We’ve been on a tour of the eastern half of the U.S.after sneaking across the Mississippi for a week and our most recent stop was Lancaster, P.A.
She said we were visiting cousins ...but failed to mention they owned the oldest shortline railroad in the United States!
We complemented the visit to the Strasburg Railroad, founded in 1832, with a stay in the 1870 Hollinger House bed and breakfast – a near perfect time machine back to the 19th century.
We made a call on the way in and after a bit of hunting on the far end we heard back – only one room left in the area at a place called the Hollister House. This 1870 home sports ten bedrooms, five of which are rentable. The other five are divided among Dave, Cindy, and their eight children. Don’t let the relatively narrow front fool you ...
As this house has great depth ... and it’s surrounded by porches.
The insides are comfortable and a smooth blend of modern and period furniture and fixtures are on display.
We slept in, had a wonderful breakfast, and then it was off to the railroad.
The Strasburg line is in the little town of Strasburg, just southeast of Lancaster a few miles. Please forgive me, dear readers, as I went a little video crazy with the steam locomotives.
They run a full service machine shop that not only rebuilds but also fabricates from scratch(!) steam engines and rolling stock. They run a half hour shop tour during the week but as we turned up on a Saturday and got introduced to the machinist who does tours by the owners we got the deluxe, get into everything look around the place.
Here is one of their current projects – a boiler off the frame restoration of a narrow gauge steam locomotive owned by a museum in Colorado.
Their work ranges from the gigantic ...
... to the tiny, like this propane fueled locomotive used for a children’s ride.
Restorations are authentic – no pressure sprayers here, all the paint goes on one brush stroke at a time.
This is a particularly interesting job – a battered, unserviceable cast iron locomotive tender was shipped in, and they’re returning a stainless steel replacement ... but it’ll have every bump and ding the original unit had(!)
The machining equipment for smaller pieces is modern CNC gear capable of program once/produce many operation but for handling steam locomotive driving wheels nothing beats the original equipment lathe. This, like all old steam shop gear, used to be powered by a belt connected to a driving rod that ran the length of the shop ... which was spun by ... you guessed it ... a steam engine.
They collect old stuff where ever they find it ... like this passenger coach. See the boards on the side? It’s getting a metal cocoon to protect it from the elements, then it’ll be stored on a siding with the rest of their inventory.
I’m not sure what they’re doing with this but I really like it – a genuine steam powered crane used for construction and rescuing derailed cars. My father was responsible for such things near the end of his railroad career so I’ve seen a lot of how this work is done with diesel powered rental cranes, but this is the first up close look I’ve had at the original method.
This was the saddest one of all – a self powered trolley that is just a museum piece. If I recall correctly, a hundred years ago one could board a trolley in New York City, get off in Milwaukee, and there would have been less than forty miles of walking in the whole journey.
The railroad’s best known celebrity was in for a spa day including a facial mask.
I didn’t know much about Joe Biden before his selection as Obama’s running mate, but I’m increasingly excited the more I learn. This guy is commuting to Washington, D.C. via Amtrak’s Accela. He gets rail and would warm right up to the need for rail electrification in this country.
Why am I linking to a site with nothing but a bare Drupal install? I’ll remind you that this was the condition of the Stranded Wind Initiative’s web site in December of 2007. Something is about to happen here ... something wonderful.