Erica Levi-Zelinger 2017-11-17 03:59:36
THERE WAS SOMETHING SO FREE, SO LIBERATING, as I watched my Pre-K kid late last summer sprinting across a football field-sized patch of grass in Paradise (Pennsylvania), as he ran alongside a locomotive from the Strasburg Rail Road. He quickly ran out of steam, but his copycat chug-a-chug sound effects, his sense of wonder, and his pure infatuation with motion have helped him keep track of this memory of our visit to Lancaster County. My son’s four-year-old fantasies were grounded in a boyhood fascination with Thomas, the friendly and familiar blue-bodied steam locomotive, but the legacies of the state’s railroads go far beyond Thomas toys. Pennsylvania’s historic railroads created arteries of commerce, birthed towns along their countless routes, and transformed Pennsylvania into an industrial giant. The heritage of these railroads is celebrated today in historical rail car rides, fall foliage tours, and holiday excursions; these routes are also preserved in local museums decorated by diesels, steam engines, and trolleys. Railroading is also valued in contemporary society: today, Pennsylvania is the midway point for Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, the busiest railroad in North America. All aboard for a ride around the state — let’s take a whistle-stop tour! "PENNSYLVANIA’S HISTORIC RAILROADS CREATED ARTERIES OF COMMERCE, BIRTHED TOWNS ALONG THEIR COUNTLESS ROUTES, AND TRANSFORMED PENNSYLVANIA INTO AN INDUSTRIAL GIANT.” Pennsylvania’s past is faithfully preserved in Strasburg Rail Road’s five working steam engines and 19 beautifully restored wooden passenger cars. Ride the rails through Lancaster County’s rolling farmland in the first-class Victorian Parlor Car, or grab a bite to eat in the vintage Dining Car while the conductor highlights local rail history. Take a ride on Thomas the Tank Engine during Day Out with Thomas, or hide your valuables when you buy a ticket to the Great Train Robbery — a bonafide Bonnie and Clyde adventure. And for some additional hands-on experience, head to Strasburg’s Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. With more than 100 historic locomotives and railroad cars in its collection, you can take control of the throttle of an authentic Norfolk Southern freight locomotive cab, or the kids can shovel “coal” into an engine’s boiler. Explore The Horseshoe Curve, an engineering marvel that moved people and goods through the Allegheny Mountains. Climb the 194 stairs or take the funicular up to observe the freight and Amtrak passenger trains that still take the 180-degree hairpin turn in the track. Altoona, once a hub of Pennsylvania’s railroad empire, is home to the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum. Here you can conduct the precision tests that made railroading a science; find out why the brakeman’s job was so dangerous, and pay attention — there’s actually a railroader trivia test to quiz you on your knowledge. Take a 16-mile, narrated excursion in an open-air car along the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, or board with your bike on select dates for an hour-long ride from Jim Thorpe to White Haven, following the Lehigh River through untouched wilderness. Pedal the 25 miles back by scenic overlooks and sparkling waterfalls. Let the kids try out the operator’s seat of an open-air trolley car at Electric City Trolley Museum in downtown Scranton, where the first street car system built entirely by electric power operated. Or let the professionals do the driving on a 10-mile trolley excursion through a mile-long tunnel up to Montage Mountain. The working railroad and museum combo make Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton a unique spot to understand the history of steam railroading and see mechanics caring for the locomotives firsthand. View a timeline of railroading, learn the stories of life on the railroad, and watch “Steel and Steam,” a short film of one man’s career on the rails. Your fare on the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad’s Wildflower Express includes a small bag of wildflower seeds; the Buckingham Valley excursion slows down in the countryside so you can throw your seeds along the tracks. Come back at the end of summer to see the flowers blooming. Mail a postcard from the only operating railway post office car in the United States along the Oil Creek & Titusville Railroad, where a three-hour journey not only takes you back 150 years to the birth of the American oil industry in northwestern Pennsylvania, but you may also spot a few groundhogs, blue heron, bald eagles, and perhaps a black bear. Take (rolling) stock of the collection at Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, where you can visit Little Joe, one of only three electric locomotives built by General Electric for the Soviet Union and still known to exist today. Or feel the tracks rumble as the working CSX and Norfolk Southern trains come rumbling through. Book an “Operator for an Hour” excursion at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, and operate an antique streetcar or tour parts of the Trolley Display Building that houses nearly 30 trolleys. Travel round-trip from Boyertown with a 19th-century baseball team on the Colebrookedale Railroad to play a game at Pottstown’s Memorial Park, topped off with a hot dog and an old-fashioned Reading Draft Company soda. Or ride from Boyertown to Colebrookdale on a Bonfire train ride to warm your hands by the crackling flames — and nosh on s’mores — at the site of this lost iron-making village. RAILS TO TRAILS Get rolling on Pennsylvania’s car-free and carefree railway corridors, repurposed as recreational bike and pedestrian trails. The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources awarded the 63-mile Montour Trail in Allegheny and Washington counties the 2017 Trail of the Year for its rich history, terrain, and length — it’s one of the longest non-motorized suburban rail trails in the country. The Delaware and Lehigh Trail (D&L Trail) follows the 165-mile route through northeast Pennsylvania that anthracite coal took from mine to market, passing through wild lands, waterfalls, and wildflowers. Follow the 62-mile, flat, packed gravel railroad bed of the Pine Creek Rail Trail to see the slopes of Pennsylvania’s Pine Creek Gorge. Watch for waterfalls, unique rock formations, and an occasional eagle. On York Heritage Rail Trail, hikers, joggers, and cyclists in York County can follow the path that Abraham Lincoln’s train took on his way from Washington, D.C. to Gettysburg to deliver his famous address. Little remains of the former mining towns of Indiana and Cambria counties, but what lives on is the Ghost Town Trail: 45 miles of wildlife and mining remnants including Eliza Furnace, one of Pennsylvania’s best-preserved iron blast furnaces. The 51-mile Armstrong/Redbank Valley Trails run along Redbank Creek and include many bridges, historical sites, beautiful stone arches, and sweeping vistas. The Buffalo Valley Rail Trail is a 9.5-mile scenic trail that runs between Lewisburg and Mifflinburg, with interpretive signs along the route that relate the region’s history. Along the 10-mile passage, the D&H Rail Trail passes through former coal-mining territory and showcases unique views of black culm banks and acid mine outfalls with orange precipitate.
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