Hike #1595; Strasburg Area Loop

Hike #1595; 3/10/24 Strasburg Area Loop with Kirk Rohn, Diane Reider, Jenny Tull, David Adams, Professor John DiFiore, and Everen

This next trip would be (big surprise) another that would far exceed expectations for what it was.

Of course, there would be a degree of this that I was happy about doing anyway. It was planned around the "Charter Day" of Pennsylvania, where many different museums are open free of charge.

I planned a trip last year to Warwick PA, and so this year I found out the railroad museum in Strasburg was taking part in this. I had never been there, and wanted to see it, but it was honestly never super high on my list among the countless places I wanted to go.

I realized on this hike the error of my thinking there. This was probably the best railroad museum I have ever visited, and by far the most fun I'd ever had at one.

A theme for my life, or probably most anybody's life for that matter, is things not going as planned. For me, fortunately, that also means things working out great, and perhaps even better than it would have been otherwise. This hike was one of those cases.

My plans regarding the rail museum and where we were going, what we were going to do, focused heavily on the museum and potentially a train ride. 

I made the meeting point the Dollar General in Quarryville PA, which would be the end point. My plan was to visit the museum, do a back road walk, and then follow parallel roads to the former Quarryville Branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad to the end.

I was running horribly late to the start, and had the group shuttle cars to the actual start point in Strasburg, and I'd meet them there, since it made little sense for me to drive down there only to not be able to take anyone else in my car anyway (I think I had Kirk and Jenny in my car).

We parked at the lot to the north of the tracks near the Strasburg Station area, with all of the tourist stuff and tickets for train rides. We then walked around to see what to do first.

In doing so, we figured out that train rides didn't start for a while, and that the museum didn't open until about noon.

1942 East Petersburg Station from Strasburg Museum Collection

I was upset because the previous year, we did this long hike and then didn't get to go into the museum because we ran too late.

1960 Bud Swearer Image

I didn't want that to happen this time. I had to think fast. I needed a backup plan.

Fortunately, I had gone over the maps of the area in great deal when I was trying to decide what backroads I wanted to walk. There were a couple of good choices going in the direction of where I wanted to pick up the Quarryville Branch. I looked it all over and scaled as best I could with the Google Maps on my phone, and concocted an interesting loop hike that would bring us right back to Strasburg with about 12 miles total. We could then spend some extra time meandering around the museum and the town. I also had some side trips stuff up my sleeve for the beginning that would make up for some miles.

On the fly, I came up with an almost totally new hike that ended up being a really splendid route. If it worked as planned, we'd still have over an hour to go through the museum before it closed. 

It was a stretch. If the timing was really bad, with the start of the hike, we could just continue on and do the original hike I had planned, but if we were doing well, we could loop it back. And that is what happened.

Ev got to run around on his own at first, but we had him well bundled up in his orange suit. It had been really windy lately, and this day would be a lot of countryside walking with lots of wind. I wanted to be sure to keep him covered over well. The first part of the day was about the worst, but fortunately we were in town for a lot of that.

There was something to see everywhere at Strasburg. It would have been easy to just meander seeing the pieces that were sitting around and using a lot of time.

There was an old baggage car right where we started walking, and then a pretty red car labeled Lancaster, Oxford, and Southern. Then there was an old model Ford out on display with Strasburg Railroad logos.

Strasburg Railroad remains one of the oldest railroad in America still operating under its original charter, 1832.

At that time, it broke off of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, part of the Main Line of Public Works established by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the main transportation corridor, canal and rail, between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

That route bypassed the town of Strasburg, and so the Spur Line was created. There are some disputes on when it began operation, but they like to claim 1832. That is very unlikely considering the Philadelphia and Columbia didn't actually start operating until 1834 when the full Main Line of Public Works opened.

The line never went beyond Strasburg, but there were plans to extend it in its early days, as far as Quarryville. That of course never came to pass.

It was saved from abandonment by a group of railroad enthusiasts in 1958, who turned it into one of the most successful tourist railroad operations in America.

We continued walking along the tracks, at the Strasburg platform. Here, they had an historic station building labeled "East Strasburg" along the line. This is because the original terminus of the line was a little further east in town, and that original station is gone.

This station was originally the East Petersburg station on the Reading and Columbia Railroad, later a branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. It was moved to the Strasburg Railroad, renamed East Strasburg Station, and restored.

We meandered across tracks and between a display of passenger cars, many of them which probably operate along the excursion line.

We then approached a lovely old railroad tower, known as the "J Tower".

This Tower was built in 1885 by the Cumberland Valley Railroad, and was located at a rail crossing in Lemoyne PA. It was referred to as the "Lemo Tower".

After 98 years of service, Conrail was prepared to demolish the tower in 1983 when the Lancaster Chapter of The National Railway Historical Society set out to preserve it as a classic example of Pennsylvania Railroad architecture. 

By December of 1984, the tower was relocated to Strasburg Railroad where it stands today, renamed the "J" Tower.

We headed out to where the tracks cross Gap Road, Rt 741. In this area, we could see the turntable and train cars in display for the outdoor section of the museum to the south.

