Some of the recent discussions about Strasburg Rail Road bring up an interesting question.

Exactly what did they do right that the most other tourist railroads can't seem to match? How are they able to do so well and (presumably) earn such a nice profit? While most operations are begging for volunteers, Strasburg doesn't have any. Yet they continue to grow and expand and do well. They have some of the finest equipment to be found anywhere, and the roadbed is in great condition, better than many a shortline. Great shops, nice station, immaculate grounds.

Now I'm sure in recent times the "Little Blue Guy" (Thomas) has contributed quite nicely to their coffers, but they were doing just fine before he came along. The same goes for the PA State RR Museum, Caboose Motel, Toy Train Museum, and whatever else has come to the area. The railroad was already established, and that's why the others came.

What's the secret of their success? Sure, they're in a densely populated area, but they're certainly not the only tourist railroad in that general area. I can't think of any other line that is doing nearly as well as they are.

Did they have a "first mover advantage". Is the fact they're in Amish country enough to get the general tourists they need to survive? Sugar Creek in Ohio seemed to do pretty well on the same draw, they didn't have a spectacular route, but they had large trains.

I'm just curious as to what most operations could learn from them? They must be doing something right.

You partially answered your own question already:Most museum people see the problems they have and how much they've accomplished with so little. The public doesn't care about that for the most part. They want of any experience to be somewhere clean and professional. Doesn't matter if it's non-profit or profit.
We shouldn't ask what did Strasburg do that worked so well. Instead, we should ask why so many other operations look like rolling junk yards (compared to Strasburg, anyway). With equipment that looks fit only for the rip track, scenic views of current homless camps or rides in the middle of nowhere on former industrial tracks, why should anyone ask the question? They already know why the Strasburg model works already, they either don't have what it takes or aren't willing to take on that role, plain and simple.
"WWSD?" (What Would Strasburg Do?) should be made into a sign and hung up in the office of every tourist operation.

1. It's like real estate... Location, location, location. It's the same reason why the Durango & Silverton always looks well fed, being just hours from Mesa Verde, while the Cumbres & Toltec, which is a days drive from ANYWHERE, is always cash poor. They had the good sense to locate in the midst of the Amish tourist trap (no offense to the Amish). From all reports, the Marquette & Huron Mountain was a really cool operation, but it could never have become a Strasburg.

2. They own their own railroad, so they've been able to plow money back into the property, rather than alternately paying rent, then legal fees to stave off eviction. Ditto with the land for shop and public facilities.

3. They've capitalized on the shop capacity they've built. Maintenance facilities cost money, an experienced workforce costs money to maintain, and often to obtain the critical mass is too much for the work that needs to be done. It appears that Strasburg has been able to turn their excess capacity into a profit center.

My hat's off to the founders who had the vision, and the folks who have wisely managed the growth of the operation through the years.

Not to mention, they have also always run it as a business, not a boys club or other volunteer group of folks who want things each their own way.

From day one, they were part of 25 investors wanting to see a return and success. Their intentions was freight initially, not passenger, not tourist, it just kinda fell into that and they saw the potential and went with it, always looking ahead.

They've haven't always had the best of everything, they had primitive shops to start with, they had old equipment, but they built on it.

They also saw the downturn in tourists riding trains and started looking more seriously into their freight operations again. In the 1990's, they were in the mid 450,000 range of annual passengers...they're not there now, so they looked elsewhere for revenue to keep their abilities in top notch. That's the foresight that most businesses lack today. Most want instant profits from day one with minimal investment.

Most tourist railroads are built on half hearted efforts ...many still fail to realize their potential. There are tourist railroads who have freight potential, but do not have the know how to even begin to fathom starting it or building on the little they already have... they're too focused on one thing, or too concerned about what paint scheme to use on box car xyz, or the like, instead of looking at the overall picture of how their operation looks to the industry and to the general public.

Strasburg has looked at itself from all vantage points, they have done their investors right, have done their founders right and do right by their passengers.

As the son of a Lancaster County native, I can't emphasize enough:

Location, location, location.

