Today the Strasburg Rail Road is 169 years old. It is amazing how far they have come. Thank You to all the men and women of the Strasburg Rail Road for making it what it is today. They are still the most successful and operationally authentic steam railroad in the United States. No one, not even a town named after steam can compare to the number and quality of operating steam locomotives at Strasburg. Keep up the good work.

Regards,
Andrew J. McKernan

The best part of the story is that they do it from the fare box and are not dependent on government subsidies. It is a really commendable effort!

Maybe their management team should be hired to run AMTRAK!

v-scarpitti@worldnet.att.net

If that meant that all AMTRAK trains would be pulled by well maintained, high speed passenger steam locomotives, I'd second the motion!

glueck@saturn.caps.maine.edu

As we all know, the Strasburg RR of today is nothing like the weed-grown, woebegone shortline that was acquired by the enthusiasts in the 1950s. Photos of the pre-enthusiast era seem almost impossible to find, however this important part of the line's history would be interesting. I've seen only one old photo, of an ex-PRR 4-4-0 near a coal ramp track of some sort, that was published in Railroad Magazine many years ago. Does anyone know of sources of photos/ maps/ track layouts for the "original" Strasburg, especially on the internet?

bobyar2001@yahoo.com

> As we all know, the Strasburg RR of today is
> nothing like the weed-grown, woebegone
> shortline that was acquired by the
> enthusiasts in the 1950s. Photos of the
> pre-enthusiast era seem almost impossible to
> find, however this important part of the
> line's history would be interesting. I've
> seen only one old photo, of an ex-PRR 4-4-0
> near a coal ramp track of some sort, that
> was published in Railroad Magazine many
> years ago. Does anyone know of sources of
> photos/ maps/ track layouts for the
> "original" Strasburg, especially
> on the internet?
Ancient photos of the Strasburg are about as rare as hen's teeth. I've been working on a "definitive" book-length history of the SRR off and on for the last ten years and have found perhaps less than a dozen such images. The RR Museum of PA has a few in its collections, and several are in the SRR's own "archives." I have compiled an all-time SRR roster and uncovered several ex-PRR hand-me-downs used over the years. I have not found any thing pre'58 on the web, however. Check out the SRR's latest VHS documentary which contains many archival images from my collection, the SRR's archives and the RR Museum of PA collection; only a fraction of the images in the video were used.


http://rrmuseumpa.org