Sunday on the Strasburg

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The Strasburg Rail Road is a goddamn national treasure, and every once in a while, I must go there to center myself.

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And photos: http://railfanning.kapuscinski.net/2017/08/a-sunday-on-the-strasburg-july-2017/

Here are two teasers:

[Dave V]

I've been riding the Strasburg my whole life...every time I go back to Lancaster.  My wife doesn't understand my compulsory haj to Strasburg every single time I'm near.  I mean, how could I not already know every tie and every signpost on the route by now?  She knows I can lip-synch the entire narration on the eastbound trip.  I've not been able to explain it until now.

As you said, Strasburg "centers" me.

No matter how old I get, no matter how many places I've been or things I've seen, no matter how I may be feeling, returning to Strasburg is returning to the wide-eyed wonder of childhood.  The acrid smell of coal smoke and engine grease is a portal to a world where everything is perpetually right and good.  It's a promise of a great big dinner with my long-passed grandparents who lived just up the road.  It's the excitement of being with my father whom I figured must know just about everything there is to know about trains.  And the juxtaposition of the train and the surrounding farms is a window into a wonderful, safe, and predictable world that probably never really existed...but should have.

You speak the truth.

[seusscaboose]

you need to model that in O scale 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I've been riding the Strasburg my whole life...every time I go back to Lancaster.  My wife doesn't understand my compulsory haj to Strasburg every single time I'm near.  I mean, how could I not already know every tie and every signpost on the route by now?  She knows I can lip-synch the entire narration on the eastbound trip.  I've not been able to explain it until now.

As you said, Strasburg "centers" me.

No matter how old I get, no matter how many places I've been or things I've seen, no matter how I may be feeling, returning to Strasburg is returning to the wide-eyed wonder of childhood.  The acrid smell of coal smoke and engine grease is a portal to a world where everything is perpetually right and good.  It's a promise of a great big dinner with my long-passed grandparents who lived just up the road.  It's the excitement of being with my father who I figured must know just about everything there is to know about trains.  And the juxtaposition of the train and the surrounding farms is a window into a wonderful, safe, and predictable world that probably never really existed...but should have.

You speak the truth.

I'm glad I'm not alone in this. It really is a magical place.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

you need to model that in O scale 

Don't tempt me.

[SirTainly]

Very nice!

O scale, it's where the cool kids go, in fact there might just be another one around my garden in the next 12 months.

[eric220]

Good lord, you need a warning to go to a private place before 2:20. That sound of #90 pulling out of a dead stop and blowing for the crossing....

I'm right there with you, @Ed Kapuscinski and @Dave V . Strasbourg is my "happy place," where I can just get off the world and touch something that has been with me through my childhood, my first date with my wife, the place where I proposed, chasing the train with 's, and the list goes on. So many great memories.

[Mark5]

Thanks Ed,

I missed out on the N&WHS convention up there a few weeks ago. Still hope to make it up this year there as after this season 475 is going down for mandated repairs I think.

Mark

[wazzou]

I thought this was a thread about the next time the Nats pitcher gets injured.   

[jnevis]

Strasburg is fun, but I only get like that in Portola.  Some of my favorite memories of my grandparent's was going into town and watching trains.  Once the museum opened we went even if we weren't getting groceries.  These I took the day after my grandmother's burial.  The museum was empty and quiet,except for a passing line of auto racks and a couple guys working on 2001.

[Blazeman]

Living fairly close, we often take PA 741 to get around the US 30 traffic when shopping at the outlets or visiting the wife's cousin in Pequa. Quite a contrast with the living, breathing Strasburg on one side of the street and the preserved relics of the museum on the other.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Living fairly close, we often take PA 741 to get around the US 30 traffic when shopping at the outlets or visiting the wife's cousin in Pequa. Quite a contrast with the living, breathing Strasburg on one side of the street and the preserved relics of the museum on the other.

Yep.
And it's a synergy that's excellent for both.

Railroad museums tend to do FAR better when they have a train ride and Strasburg is very clear that it's NOT a museum so by being a single location that has both allows them each to play to their strengths.

The museum gets to focus on being one of the (if not THE) best railroad museums in the country because it doesn't have to worry about maintaining a running locomotive and a fleet of cars while the Strasburg gets to focus on maintaining and running a steam railroad without having to worry about things like preserving the historic fabric of its equipment.

[CBQ Fan]

Yep.
And it's a synergy that's excellent for both.

Railroad museums tend to do FAR better when they have a train ride and Strasburg is very clear that it's NOT a museum so by being a single location that has both allows them each to play to their strengths.

The museum gets to focus on being one of the (if not THE) best railroad museums in the country because it doesn't have to worry about maintaining a running locomotive and a fleet of cars while the Strasburg gets to focus on maintaining and running a steam railroad without having to worry about things like preserving the historic fabric of its equipment.

I enjoy Strasbourg and visit there often when I see my dad.  But I have to say Illinois Railway Museum is hands down the best.  Amazing work being done there.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I enjoy Strasbourg and visit there often when I see my dad.  But I have to say Illinois Railway Museum is hands down the best.  Amazing work being done there.

I know IRM has a KILLER collection. How's their interpretive side though? I've never been there to see it.

[CBQ Fan]

I know IRM has a KILLER collection. How's their interpretive side though? I've never been there to see it.

They take the history of each piece very seriously and look to tell that story.  They don't receive any government funds so it is all memberships and gate sales/merchandise etc.  The vast size of the complex and variety of equipment is amazing. Trolley buses, trolleys, intururbans, steam, classic era diesel, modern diesel (well SD-45 modern), streamliners, heavyweight passenger equipment. Not only do you get to view all this equipment you also get to ride in it. The big push currently is to get all equipment under cover.  That in itself is a feat. I am amazed at the level of detail they go to in order to properly backdate a piece being restored.