First we’ll climb aboard Strasburg Rail Road for a cozy steam train ride through the rolling hills of Lancaster County, then head across the street to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and look at the huge old steam trains and play with the hands-on children’s trains and tracks.
Christmas and model trains go together like mistletoe and smooches. This year, the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg is offering a collection of eight new model-train gardens, put together by the folks at Strasburg Rail Road.
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.
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.
Whitaker Center is welcoming the holiday season with it’s first annual model train display. 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.
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.
I’ve taken the trip to Lancaster plenty of times…..a very kid-friendly vacation. 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:
The history of warfare is linked indelibly to transportation.”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.
In 2005 Strasburg Rail Road began giving five cents from each ticket it sells — excluding Thomas the Tank Engine events — to Lancaster Farmland Trust to help preserve farms in the railroad’s viewshed. The partnership between Strasburg Rail Road and the Trust is thought to be the first arrangement of its kind between a business and a private farmland preserver in Pennsylvania, and perhaps in the country. Other local businesses, such as Turkey Hill, have also joined forces with the Trust by contributing a portion of proceeds to support farmland preservation.
On the Strasburg Rail Road in Lancaster County, PA, the oldest continuously operating railroad in North America, engineers still synchronize their watches to each other’s and to the station’s clock when they hand off an engine. “Our trains are run on a timetable schedule with set departure times, and train orders are issued based on standard railroad time,” says Linn Moedinger, president and chief mechanical officer of the Strasburg Rail Road Company.