheese, crackers and fruit also will be served during the 45-minute trips. […]

To read the entire article, please visit Lancaster Online.

Strasburg Rail Road Serves Up A Tasty Trip
By Susan E. Lindt
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal
September 8, 2006

Lancaster County, PA - Leave the pistols with the conductor because you’re positively NOT allowed to shoot livestock or pheasants from this train. It even says so on your ticket. That’s because the Marian Parlor Car isn’t for riff-raff. With wine and cheese on tap, it’s a modern reference to the way it might have been on the short line from Strasburg to Paradise in 1917 or so.

Sure, there are some deviations. Today’s riders tend to be in shorts and tennis shoes when they arrive at the station in minivans for the special evening ride. The only horses you’ll see will be roaming the bucolic countryside that is truly the best Lancaster has to offer. And they’re paying $25 a person for the experience now, while they would have paid just a few cents way back when.

On the other hand, the Marian is a fine reproduction of the kind of coach train that might really have taken its good old time getting passengers a mere nine miles down the road and back. Stained glass windows, dark wood panels, fancy flowered carpet, monogrammed wine glasses - it’s less “Anna Karenina” than “Music Man,” but maybe that’s because everyone on this particular ride had so much fun, even breaking into a spontaneous round of “Happy Birthday” for a rider from outside the area.

“It’s very relaxing,” said Isabel Gambetta of Garfield, N.J., who rode North America’s oldest short line with her husband, Mario, and daughter, Cindy Torres.

“The speed, the wine, the view - just everything is wonderful,” Mario Gambetta said. “And the quality of the food was good, which isn’t always the case. This is worth repeating.”

The fare is fresh and local. A tasty variety of cheeses come from Strasburg Market Basket and are garnished with enormous strawberries.

Marian’s house wines come from Twin Brook Winery and include two reds and two whites. Also on tap is Lancaster Brewing Company’s Amish Four Grain and Franklinfest beers, plus a variety of drinks for teetotalers.

While you can drink as much as you like, with servers making trips through the car to fill your glass, you won’t be served anything but cheese until the car starts moving - another peculiarity of Lancaster County that makes a trip back in time seem, well, like just a few hours ago in some cases.

“This is a dry township, so we can’t start serving until the train moves,” said parlor car manager JoAnn O’Connell.

But that’s OK with most passengers. The scenery is sensational as the train makes its way through farm fields of corn and tobacco, past the Amazing Maize Maze and country roads with Amish pedaling their way home.

“It’s so beautiful as the sun sets,” O’Connell said. “Every trip is a little different. Each season has its own special thing.”

And unlike many Lancaster tourist venues, passengers genuinely seemed to enjoy one another, breaking down some of those barriers we’re so well known for. Groups mingled during the ride and seemed downright cool, in spite of the slightly bumpy ride and the heat (the Marian is, of course, cooled only by fans and country air spilling through opened, unscreened windows - consider a shot of Flonase before climbing aboard).

“Most of the time it’s pretty laid back and a really nice crowd,” O’Connell said. “You have nice people and you have mean people - but you only have them for 45 minutes.”

O’Connell said the idea for the wine and cheese evening train was to get more people out for the later ride. Strasburg Railroad still is a big seller with children, but the new offering has made a spot on the evening run nothing short of coveted. Seats are sold out weeks ahead of time and what started as a summer-only run already has been extended through October.

“This sounded like something different and fun to do,” said Don Cooney of Lancaster, who took the short line with his wife, Dianne.

If the idea was to make the Strasburg Rail Road something not just for kids anymore, it worked. Chuck and Marsha Erisman of Lancaster heard about the train’s late run on the radio and decided to take a ride - again.

“We were here over 15 years ago,” Chuck Erisman said, smiling, glass in hand. “But we didn’t have wine and cheese then.”

Wine and cheese train, through October, Fri. and Sat. 7 p.m., 45-minute train ride with wine, cheese, crackers and fruit (plus beer, mixed drinks and non-alcoholic beverages), Strasburg Rail Road, Route 741, $25, age 21 and over only.

To read the entire article, please visit Lancaster Online.

Strasburg Rail Road serves a sold-out crowd week after week
Media Release
Strasburg Rail Road

Strasburg, Pa. – Just weeks after launching its newest train, the Strasburg Rail Road knew it had done good. Riding high on its past success and reputation as a great tourist destination, the Strasburg Rail Road unveiled the Wine and Cheese Train – giving new meaning to relaxing on the rails.

What began as a two-month trial to reach a new audience quickly caught on. Thanks to an overwhelming response and a repeatedly sold-out crowd, the two-month test was extended and is still going strong today. To pull it off, the Strasburg Rail Road transforms its First Class Parlor Car into its Wine & Cheese Car – complete with monogrammed stemware and a wait staff ready to serve. As the authentic vintage steam train chugs down the track, passengers savor the country view with a side of wine, cheese, crackers and fruit.

“The response has been great, better than we expected,” said JoAnn O’Connell, Parlor Car manager. “It allows us to reach into the over 21 crowd who are looking for a new way to spend a Friday or Saturday evening. Hopefully they enjoy it so much that they’ll come back and spend the day with their family.”

The $25 fare includes first class accommodations aboard the Parlor Car and complimentary wine, cheese and crackers. Beer, mixed drinks, and non-alcoholic hot and cold beverages are also available for purchase. Passengers must be 21 years or older to board the Train.

For more information on The Wine and Cheese Train, please visit Strasburg Rail Road.