We had to walk along a little bit of the highway with no shoulder, and we could see the tracks with some cars parked on it to the left of us.

Soon, we were walking through the parking lot with something called the "Choo Choo Barn", which I think is models, and might be worth visiting in the future, as well as the Bespoke Brewing Company, which we noted might be a good dinner stop.

We continued past here on a grassy swath and through a parking lot to where the tracks abruptly come to an end. There were rail cars parked on it right up to almost the end, and we were surprised that there wasn't any sort of stopper on the tracks there.

We started walking along Georgetown Road to the west, and pretty soon there was a large brick warehouse building that used to be rail served, and in fact, there are still rails in the pavement near it.

I've been told this building was still an active rail customer up until the 1970s. I think it was called the Homsher Warehouse.

We continued past the warehouse, to where I understand the original Strasburg Station used to stand, and then continued up Georgetown to where it merged into Main Street.

There was an oddball spot in the sidewalk where for about one hundred feet, the sidewalk just ended and became grass, with a giant sign post in the way.

I didn't used to get annoyed about the ADA accessible stuff in the past, but now I am much more conscious of it since I've been pushing the stroller for thousands of miles.

We headed into downtown Strasburg area, which was quite pretty, and had several historic homes.

The area was settled in the mid 1700s on the Old Conestoga Road, which had been improved from old native trails about 1714.

By 1759, there were over 30 dwellings.
Early settlers were Huguenots, or Swiss, or German Mennonites.
The growing settlement was named Strasburg for Strasbourg Germany (now part of France).

To the left, we passed a lovely old log cabin, which had a sign on it denoting that it had been built in 1787.

We continued walking through town with may more beautiful and historic buildings the entire way.

On the left, there was the beautiful St. Michael's Lutheran Church and cemetery.

The cemetery here was established in the 1750s, and the handsome Romanesque style church was built in 1806, and modeled after the Trinity Lutheran of Lancaster.

There were several handsome old stone buildings, but one that stood out on the right, north side of Main Street, was the Limestone Inn Bed and Breakfast. It was built in 1786 by Jacob Fouts.

This was home of the first Chief Burgess of Strasburg, and first post office starting in 1805. Later, it was home to principal of the Strasburg Academy.

To the left was the Sandstone House, built in 1754, also by Jacob Fouts.

As if the Amish country was not already ripe with innuendos with town names such as "Intercourse", "Blue Ball", "Bird In Hand", and others, this building was once known as the "Spread Eagle Hotel".

We reached Decatur Street near these historic buildings, and turned to the left for a bit. I had a route that would take us off of the main roads just a tiny bit.

We turned right on Franklin Street briefly, and then left into the Strasburg Cemetery, which was very open but pleasant.

The main access road through the cemetery took us out to Funk Street, where we turned to the right. We passed the intersection with South Fulton Street, and then turned to the right through large basebally fields heading sorth of northwest.

We passed a lovely giant Oak tree, and then came out on South Jackson Street where we turned right. There was more municipal property on the left side of the road, but it didn't look like it would be very easy to pass through the properties to the north, so we just stuck with the street.

We reached Main Street again, continued to a fork, and then continued left on Miller Street to the west. We passed more old homes, including another one that was half an old log cabin, and has 1757 Friderich Klingel Kifer scrawled above the frame over the door.

I liked the look of the Strasburg Park to the north of Miller, but there wasn't really a good way in and out of it from the trajectory we had without going far. We tried going up Hampden Drive to see if there would be a way through at some townhouses, but nothing really looked welcoming so I scrapped the idea.

We continued on Miller to the west, and at the next fork, continued west on Lime Valley Road.

We passed through more light residential area for a while. I should have continued to the right on Valley Road, because then we could have cut through the lot and cemetery of Strasburg Mennonite Church. 

Instead, we continued to Hager Road, turned right, and then ninety degrees to the left to continue on Penn Grant Road.

We passed a few more homes, and the character of the land changed to mostly woods and agriculture. There was a beautiful bank barn out in the woods to the right of us as we walked.

Soon, we came to the old Pequea School House, built in 1884. The small brick school is now a private residence.

The pleasant road had very little traffic. It had only one line in the middle of it, and I usually try to avoid roads with any lines when putting together a hike on them, but there wasn't really a way of doing it. This one was a nice one though.

There were lovely farm views as we meandered along the road, and a pretty farm scene to the south. The 1875 Everts & Stewart Atlas of Lancaster County has that this was the Rohrer Farm.

We dipped down in elevation a bit into a more wooded area, which gave some reprieve from the wind. We crossed over a lovely old stone arch bridge over a tributary of the Pequea Creek there.

We passed through another light residential area for a bit, with newer homes, and then eventually came to some very beautiful older homes on the right, just as we approached Neff's Mill Bridge.

Neff's Mill Covered Bridge crosses over the Pequea Creek.

There was a wooden bridge here by 1803, which was in unacceptable condition as history records it. That led to construction of the covered bridge in 1824. It was rebuilt in 1875.

Neff's Covered Bridge is a Burr Arch truss style.