Ever since the post-WW2 auto-tourism industry developed, Lancaster's Amish country has been one of the most popular and prosperous tourist Meccas in terms of traffic and dollars. Various studies have, many times over the years, rated Lancaster Amish country (with spillover into Berks, Lebanon, and Chester Counties) as one of the top ten tourist market areas in the nation, and typically the only one that doesn't instantly spring to mind as a "tourist destination" when mentioned (like, say, Disney World, Hollywood, the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, etc.). It is "day trip" or weekend-junket convenient from New York City, Philly, Baltimore, Washington DC, and Pittsburgh.

But this is only part of the equation. There are other railroads in tourist areas--Bransom, Napa Valley, Grand Canyon, Conway Scenic, Tweetsie, Great Smoky Mountain--but almost no one else packs the same crossover between tourism and preservation. (The Durango & Silverton is probably close.) The Strasburg obviously hires people who don't have to know a 4-8-0 from a 2-10-0, but DO know how to get tour buses to show up, and figure out that putting in an "old-timey" photo studio, a pie bakery, and a Cagney steam ride are ostensibly smart business moves. They don't just restore cars because they're railfans--they obviously are part of the marketing to tourists as well. The ownership of the line, reduced in number over the years and still quite private, persist and allow flights of fancy because they still show black ink at the end of the year. There are probably easier or more lucrative businesses to be in, but it's obvious they care.

So: Good mission, great location, and great management.

Mind you, there still floated about the popular story in Lancaster at the time the railroad was bought in 1959 that many, if not most, of the initial investors were not so much railfans as business people seeking the then-still-coveted upper-class railroad pass privileges that came with being a "Vice-President" of a railroad........ I doubt being an executive of, say, the Grand Canyon RR or Napa Valley Wine Train gets you anywhere with Amtrak or BNSF today.....

If they actually answer this question, I bet they will have to put us all to sleep. If you had what they had and knew how to do it....would you share it with the rest of us?

Actually, I have taken a lot of time to study the "burg" as it were, and I have one (three) very concise conclusion (s) that, I bet, if you ever got anybody to admit to it....may be close to spot on.

A.) They do not think about trains the way the rest of us think about trains. They focus on entertainment....just so happens they do it with trains! Too many of us on this page and in the industry think that trains are the entertainment.......which, is wrong, they are NOT.

B.) Produce a quality product that demands the asking price. Again, too many in our industry think that our product naturally demands the asking price.....wrong! The "burg" has hit the nail on the head. All of you think the photo trains, restored coaches and the awesome platform are the key. However, have you ever paid full boat price for the "service" and the product that they provide at full boat price? Try it some day.....they ask a hefty price.....it is well worth it.

C.) They apply simple business practice to an industry that few have ever figured out. Simple question: How many people LOVE baseball? RIGHT......more than those who love TRAINS. The Baseball gig.....man, if I were the burg and that little tid-bit had leaked......man, I would be a tad upset. GOLDEN! What is next, outdoor 1920 hockey this winter? How about a recreation of the first Super Bowl or even basket ball?

Stop looking at the trains they have and start focusing on what they actually DO. It is what they DO, not in what they have that makes them what they are.

My vote.......Number one in the world and I have seen almost all of them!

John R.

The 'burg provides you with an experience. A step back in time. One which few places can do these days. Many thanks to Linn and Company for doing what they do.

What you're saying is that their location was not commercially suicidal. Other than that, I disagree; if you painted a U.S. map blue everywhere a Strasburg could go, a significant part of the map would be blue.

What Strasburg is really really good at, is marketing -- getting ridership out of the markets they do have.


PREACH IT BROTHER!!! Although if I were setting up such a heritage operation, I'd seek a hell of a lot more land. Even inclusive of RRMofPA. They're pretty crammed on that site, and they don't have much room for visitor amenities or greenspace. In fact I did.


Don't be distracted by the shop. I think booking a 5-8 car train solid every hour all day even weekdays, at their ticket prices, is what makes everything possible. I don't know this, but I'd bet shop revenue is the icing on the cake. Ridership is the cake.

Ridership is your cake too.



A for-profit is not necessarily better for this; however it certainly helps keep priorities straight.


