RAILS TO TRAILS York Heritage Rail Trail Electric City Trolley Museum Scranton 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. 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. PHOTOS COURTESY: COURTESY OF THE LAUREL HIGHLANDS VISITORS BUREAU; YORK CVB visitPA.com 39
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