We got through the bridge, and there was an historic marker on the other side on it. A young couple parked at the intersection with Bridge Street just ahead to walk over and view the bridge.

There was a beautiful old stone house to the left after we crossed the bridge, but it was not noted in the Lancaster atlas, so it must have been built after the 1870s.

We started heading uphill on Penn's Grant on the other side, and passed a pretty lime kiln on the right side. 

We passed Pequea Lane near the top of the hill and continued on Penn's Grant a bit more. Soon, we came to the intersection with Lempeter Road, beyond which Penn's Grant became wider and much busier.

We continued west on the road to Route 222, Beaver Valley Pike, where there was another historic school.

The old Maple Croft School House in Lime Valley area was built in 1906.

When this closed as a school, it became a bar for a time, then a restaurant, as well as floral, and law firm uses.

We continued across 222 on Penn's Grant Road for a bit, until we came to the Ascension Lutheran Church on the left.

Here, we turned left into their grassy fields, and skirted the edge of the church property, which afforded some nice pastoral views of a little spring or gully area.

We went around a retention pond or something, then headed west into a tiny community West Lempeter Township park property with a little pavilion.

From here, we emerged on Shiprock Road, and turned left to head to the south.

To the left of the road, there was a view of Sassafras Farms. This was one of the Herr family farms in the 1875 Everts & Stewart Atlas of Lancaster County.

We headed downhill on the road just a bit more, and came to a four way intersection where Shiprock Road continued straight, and Fieldcrest Drive went left and right.

I posted to the group the question here: this was the decision point, do we go back to Strasburg as a loop, or do we continue south to Quarryville?

Honestly, I would have been happy with either, but I was glad that they decided to go back to Strasburg.

We took a little break at the intersection before we moved on to the east on Fieldcrest.

Soon, we continued ahead, and crossed a pretty stream, and we could see a small dam on Sassafras Farms, from Fieldcrest Drive. 

We soon came out to Rt 222/Beaver Valley Pike again, and turned to the right.

We had to walk south for just a little bit to Lime Valley Road on the left. We mostly had a good shoulder along the farms for that little stretch.

We continued ahead on Lime Valley Road, and turned right at an intersection where there was a bicycle and pedestrian sign, but sadly no stroller. It was kind of a narrow road.

We meandered downhill a bit, and came to the intersection with Brenneman Road. Here, we took a brief side trip to the historic Lime Valley Covered Bridge.

This is a Burr Arch Truss structure completed In 1871 connects Strasburg and West Lempeter Townships.

We walked through the structure, which is always nice, and got views from both sides. There was an historic marker on it which provided some background information on the area, and I was able to set up a then and now history compilation of the site.

Early 1900s Lime Valley Bridge

The clouds looked a little rough through the area, and ever since the morning, it looked like the promise of rain was real. Still, we remained dry, and the clouds only provided for nice ambiance.

Once back through the bridge, we turned right to continue on Lime Valley Road. The home across the street was probably a miller's house at one time.

In a short distance, the historic Lime Valley Mill was on our right.

The mill is said to have been built about 1846, and maybe the third Mill located at this site. The first one was built Circa 1796, the second between 1796 and 1815.

The current mill building was powered by an undershot water wheel and long raceway along the Pequea Creek. It's served as the post office for Lime Valley before 1900. There was also an adjacent sawmill and buggy factory. The poured concrete addition was built in 1915.

Past Mill owners of the site were Emmanuel Hare (changed to Herr), George and Michael Withers, George Lefevre, Adam Herr, Jacob Zercher, Jacob Harnish (at the time of 1975 Everts & Stewart Atlas of Lancaster County), Mrs Harvey haverstick, Harold hunsicker, Reid or Lloyd Schaeffer until 1961, then Lancaster Milling Company until 1981, then Roy & Helen Wagner, and it was used to generate power through the 1980s.

Purchased by the Hofmeisters for restoration in 1996.
And absolutely beautiful old mill retaining most of it's historic character.

From what people have commented through Metrotrails posts, until rather recently this mill still had most of its historic components inside. Someone new reportedly purchased it and gutted much of the inside.

We walked past the mill and could see how the additions were made over the years, and where the mill race had gone.

This long Raceway May date back to the original Mills in this area from the 1700s. Mills in this area required longer raceways to keep them powered because the level of the river feeding it fluctuates so much. 

There was a beautiful old brick home just to our left with a long set of stairs up to it from the road, and we paralleled the mill race for a good while along the road.

We continued straight on Lime Valley Road when Pequea Road went to the left, and we crossed on a unique looking old concrete bridge.

This was a Concrete Cantilever Curved Chord Through Girder, Fixed bridge, built in 1927. There were great farm and creek views from this point.

Just barely upstream from the bridge is the start of the mill race, and the remnants of the dam in the Pequea were still evident at this spot, as a riffle in the water.

There has probably been a dam at about this location going back as far as the 1700s.

On the other side of the bridge, there is a spot with a bush of trees to the right. This is reportedly the former site of another covered bridge, a twin to the Lime Valley bridge we had just seen.