Choo-Choos and More in Pennsylvania
By Christina Breda Antoniades
The Washington Post

[…]For a road trip to Lancaster County, don’t limit yourself to one mode of travel. Instead, head out on an exploration of transportation, from old-timey locomotives to gleaming Harleys to the slow-but-steady horse and buggy. Young, old or somewhere in between, this is one journey that will feed your fascination for things that go vroom - or neigh[…]

[…]Of course, you didn’t come all this way to just eat and shop. Lancaster is train country, with a railroad, railroad museum, model train museum, caboose motel and other rail-related attractions, just east of Strasburg. To get there, take the back roads from Intercourse. Your reward: a calming drive through seemingly endless cornfields and across one of the county’s 30 covered bridges. At the Strasburg Rail Road, cruise along in a steam engine for the 45-minute trip to Paradise (sorry, it’s only a Pennsylvania town) and back. Take your pick of open-air car or coach, a Victorian-style car that’s heated with a potbelly stove on nippy days.

If you have kids in tow, the sight of a steam train sliding into the depot will likely leave them speechless. And for adults who want to ride without the little ones, the railroad recently launched wine-and-cheese excursions, so you can sip, nibble and ride. Now that’s chugging in style…

To read the entire article, please visit The Washington Post.

Wine & Cheese Train Remains On Track, Will Move Into October
By Stephen Kopfinger
Lancaster Sunday News

It’s scene that could play out in “Murder on the Orient Express” or any movie devoted to the glamour of old-fashioned train travel.

Passengers in a handsomely paneled coach recline in plush armchairs as attendants pour wine. Trays set with cheese, crackers and grapes beckon.

Outside, lush scenery competes with the fruit of the vine — that swirls to the rhythm of the rails — in monogrammed stemware.

The train in question is not the Orient Express. And its destination is Paradise, not Paris. But elegance is to be had — albeit on a more casual scale, one that doesn’t require a tuxedo or evening gown — on the newest addition to the Strasburg Rail Road.

In July, the popular passenger carrier, which shuttles train buffs between Strasburg and Paradise, and back, in vintage steam-hauled rolling stock, launched a “Wine & Cheese Train,” in a parlor car attached to the rear of the train.

“It’s been great,” said JoAnn O’Connell, parlor car manager. “It’s sold out — every one,” she said of the two weekly runs, both at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday evenings that were scheduled through this month. “We’re going to continue it into October,” O’Connell said, with service scaled back to a 6 p.m. Saturday run toward the end of September.

By day, the parlor car “Marian” — a re-creation coach crafted in the Strasburg Rail Road’s workshop — welcomes travelers of all ages on the 45-minute round trip through Lancaster County farmland. On the Wine & Cheese runs, it’s strictly 21 and over. Cost is $25 per passenger and includes what the train advertises — wine and cheese. Not to mention ambience.

“This is terrific,” said Becky Magnelli, who was visiting from Pittsburgh with her husband, Salvatore, for their fifth wedding anniversary.

“We’ve gone to a lot of wine dinners, and we saw this on the Internet,” Becky said. “The local wines are great.”

“The sweet red is very good,” said Salvatore, sipping a Strasburger Red from Twin Brook Winery in nearby Gap.

Twin Brook is the house wine on board. “We have four kinds of wine — two reds and two whites,” said O’Connell. Non-alcoholic and a limited number of mixed drinks — don’t expect specialty martinis — are available for an additional cost, as are Amish Four Grain and Franklinfest beers on tap from Lancaster Brewing Co.

Servers move throughout the coach dispensing beverages and presenting cheese trays — let them do the walking.

Passengers are encouraged to keep their seats; the ride can be bumpy standing up.

The cheese (be sure to try the Swiss) also has a local connection; it comes from Strasburg Market Basket and trays are garnished with juicy strawberries. There’s no need to worry about balancing a dish on one’s lap — small tables adjoin chairs and love seats.

Stemware is emblazoned with the crest of the old Pennsylvania Railroad, in a salute to the junction in Paradise where the Strasburg Rail Road’s tracks meet those of the former Pennsylvania’s Main Line. But those glasses can’t be filled until the train begins moving, in compliance with township “dry” laws.

Once under way, passengers won’t see vineyards outside their windows, but lush fields of corn and soybeans. Paired with an agreeable red or white —Twin Brook’s Strasburger Red has an especially appealing taste that will please even those who dislike sweet wines — it’s a literally intoxicating view.

“Fantastic — Don’t drink too much!” said Cornelia Hiel, visiting with her husband, Dolf, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. International visitors are nothing new to the Strasburg Rail Road; O’Connell noted passengers from as far as Germany and Taiwan, as well as those from within an hour’s drive.

“We’ve been trying to find a way to attract people to come and ride this late train,” said O’Connell, noting that ridership on the evening run is traditionally less full than during the day. It’s a time when visitors normally head back to their hotels or to dinner.

There’s another business angle: O’Connell said she hopes wine enthusiasts will “enjoy the experience and come back with their families.” The Wine & Cheese service complements, but is separate from, the Strasburg’s upscale Lee Brenner dining car, which has been in service since 1993.

It’s also one more enticement to long-time rail fans, such as Randy and Bev Wike, from Vestal, N.Y. They’ve been riding the Strasburg Rail Road “35 years, every year,” said Randy.

“This is super,” said Bev. “I just wish it was longer!”

To learn more about the wine served at Strasburg Rail Road, please visit Twin Brook Winery.

To read the entire article, please visit Lancaster Online.