For many decades, Hanson's amusement park in Harvey's Lake was along the Noxen branch of the Lehigh Valley and the railroad not only traversed the lake, but it actually ran under the roller coaster.

As the customers along the line dried up, it was abandoned in the early 1960's. Fortunately, in a different time, a young man with a camera got to travel the line from Luzerne to Noxen, so we have views of this lost line and fallen flag from 1959.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr0VZWHmUss

Hanson's closed a long time ago (article says 1984, but it seems longer) and property was used for events. I remember going to a Stone Temple Pilots concert there in the early 90's. It's all gone now.

One thing that's left is the 1946 Park Train, which has been rescued by the Retherfords of Benton, PA. They've acquired in from Bonham’s Nursing Home (honestly, you can't make this stuff up) and they run it as something of an homage to their son, 3X Penn State NCAA wrestling and current world freestyle champion Zain (aka the Zain Train). As an aside, on a wrestling podcast, I think I remember the younger Retherford speaking of getting to the tournaments that are pretty much essential to creating a Division 1 wrestler now while his father was a railroader.

https://www.wnep.com/article/sports/loc ... 6c349c2275

https://www.timesleader.com/news/162292 ... ides-again

Despite the fact that this is not a "real" locomotive and train, there are some lessons here:

1.) Successive owners may have no use for the item, but may retain something for the simple reason somebody just doesn't have the heart to scrap it until it finds a second life. Irrationality plays a role here.

2.) Survival depends on the item's ability to be stored not generally known-so as to avoid theft and vandalism. Growing up on NEPA and having never been to Hanson's (Angela Park and Rocky Glen/Ghost Town were my destinations), I would have thought it might have been acquired at auction for parts or scrap.

3.) To survive often means to be transportable, relatively cheaply and feasibly.I'm sure this park attraction was just loaded in in a truck, there was no question about rotating end cap roller bearings or alignment control couplers.

4.) To survive it's best that any associated requirements aren't insurmountable. In this case, they won't have to deal with FRA regulation, certify conductors and engineers or echoing a recent comment by Mr. Mitchell, need miles of railroad with 136 pound rail.

5.) Until the thing finds owners that can find a way to make money to keep and maintain the thing (and where exactly do you get parts for a '46 park train?), it needs to exist. See Item No. 1.

6.) New owners may acquire something for their own purposes; they may find it's original use or ownership interesting (the article says the Retherfords are 49, so they would have been middle schoolers when Hanson's closed) and consider their purpose for use as a new chapter in the book, while purists might consider it a book burning.