There's no secret. It's exactly what it says on the tin. They are laser focused on the business of the business. They're doing all those perfunctory and routine things that you have to do. They take it very seriously and they do it to a high standard with professionalism, and they get it right. From publicity to emptying the trash cans. And as a direct result of the revenue that flows from focusing on the business, they have all the other fun stuff :)

Any of us could do that too... but we'd have to stop having other priorities.

Think hard on what your organization's other priorities are. THAT .... THAT is why you aren't Strasburg. Simple as that.

Everybody wants to be Strasburg, except they want to do the fun stuff first, and do revenue second. And they want to believe somehow magic will happen and they'll end up just like Strasburg. And then they don't. And by thinking about this "magic", they then believe Strasburg's success comes from external "magic" rather than the right priorities. What follows is a bunch of rationalizations about how "it's their location", "it's Thomas", "it's the economy" blah blah.

There are people who say, with a straight face, that a metro area of 6.1 MILLION PEOPLE are incapable of filling 114 seats on a train two trips a week. Sorry, twice a month, since exactly this type of mythology has convinced them that running weekly is a lost cause.

Hey I'm no master of it, but at least I know what it is, and I'm not deluding myself.

Ah, they didn't build that business, somebody else did.

About 20 years ago -- 1991 -- I had the opportunity to have a conversation with the then general manager of Strasburg.

He indicated that he had a concern about the changing nature of the area around Strasburg. Lancaster was expanding and farmland was being converted into housing. The Amish farmers were beginning to sell their farms and moving westward to Amish communities in other states.

So much of Strasburg's business was based upon catering to the tourists coming into the area to see the Amish and buy their crafts. If the Amish farmers are squeezed out the tourists would not come.

Although it still has the tourist business, the Strasbug has been able to capture some freight business and has also leveraged its shop capabilities to supplement its income.

Absolutely........anything that makes us as an industry stronger makes each of us individually stronger. We are not in competition with each other for an audience. If somebody rides a tourist train and has a great experience, they will ride others expecting the same positive outcome. If the first one turns them off.......they have been lost by us all. The problem is that we all don't treat visitors well and provide them with a good experience from their perspective, and it is their perspective not ours that matters

If Strasburg's knowledge let's the rest of us know what our priorities need to be, what our product needs to be, what our visitors expect, where we need to locate, how we need to reach our market, and whether or not we should even start a business or stay in one that can't be fixed.....it's to their benefit to share it.

I'd not be displeased to see some really disappointing operations make a rational decision to stop operating and disband or reinvent themselves before they antagonize more potential customers.....but then, they are not operating from a realistic perspective to start with.

dave

The Strasburg Rail Road we admire today is the result of decades of heavy reinvestment in plant and equipment. Good management understood the customer, capitalized on a strong market, and poured the proceeds back into the business. Imitators in less dynamic markets try to do it on the cheap with predictable results.

Alan Maples

Trains magazine, May 2005 issue, had an eight-page article by Erik Ledbetter on this very subject, with various quotes from Linn Moedinger and others about what they've found works, what their concerns are re the future, etc.

These business and management discussions are why I visit RYPN almost daily.

My question is whether one can be a world class railroad museum using volunteers extensively or exclusively?

Put another way, must a museum transition to predominantly paid staff to be successful?

Cleaning bathrooms, mowing the grass, designing and placing ads, booking reservations, making deposits, paying bills, etc., are not railroad related activities. Volunteers are attracted to "play train," yet these necessary business activities are not train related.

What about managers? Can a 1 day a week volunteer really manage a 7 day a week operation or supervise other volunteers who come in on the days they are available?

As a manager would you be more likely to be successful accomplishing your objectives with one full time employee working 40 hours a week, or with 10 volunteers who come in 4 hours a week at various times and on various days?

So is Strasburg successful because they rely upon paid staff?

Yes, I know Strasburg is neither a museum nor a nonprofit. Perhaps we are comparing apples and oranges. But they seem to be better at preservation and interpretation than many nonprofit railroad museums. Hmmmmm.

Maybe it's not run like a club with separate personal fiefdoms that don't cooperate with each other for fear of loosing their piece of the pie? Even some large railroads (and other businesses) have that problem and enter bankruptcy courts.

They don't seem to be afraid of using up their historic fabric with too much ridership, even though some days they must run 2 trains at once every half hour!

They spend some money on advertising.