Strasburg Rail Road

The Strasburg Rail Road is a heritage railroad and the oldest continuously operating standard-gauge railroad in the western hemisphere, as well as the oldest public utility in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Chartered in 1832, the Strasburg Rail Road Company is today a heritage railroad offering excursion trains hauled by steam locomotives on 4.02 mi of track in Pennsylvania Dutch Country, as well as providing contract railroad mechanical services, and freight service to area shippers. The railroad's headquarters are outside Strasburg, Pennsylvania.

Strasburg has five operational steam locomotives on its roster, as well as several others in various stages of restoration. As of 2022, Canadian National No. 89, Norfolk & Western No. 475 and Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal No. 15 (rebuilt as Thomas the Tank Engine) are all in active service, while Canadian National No. 7312 is currently undergoing restoration back to operation and Great Western No. 90 is undergoing its FRA inspection and overhaul as of January 2024. The other steam locomotive is a 15” Gauge 4-4-0 built by Cagney in the early 1900s. They also have the nation's largest operating fleet of historic wooden passenger coaches. It hosts 300,000 visitors per year.

The Strasburg Rail Road is one of the few railroads in the U.S. sometimes using steam locomotives to haul revenue freight trains. The nearby Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania occasionally uses Strasburg Rail Road tracks to connect to the Amtrak Philadelphia-to-Harrisburg Main Line junction in Paradise, Pennsylvania.

Description
Strasburg Rail Road is a shortline railroad that connects the town of Strasburg with Amtrak's Keystone Corridor mainline. The line is used for excursion trains, which carry passengers on a 45-minute round-trip journey from East Strasburg to Leaman Place Junction through nearly 2,500 acre in southeastern Lancaster County. A percentage of each train ticket's revenue is contributed to the Lancaster Farmland Trust.

The railroad operates the United States' only operational wooden dining car on which visitors may dine while riding. Attractions at the station include the fully operational gauge Pint-Sized Pufferbelly (Cagney steam-powered ridable miniature railway), a vintage pump car and several c.1930s "cranky cars", along with several gift shops and a cafe.

The railroad's mechanical and car shops maintain and restore locomotives and rolling stock for the Strasburg Rail Road and a wide variety of public and private clients, including fellow railroads, steam locomotive operators, train museums, and other heavy industries. In 2016–17, the shops were enlarged to 30,000 sqft to accommodate increasing demand for their services.

Its freight department provides shipping and transloading for local and regional clients. Interchange is with Norfolk Southern at Leaman Place Junction in Paradise on Amtrak's Keystone Corridor.

History
By the 1820s, the canal system had replaced the Conestoga wagon as the primary method of overland transportation. When the Susquehanna Canal opened, the majority of goods were directed through Baltimore, Maryland, rather than Philadelphia. The small amount of goods that were destined for Philadelphia traveled via a wagon road through Strasburg. Philadelphia attempted to reclaim its position as a major port city by constructing the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad in 1831. A railroad was easier and more cost effective to build than a canal. Because the new railroad would bypass Strasburg and cause Strasburg to lose its livelihood, a group of businessmen petitioned the state government for the right to build their own railroad to connect Strasburg to the Philadelphia and Columbia. A charter was issued by the Pennsylvania Legislature with the signature of Governor George Wolf on June 9, 1832 to "incorporate the Strasburg railroad [sic]". Although the pre-1852 history of the Strasburg Rail Road is sketchy, it is believed that the line was graded in 1835 and was operational by 1837. The railroad operated as a horse-drawn railroad until it purchased a second-hand Norris-built, 4-2-0 steam locomotive named the William Penn in 1851. Controlling interest in the railroad was purchased by John F. and Cyrus N. Herr in 1863. The rails were replaced around the same time with heavier ones to accommodate the locomotive. In 1866, the Herrs were granted a charter to extend the Strasburg Rail Road to Quarryville; surveys were carried out, but the extension was eventually canceled because of an economic depression in 1867.

Isaac Groff managed The Strasburg Rail Road for about 20 years until the fire of January 16, 1871, which destroyed the depot, grist and merchant mill, planing mill and machine shop — in all, more than $50,000 worth of property, equal to $ today. In 1878, the Strasburg Rail Road and the shops were sold. The railroad was sold again in 1888 to Edward Musselman, with the Musselman family retaining control of it until 1918 when it was purchased by State Senator John Homsher. By this time, the number of passengers had dropped off because tracks for the Conestoga Traction Company's streetcars had reached Strasburg in 1908, offering a more direct route between Lancaster and Strasburg.

