We cancelled our trip to Buffalo, NY due to winter storms along the route and to the predicted "historic" snowfall for the Buffalo area. Instead we spent a couple days in Strasburg, PA.
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| The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania (opened 1975 as the first structure in North America built specifically as a railroad museum; the train shed was added in 1995) |
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| The museum had several interactive exhibits, such as this test for three different railroad wheel configurations: which stays on the track? |
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| Cumberland Valley Railroad "B" Combination Passenger and Baggage Car (1855) is believed to be one of the oldest surviving wooden passenger cars in the country; with an outside walkway for railroad employees to go around the secure baggage compartment |
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| Freight Steam Locomotive "Tahoe" (1875, Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia); the large "bonnet" smokestack caught hot embers in the exhaust of wood-burning locomotives |
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| "Tahoe" locomotive drive-wheel (KSS) |
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| "Tahoe's" kerosene-burning headlight |
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| Pennsylvania Railroad Combination [Passenger and Baggage] Car #4639 (1895) was made of wood |
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| Inside the baggage compartment are pigeonholes for sorting mail |
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania contains items from the Pennsylvania Railroad's Historic Collection, which was featured at the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair.
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| Diesel Electric E7 Locomotive #5901 (1945) for passenger trains, helped prove that the diesel electric technology operated with greater efficiency and reliability |
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| Pennsylvania Railroad Diesel Electric GP9 Locomotive #7006 (1955), where GP stands for General Purpose |
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| "Ore Jenny" Gondola Car #13182 (1964) was built to carry iron ore, one of the heaviest products to be shipped by rail |
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| The double-ended Electric GG1 Locomotive #4935 (1943); the GG1 is considered the most successful locomotive ever built |
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| A diorama with track layers, the yellow Fairmont M2 Class Track Car (1926), and Caboose #477947 (1942) that used porthole windows already produced for naval ships |
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| Baggage and Mail Car #5403 (1893) with the metal crane that held a mailbag ready for pickup by a hook from a passing train |
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| The Observation Bridge is set up with numbered track signs (KSS) |
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| The view from the bridge includes workers depositing blocks of ice in the refrigerator car |
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| Refrigerator Car #57708 (1928) |
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| Boxcar #19607 (1907) is a composite of wood and steel |
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| Model of the Tugboat Harrisburg (1900) that ferried railroad car floats to move railroad cars in New York Harbor |
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| Pennsylvania Railroad H6sb Steam Locomotive #2846 (1905) is termed a Consolidation locomotive because the first was built for Lehigh Valley after it acquired two lesser railroads |
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| A peek at the controls and firebox of the Consolidation locomotive, where the fireman had to shovel two quarter tons of coal per hour! |
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| Snowplow (1897) was pushed by one or two locomotives |
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| Lehigh Valley Rail Diesel Car #40 (1951) was self-propelled |
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| Reading Observation Car #1 (1937) was part of the Crusader, the first stainless steel streamlined passenger train in the Northeast |
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| A peek in the Lotos Club Restaurant/ Sleeping Car/"Hotel on Wheels" (1913) (KSS) |
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| We were impressed by the telephone wires in this model layout |
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| Pennsylvania Railroad Passenger Car #1651 (1906) was built with safety in mind upon the completion of the Hudson River tunnels into New York City, being made of steel, with steam heat instead of coal-fired potbellied stoves, and electric lights replacing gas lamps |
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| Stained glass clerestory windows |
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| Tank Car #4556 (1939), tank cars had to travel at full capacity or empty because movement of liquid inside the tank could derail the car |
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| Another interactive activity was laying track (ties are in the wagon, and "spikes" are in the bucket |
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| Replica "John Bull" Steam Locomotive (1940) based on the original 1831 British-manufactured locomotive purchased by the Camden and Amboy Railroad, the first railroad in New Jersey; the original is at Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC |
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| Pennsylvania Railroad R/H3 Steam Locomotive #1187 (1888) allowed one to view it from underneath |
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| Locomotive #1187 as seen from below |
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| This display has the same Walthers Northern Light & Power Electric Substation that Kent so painstakingly built |
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| There was a G-scale model railroad layout that appeared to be a coal mining area in Pennsylvania |
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| Are those real rocks? |
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| Underground train tracks at the railroad station |
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| The railroad station has an underground concourse |
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| There was also a Lego model train layout; sometimes referred to as L-gauge (KSS) |
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| More of the Lego layout (KSS) |
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| Kids could build their own Lego models |
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| "Main Street" dioramas showed the impact of railroads on small-toown Pennsylvania |
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| A World War II-era poster where GIs casually compare weapons (KSS) |
Upstairs in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania was an impressive HO model train layout replicating Lewistown, PA, and an art gallery of train-related paintings.
Next: Choo Choo Barn.
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