We continued ahead, and started going uphill a bit, and Walnut Run was parallel with the road to the south.

On the left side of the road beyond the bridge was reportedly once a blacksmith shop and carriage barn, which no longer exists today.

The section of road ahead afforded some lovely pastoral views with the stream flowing to the right. We continued ahead to the intersection with Walnut Run Road.

On the corner here was the historic Walnut Run School in the Lime Valley, built in 1878.

This was the very last one-room schoolhouse operating in the state of Pennsylvania when it finally closed in 1993. It is still owned by the Strasburg-Lempeter school district, but appears unused today.

Across the street from the school building is a small block building, which I thought nothing of at the time of the hike. I got a lot more information from a Lime Valley facebook page who commented on my posts.

Apparently, the block building was once a power house for the old trolley line that ran out of Hessdale to the south. I also understand that before that power house was there, the Walnut Run Road used to continue north to Neff's Mill were we saw the first covered bridge of the day.

We continued through Lime Valley ahead, toward the intersection with Bachman Road. Some sort of new construction has gone on to the left.

As we approached the ninety degree bend where we'd turn left to remain on Lime Valley Road, an Amish buggy was going by to the north to make for a pretty scene.

Pretty soon after the first sharp turn, we made another ninety degree bend to the right, heading to the east.

We continued ahead on the road a bit more, and when Lime Valley again turned hard to the left, we remained straight on Twin Elm Road heading east.

There were some new homes on this road, but it remained quite pleasant. We came back to more historic homes when the road jogged slightly to the right and left, but continued to the east.

At this little jog, on the left was the 1740 sandstone John Herr Farmhouse in Strasburg Twp.

Strasburg Mennonite Church met in the large attic of this home from 1740 until the early 1800s. There was another pretty old farm to the right that I couldn't really find information on.

We continued east on the road, and there was a pretty pond on the right. Hager Road intersected on the left, and we passed a very large barn.

This was so out in the open, and I had to pee something terrible. There just was nowhere to go. I used a little of the shade of the next barn to hide behind briefly to take care of that. 

There were more great views over farmland, and ahead we came to an old cemetery, probably a family plot, but a large one, on the right.

The cemetery was not named anywhere I could find, and there were no signs on it, but I know it's old because it does appear in the 1870s atlas of the county.

Soon, we crossed over the Walnut Run along the road, with a lovely farm scene beyond. In 1875, this was noted as being theJ  Brackbill Farm.

I mentioned to John and Dave in this section that once again, the weather seemed to just be working out for us especially. We could see storms going on all around us, and obvious rain, but we were remaining perfectly dry right where we were. Any other direction we might have gone, we would have been probably drenched.

We had a long, pleasant walk up Twin Elm Road, and eventually came to Bunker Hill Road.

We turned left and began following that road uphill a bit. I think only Dave and I were in the front at this time, and the rest of the group were falling behind a little bit.

I didn't want to get too far ahead, because the exact route I was planning might be harder to figure out.

At first, it was easy to see from a distance that we obviously went to the left on Bunker Hill. We waited for the others when we got up to Hillcrest Avenue.

Amish Buggies went by and waved at Ev as we went by. I love how they have such genuine waves of greeting, but how their faces light up when they see a young child.

Once everyone was close by, we headed down Hillcrest. I was incredibly happy that at this point, we knew the mileage back, and we were guaranteed to have enough time to get through the museum.

Riding the train AND doing the museum was not going to be possible, but I was most interested in getting Ev into the museum anyway.

We reached Decatur Street, turned slightly left, and then right to continue on the next bit of Hillcrest. 

We continued only a short distance to reach Shenk Avenue, where we turned to the left.

The road came pretty close to the back of the cemetery at St Michael's Lutheran Church, and we were trying to find a way to cut through, but it didn't look like it was going to work out.

We continued on Shenk ahead just a bit, ad then turned to the right on Main Street back into town again.

Walking through Strasburg was just as nice the second time, and I wouldn't mind coming through and doing some historic walking tour focused on all of the homes in the town.

We reached Georgetown Road again and turned to the right. We passed the Strasburg Antique store, which must be where the station originally used to stand, and then we walked along the north side of the road, this time more closely to the old mill building.

The closer look this time revealed some of the original rails nearer to the end of the original terminus of the line.

We continued from here through the parking area, and then out to along Rt 741/Gap Road toward the Strasburg Railroad once more.

We passed an old Reading Railroad passenger car on the way that is marketed as the "President's Car", which Dave says is actually the General Manager's car. However, this car was supposedly used by Harry S. Truman.

We walked through a bit more of the railroad yard, and then made our way across the street to the entrance to the railroad museum. I didn't know quite what to think going into it.

The place is far larger on the inside than it looks from walking around outside or from the road. We went through a corridor in the front, and the place was busy, but not too terrible.

The floor going into the entrance had lots of names of fallen flag railroads all placed in their tiles. I looked over them thinking how many of them I've walked.

The Pennsylvania Railroad, the East Broad Top, the Monongahela Railway, the Nickel Plate Road, Lackawanna, Lehigh and New England, Lehigh Valley, and many many more.

