http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/news/local/14679663.htm

BELLEFONTE -- The wait to ride the rails is almost over as the Bellefonte Historical Railroad Society has announced that weekend train rides should resume within the next three weeks.

This year will mark the railroad's 22nd year in service, after an 18-month hiatus driven by financial problems and the need to meet increased safety standards.

The railroad society plans to run the Bellefonte Branch on Saturdays and Sundays, with departures of the 1950s-era self-propelled diesel cars at 2 and 3:30 p.m. That train will travel to the fish hatchery in Pleasant Gap before returning to Bellefonte, he said.

The railroad has been offline since December 2004. Since then, it has reached an agreement with North Shore [Nittany & Bald Eagle RR], which owns the rail lines on which the trains operate, regarding an outstanding debt of $30,000. And next week, the railroad will install bulletproof glass in both operators' cabs as per Federal Railroad Administration regulations.

[edited for brevity--more at the link]

http://post-gazette.com/pg/06148/693524-147.stm

After a two-year absence, the Kiski Junction Railroad (www.kiskijunction.com) is back on track, offering tours once again out of its facility in Schenley, Armstrong County.

The one-hour rides will be 2 p.m. Tuesday, Friday and Saturday beginning June 6 and continuing until the season closes Oct. 28 with fall-foliage tours on the scenic ride along the Kiski River.

KJRR is a working short-line railroad, providing freight service for an Allegheny Ludlum steel plant in Bagdad (a dot on a Westmoreland County map, not Iraq). It operates the tour trains as a sideline. KJRR is part of a railroad originally chartered in 1846.

Great news. Now I just need to get out there to ride them.