All Aboard !!
Today we are going to ride aboard the Strasburg Railroad . However first we must have breakfast. The breakfast room at the hotel is full to over flowing so we decided to head out to the local Perkins for breakfast. Perkins Restaurants have been a favourite for us while travelling in the USA. Not so much the Perkins Restaurants at home in Ontario, they leave much to be desired by comparison.
The Strasburg Railroad is a fully functioning rail yard with several steam locomotives and lots of rolling stock. There are several authentic buildings and a museum across the road. The rail line is 4.5 miles long and our round trip journey will take 45 minutes.
A few shots of one of the steam engines as it readies to pull away from the station.
Today Karen and I are going to ride in luxury. We have ridden in open air cars pulled by a steam engine and have been showered with hot cinders and soot, we have ridden in coaches with all the other passengers, but this time we are riding in the car that back in its day, would have been the private car of the President of the Railroad Line. Known as the President’s Car. Very luxurious even by todays standards.
We enjoyed tea and cookies as we road the rails through the Amish countryside.
Halfway through our ride the steam engine was uncoupled and moved to the other end of the rail cars for the trip back to the station. Here are some photos and a video of the re-coupling.
Strasburg Railroad coupling engine to the cars.
Back at the station we walked across to the Strasburg Railroad Museum.
Inside are lots of trains of different sizes, shapes, colours and vintages.
There is a model train room, the train set completely made from Lego was really neat.
Back in the main display room. A red caboose. You never see cabooses anymore at the end of a long line of railway cars. They have long been deemed as obsolete because their original purpose of being an observation platform from the back of the train to the front has been obstructed by the height of some of the cars carrying double stacked containers.
And this interesting design, a snow plow.. you could clear your driveway with one pass of this monster. This was attached to the front of the steam locomotive.
After leaving the railroad museum we drove along some back country roads and through fields and fields of tobacco.
Past abandoned covered bridges.
And wound up at the famous Dutch Haven right on the Lincoln Highway. Shoo Fly Pie is their claim to fame. Apparently it is America’s Best, although because of the nutmeg I was not able to sample any, Karen says it is pretty good. Being as it was her first taste, she has no basis of comparison to declare it “the best ever” we will have to find another establishment selling shoo fly pie for comparison purposes. It is not a pretty looking pie, so no photos were taken of the pie itself, but here are some photos of Dutch Haven.
The Soudersburg Motel is another Lincoln Highway icon.
We went for a late lunch at Jennie’s Diner, another Lincoln Highway establishment.
We are enjoying the food and the slower pace of rural Pennsylvania.
Tomorrow we will move a bit further West along the Lincoln Highway.
Till Then….
You can always find our photos from today on our FLICKR site.
Great post! Loved that coupling video too. Must have been a fun day.
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