We got our group shot at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania entrance, and entered into the main room where I was completely awestruck.

There were cars and engines everywhere, displays everywhere. 

One of the first things that came to mind was the replica of the John Bull straight ahead.

This was one that has always struck me. 

What was on display is a 1939 replica of the John Bull, the oldest operable self propelled vehicle in the world.

The original John bull was built by the Robert Stephenson Company of England, and assembled in America.

It was first run in 1831.

The original engine operated on the Camden and Amboy railroad from 1833 to 1866, when it was taken out of regular service.

After the Pennsylvania Railroad acquired Camden and Amboy, the engine began its life as a Heritage piece, operated for the national Centennial and other events. 

In 1884, it was purchased by the Smithsonian Institute as its first industrial history exhibit.

The Pennsylvania Railroad Altoona shops built this replica engine for exhibitions so the original could remain in a more controlled environment.
The original was taken out and operated under its own steam in 1981. Shortly after that, I saw it in person myself, when I was maybe four or five. I remember seeing it.

I actually have one dark photo of myself with the original John Bull at the Smithsonian Institution during a trip to Washington DC. I remember there was a loud engine operating on a stationary track that I was afraid of.

Another large steam locomotive on display was "7002 Fastest Locomotive in the World". The title is used because that was as exhibited in the 1949 World's Fair. An E7s Atlantic built in 1902 for Pennsylvania Railroad in Altoona Pa. It's sort of a falsehood.

This engine was originally 8063, an E2a, it was modified as a stand in for the original 7002.

Engine 7002 set a ground speed record of 127.1 mph on June 12, 1905. Pennsylvania Railroad hoped to display it, but found out that locomotive had been scrapped in 1934.

These types of locomotives were the first two break the 100 mph speed barrier, starting with one on by the New York Central in 1893.

The engine is on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, still sort of as a stand in for the one that had actually broken the record.

The record has often been disputed, as other locomotives have made the claim, includine one called Mallard.

One of the big surprises to see among all of the classic things on display, was an engine like those I grew up seeing, a large diesel one in Conrail Blue.

This was a GP-30 Conrail engine built by General Motors in 1963. Retired in 1984.

This style was part of the second generation of diesel locomotives designed for heavier loads and both high and low speed trips.

This was one of the last locomotives painted Conrail blue by former employees of Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central Juniata Shops.

Soon, we passed a Pennsylvania Railroad "Combine", combination passenger/baggage car built in 1895 by the Pennsylvania Railroad Altoona shops. Retired in 1939.

These cars carried 48 passengers plus baggage.

The company stopped producing wooden passenger cars around 1915, and not many wooden cars survive today.

Another of the large deisel engines on display was a GP9 diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1955. 

GM produced over 4,000 of these machines between 1954 and 1963.

The GP stands for "General Purpose", as it could be used for most any rail needs. Low maintenance and versatility has kept GP9 engines in service for decades, outliving the fallen flag rail lines for which they were produced.

This one survived through Conrail, and made its way to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, where it was stripped of its Conrail blue in favor of its earlier Pennsylvania Railroad color scheme.

We ended up able to climb into this one, which was great. We actually didn't climb into it at first; we went around the place and came back to it more in order to climb in.

Ev loved climbing into these engines, and I was glad that, despite his size, they didn't give us a hard time about having him up on the trains.

Another great steam locomotive we saw was a Pennsylvania Railroad 0-4-0 Switcher Engine built in 1917 at the Pennsylvania Railroad shops in Altoona.

Locomotive #94 and others like it were the heaviest of their kind ever built, used for moving cars forward and backward in rail yards. This one had a good run, and was retired in 1956.

Even the kiosks and information in this museum was outstanding. I didn't have the time to read it all, so I was just taking photos of the signs as much as I could. I'd review all of them later.

There were even posts on the inventors that improved upon all of these railroads over time. ,

There was a display all about the old railroad couplers and how they evolved over time. 

Included in the case were 1924-44 Track gauge, 1860-75 patent model wooden link and pin coupler, 1994 locomotive event data recorder, 1925-50 air brake gauge, 1939 electric relay, 1950-75 air brake hose.
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg.

We checked out a good display about signals and communication, and then made our way to the first of the historic "bulldog nose" engines.

This was a Pennsylvania Railroad 5901 E7 Class diesel-electric locomotive, built in 1945 by General Motors.

This was one of the first two of these models ordered by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which soon became the standard for their "Blue Ribbon Fleet" passenger service.

Engine 5901 was retired in 1973 and was to be scrapped, but railroad employees hid it in an abandoned roundhouse section.

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission raised the $20,000 in scrap value to purchase the engine in 1976.

One of the questions that often comes up, is how does one tell the difference between an F Unit and an E unit? The answer to this is apparently in the axles. An F Unit has two axles per wheel truck, and an E Unit has three of them.

The next steam locomotive we came upon was a Pennsylvania Railroad G5s locomotive built in 1924 at the Altoona shops.

This powerful, speedy locomotive was designed by PRR mechanical engineer William Kiesel for fast speeds and frequent stops. 

Initially used in the Pittsburgh area, use spread, and this became the standard engine on the railroad for 20 years. It was retired from service in 1955.

The next locomotive we came across was the one that looked most like the "classic old west" style locomotives.

This was the "Tahoe", a Baldwin steam locomotive built in 1875 for the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. This is one of thousands of locomotives built by Baldwin in Philadelphia.

This was a wood burning engine, which is why it has a super wide stack.

We next came across a very historic old wooden passenger car used not too far from this location.

This pale yellow car was the Cumberland Valley Railroad combination baggage and passenger car, built in the Cumberland Valley shops in 1855. It is one of the oldest surviving wooden passenger cars in America.

Originally built as a baggage and mail car, it was converted for passenger use due to the increased ridership during the Civil War in 1864.

As a second class car, patrons could ride for half price. The walkway on the right side was so workers could pass around the baggage area without opening it.

The car was retired from service in 1909, and went to the Pennsylvania Railroad's "relic" collection for display at exhibitions and events.

One of the really big thrills of this museum was the inclusion of one of the most historic locomotives. This was "Rocket", one of the oldest locomotives in the world.

1927 Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Collection

This was the first engine purchased from England by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1838.

Seven other locomotives were purchased following this, but Rocket is the only one that survives.

Rocket remained in service until 1879 when it was retired.

The engine was neglected for several years until it was restored like other elder engines for exhibition purposes. This includes Worlds Fairs and events through the 1920s.

The machine was loaned to the Franklin Institute in 1933.

Conrail inherited Rocket along with the Reading system, and then identified the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg as the next ho.e for the historic engine after over 90 years of Stewardship by the Franklin Institute.

This might have been the oldest engine we saw during the entire trip, and possibly the most famous.

The next historic steam locomotive we came across was a Philadelphia and Reading Railroad B4a switching locomotive built in 1918. 

Known as a "roundhouse goat", #1251 was used to move engines in and around railroad shops, and was compact enough to navigate these tight areas.

This engine was the last standard gauge steam locomotive in regular operation on a Class 1 railroad in America. 

Just to the right of this was another historic interpretation piece, not an original, but still cool.

The "John Stevens" replica sat near the wall, and sort of close to the Rocket.

This is a 1939 Pennsylvania Railroad made replica of the original John Stevens. Stevens built a demonstration engine, which he ran on a circular track at his Hoboken NJ estate in 1825. 

This replica was built for exhibit in the 1939-40 World's Fair, based on the parts that remained of the original engine, and recollections of the grandson of John Stevens.

Beyond this, we came to another very interesting and different kind of steam locomotive.

The bright blue engine was a "fireless steam locomotive" built in 1939 by Heisler Locomotive Works of Erie Pennsylvania.

On site boiler engines on site at industrial sites supplied these engines like thermos bottles.

This one was on display at the 1940 World's Fair in New York, then served Hammermill Paper Company, then Pennsylvania Power and Light until retirement in 1969.

Just ahead was yet another interesting, bright orange, fireless locomotive.

No. 111 fireless steam locomotive built in 1941 by the Heisler Locomotive Works of Erie Pennsylvania.

Fireless steam locomotives acted as thermoses of steam made outside the engine by a stationary steam engine or boiler house. They eliminated the risk of throwing sparks and starting fires like other locomotives.

This engine served as a backup yard engine at the Bethlehem Steel plant in Bethlehem Pennsylvania until retired in 1972. I've heard the orange paint scheme is somewhat new.

We continued walking, soon past the entrance again, followed by a sort of mockup train station known as Steinman Station. In a room to the side, they had mockups of ticket booths. 

Along the edge of the mockup station, there was another big locomotive. This was a Pennsylvania Railroad D16 class steam locomotive, known as the "American" class, built in 1903 at the PRR shops in Altoona Pa.

Locomotive 1223 operated on Pennsylvania Railroad passenger lines in Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey until 1950 and later leased to the Strasburg Railroad. It pulled excursion trains from 1965 to 1989.

There were some side rooms off of the main hall past the station mockups and rail relics. The first one we walked into had an amazing Lego setup of rail related stuff, which was quite impressive and surprising to see.

More rooms of more typical model displays followed in the next couple of rooms, featuring all familiar Pennsylvania terrain and industry. 

There were a lot of great things for kids throughout the place. One of them was something of moving coal around as I recall, all on a floor display area. I wanted to let Ev play with that some more, but there were bigger kids all over it, and I didn't want Ev to get hurt. I figured I'd bring him back to that after a bit.

In addition, there was also a a display on how railroad gauge works, and allowed kids to place a set of wheels on a set of tracks to have them roll.

There were a couple of kids a bit older than Ev, and he was able to show them how to do it, with greater success than they were having!

We made our way out of the model area, around the corner to the left to check out the next row of rail car displays.

The next was an historic Pennsylvania Railroad wooden passenger car built in 1886 at the PRR shops in Altoona Pa.

This 58 passenger luxury car offered comfort, but was also dangerous, not only because of weaker wooden construction, but because of the liabilities that came with its inside amenities.

I assume that means the stove that would have been kept inside.

This car was retired from service in 1915, at which time such cars were being replaced with steel ones.

Also in this area was another steam locomotive, the Pennsylvania Railroad 460, E6s locomotive built in 1914 by the PRR shops in Altoona Pa.

This engine raced an airplane from Washington DC to New York City, with movie film documenting Charles Lindbergh's historic Trans Atlantic flight.

Although the train traveled at speeds up to 115 mph, the plane still beat it.

However, film was developed enroute on the train, and was shown before that which was carried by the plane. This engine was retired from service in 1956.

Just ahead was an historic Pennsylvania Railroad Baggage Express car built in 1899 at the PRR shops in Altoona Pa. It was leased to Adams Express Company, and retired in 1939

An old mail cart labeled "Quarryville" was on display next to a PRR mail car. Maybe that once served the back road areas we had spent the entire day walking up to now.

The next relic in this amazing collection was a Pennsylvania Railroad test weight car built in 1891, at the PRR shops in Altoona Pa.

The nature of railroading often requires that cars are weighed for contents, because billing was often measured by tonnage, and as such, scales must be regularly calibrated. 

These cars were built to test the scales for accuracy. They were metal to avoid taking on humidity weight, and lacked any extras that may affected the reading.

When this test weight car was retired in 1989, it was the oldest rail car in continuous service on a Class 1 Railroad in America.

The next historic relic in the line was an 1895 Gondola (hopper) car built by Barney and Smith Car Company of Dayton Ohio for the Pittsburgh, Youngstown, and Ashtabula Railroad.

This hopper car differed from other Gondola cars with slopes for easy unloading.
These cars were replaced by stronger steel ones, and this one was retired in 1939.

The next in the line was back to the replica of the John Bull, the Camden and Amboy Railroad no. 3, built in 1836. It is the second oldest existing passenger car in America. It is the oldest surviving 8 wheel passenger car in North America.

Cars like this set the standard for modern passenger cars, with center aisles and bench seats. This car seats 48.

Previously, rail cars were built like stage coach cars, like the old west. 
No. 3 was sold to a farmer who used it as a chicken coop until it was bought by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1892 to be displayed with the John Bull at the Chicago World's Fair.

 It later accompanied the John Bull and it's replica at other exhibitions, so it's only appropriate that it sits directly behind the John Bull replica in the museum today.

The next point was an E-44a electric locomotive built in 1963 by Pennsylvania Railroad and General Electric in Erie Pennsylvania. Nicknamed the "brick". 

The 5000 horsepower engine served freight interests through Penn Central and Conrail years until retirement, moved to the railroad museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg in 1991.

This was the very last electric locomotive built for the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Next up was the Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1 built in 1943 by PRR and General Electric.

The most successful of electric locomotives, the model was created to carry 100 mph passenger trains. The streamlined look with welds instead of rivets and cat whisker paint scheme was to make the machine more attractive.

This engine was nicknamed Blackjack because of the sum of its numbers.

This was the last engine to pull a railway post office in 1977. It was retired in 1980.

We weaved through to the next car, which was a former Western Maryland Railroad business car built in 1914 by the Pullman Company.

This car was used by Western Maryland Railway big wig Carl R Gray. It has dining room, kitchen, pantry, lounge, 2 bedrooms, and 2 showers. Retired in the early 1960s

One of the things that made all of this so special was that, at this point, so many members of our group have hiked these lines specifically. We had hiked the entire segment of Western Maryland Railroad from Connellsville to Cumberland quite recently.

The next piece was a Pennsylvania Railroad B1 electric switching locomotive, built in 1934 at the PRR shops in Altoona. 

A switching engine, it was powerful but limited to yard areas with electric overheads. It was retired in 1971.

Next, we reached a Pennsylvania Railroad Air Brake Instruction Car, built in 1910 in the Altoona shops, as a Railway post office. 

It was converted to an educational vehicle 1921. Railroad employees had to do training with this on a two year schedule. It was retired in 1966.

Next up was a Pennsylvania Railroad mail and baggage car built in 1893 by the PRR shops in Altoona. 

Mail was carried by rail since the early days, and innovations improved the process, with sorting facilities on the car. This one made its way to the museum after it was retired in 1939.

We continued on toward the rear of the building, and next saw a 53-8-38 timber or industrial locomotive made by Heisler Locomotive Works of Erie Pennsylvania in 1918. 

These were well suited for industrial or mining work, and had V type pistons similar in concept to the automobile.
It was retired in 1965 by the Chicago Mill and Lumber Company of Tallulah, Louisiana.

Next up, we came to a Climax B Class logging and Industrial locomotive, the "poor man's locomotive".

Pennsylvania lumber dealer Charles Scott approached Climax, a manufacturer of agricultural and oil rig equipment, to produce an inexpensive but agile locomotive capable of pulling heavy loads on grades, and at sharp turns.

This one on display was the second generation of Climax engines, built in 1913 and retired in 1956.

I had hiked so many logging railroads over these years, I can only imagine some of them must have operated locomotives just like this one.

We had made it to the very back of the museum, where there were large picture windows and views out across the countryside. 

In keeping with the theme of lumber railroads, we next came across a 65-3 Class lumber, industrial, and freight locomotive built in 1906 by Lima Locomotive & Machine Company of Ohio.

Designed by Ephraim Shay, a Michigan lumber man, the Shay locomotives became a standard on lumber railroads, as they weighed over 50 tons less than normal locomotives, were 20 feet shorter, and could pull 63% more weight up a 6% grade.

Retired in 1964, it was included in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania collection because so may of these operated on Pennsylvania's many lumber railroads.

I had ridden a train pulled by one of these in Cass, West Virginia when I was little. 

The next one we came to was a bit of an oddball, but it fit in for its own reasons.

Named "Olomana", it is a tank engine that worked sugar cane plantations in Hawaii, built in 1883 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia. It originally ran by burning dried sugar cane stalks and leaves.

The engine was used on property of animator Ward Kimball's property in the 1940s, and his boss, Walt Disney, occasionally operated it.

Retired in 1944, it is on display at the museum since it was built in Pennsylvania, ad is on loan from the Smithsonian.

Up next, we came upon the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie caboose 508, one of 10 of this kind built about 1950. 

Retired in 1991, this odd yellow caboose lacks the cupola roof, and instead features a protruding side window.

Just like with other lines, this was one that harkens back to past hikes, because we hiked the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie, known as the "Little Giant", as part of the Great Allegheny Passage back in 2020.

Up next, we came to the Fruit Growers Express Company Refrigerator Car built in 1928.

The refrigerator car helped to revolutionize the consumer markets of perishable items. This one was retired in 1975.

Up next, we came to the Delaware and Hudson Railway composite boxcar, built in 1907 by the American Car and Foundry Company of Berwick Pennsylvania.

This rail car was made with steel frame, but wood sheathing that was easily replaced. It was retired in 1970 and ended up at the museum. Like the others, we've hiked lots of D&H lines.

We soon came by a display of old railroad bells. I came to find out that these mostly came from the collection of Thomas T. Tabor of Madison NJ, who authored countless works on railroad history.

While at this last line in the back, and before we really saw everything else, a speaker came on and announced that the museum was closing soon, and that everyine needed to make their way back to the front.

I was sad first of all because I still had more that I wanted to see, and second because all of the other kids stuff that was crowded, I wanted to bring Ev back to.

Still, we'd had an outstanding time seeing and experiencing everything we did at this time. 

We managed to see a bit of what was left in that last row before being ushered out. Up next was Pennsylvania Railroad 2846, an H6sb locomotive built in 1905 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia.

A whopping 2,029 of these were built, and no two were exactly the same. This one was retired in 1956.

As we worked our way through th eplace back toward the front, we came across the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad Snow Plow, built in 1897 by Ensign Manufacturing Company of Huntington West Virginia.

This may be the oldest snow plow in existence. It was retired in 1945.

We had to make our way out of the place from here. It was absolutely fantastic, and it's not often I leave a museum thinking I could go right back to that place and have a great time again, but that's definitely what I felt leaving here.

We made our way out the front, and then started walking back to the west again. As we'd discussed earlier in the day, we were going to head to the Bespoke Brewery for dinner.

We'd done nearly the mileage I was anticipating doing, and were just barely shy of 15 I think at this point. Heading back there and then back to the cars would put us about there, although my car was a bit closer.

At the start of the day, I forgot something, probably Ev's bottle, and had to run back. John ended up driving me over to my car and back because he was parking his closer as well.

I had some sort of imperial stout or something they had, I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was really good.

I'd actually never stopped having a good time at all, because I'd taken the beer I was drinking and put it in my Arizona tea can, so I was sipping on it the entire time prior to this.

I don't recall exactly what I'd had for dinner either. If it wasn't a burger to share with Ev, it would have been some sort of pasta thing because I know that he'll eat that too.

We had finished actually rather early, even doing the miles we did and the museum, so having everyone in the group join for dinner was a pleasant abnormal occurrence.

The fun didn't stop when we left the place; there were lots of kids things around for Ev to climb and play on, including an ice cream truck and a train in front of the Choo Cho Barn.

We made our way back the way we came to the railroad yard, and Ev got to climb up on a caboose.

It didn't take long before we were all back at the cars and ready to head on our way.

This had been a really great time, but it was also something that would drive me crazy until I amended it: this hike did not connect with anything I had ever done.

I've tried for years to make sure every hike I'd done somehow connected with one I had previously done, but this one didn't connect in any way. Because we'd done the loop, it was an island of something completely disjointed.

I didn't let the craze bother me for long. I went right home and put together the next hike to connect it to the rest of my body of work, to be posted on the first free weekend in the next month, so it wouldn't be long!

I've looked over other stuff we could do in the area of Strasburg, and there are not a whole lot of options, but I will definitely come up with something to have an excuse to do the railroad museum again one day.

By the time Ev is another year or two older, I can only imagine he'll love it even more.