In 1926, the Strasburg Rail Road purchased a 20 ST, gasoline-powered, Plymouth switcher locomotive &mdash; the only locomotive that was ever built specifically for the Strasburg Rail Road. By 1958, the railroad fell on hard times from the cumulative effect of years of declining freight business and infrequent runs, damage caused by Hurricane Hazel, and lack of approval for operation of the Plymouth locomotive by inspectors from the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Upon the death of Bryson Homsher, the Homsher estate filed for abandonment with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. Learning of the potential abandonment, an effort to purchase and save the railroad was organized by railfans from Lancaster Henry K. Long and Donald E. L. Hallock. They organized a small non-profit group to purchase the railroad. After the better part of a year of hard work, the purchase was completed on November 1, 1958. The following week, on November 8, the first carload of revenue freight was hauled to what was then the only customer, a mill in Strasburg.

Tourist excursion service began on January 4, 1959, and the first steam locomotive arrived the following year: in June 1960.

When the railroad returned to operation for tourism, freight business was still pursued, but was diminished compared to the past. Business from the Homsher feed mill ended in 1976, and one of the only sources of freight traffic was imported plastic pellets for a battery manufacturer in Lampeter. Occasional carloads of lumber were also carried, but freight traffic as a whole came to a near standstill a few years into the 2000s; the plastic pellet business was lost to trucks. Several years went by with no freight shipments at all, and the railroad was in danger of losing its designation as a common carrier entirely. The railroad made a strategic decision to actively seek out new freight business in 2008; at the time, the railroad was averaging less than one freight car per month. Improvements were made to the main line to accommodate the heavier weight of modern freight cars, and the railroad also purchased EMD SW8 #8618 to handle freight duties.

Since 2008, freight carloads have increased substantially, which resulted in the development of a new $1.5 million transloading facility funded by the railroad and matching grants. Increased freight shipments justified an additional locomotive purchase, a rebuilt EMD SW9, in 2019. On February 12, 2023, the railroad inaugurated a six-track freight yard located off of Route U.S. 30, the Lincoln Highway.

Locomotives
No. 7312 originally operated for the Grand Trunk Railway and later the Canadian National Railway. It was the first steam locomotive to be purchased by the Strasburg Rail Road, in June 1959. It arrived on the property in June 1960 and was placed into service on September 1, 1960, pulling the railroad's first tourist train. It was the first steam locomotive to return to service in the United States. In 2009, it was taken out of service to undergo an extensive Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) 1,472-day inspection and overhaul, which remains in progress.

No. 90 originally operated on the Great Western Railway of Colorado to the company's towering mill in Loveland, Colorado where it hauled sugar beet trains. It was purchased by the Strasburg Rail Road on April 5, 1967 for $23,000.00 and arrived on the property on May 5, 1967. Upon arrival, No. 90 would make its first run for Strasburg on May 13, 1967. The engine is occasionally repainted into various paint schemes for photo charters, such as the Great Western Railway (Colorado) scheme in a 2013 charter. As of January 2024, No. 90 is currently undergoing its FRA 1,472-day inspection and overhaul and is expected to return to service again in the fall.

No. 89 operated for the Green Mountain Railroad in conjunction with Steamtown, U.S.A. It was purchased by the Strasburg Rail Road, but while en route to Strasburg in June 1972 it was in Penn Central's Buttonwood, Pennsylvania yard when Hurricane Agnes flooded the Susquehanna River. The floodwaters entered the locomotive's stack, delaying its debut at Strasburg. Upon arriving on the property it underwent a complete overhaul, which lasted for a year. It wouldn't be until March 17, 1973 in the following year that No. 89 made its first official run on Strasburg Rail Road. When No. 89 first arrived, it was placed on the rails facing east (towards Leaman Place), as opposed to facing west as the rest of the railroad's motive power. No. 89 would remain in this orientation for hauling tourist trains until late 1973 when it was turned around using the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's, then recently installed, turntable across the street. Today it is often the locomotive of choice to pull smaller train consists.

No. 475 originally operated for the Norfolk and Western Railway hauling freight. After retirement, it was sold to several different owners until being purchased by the Strasburg Rail Road in June 1991. The Strasburg Rail Road had considered acquiring other steam locomotives prior to settling on No. 475, including Florida East Coast 4-6-2 No. 148, Lake Superior and Ishpeming 2-8-0 No. 34, and Crab Orchard and Egyptian 2-8-0 No. 17. Upon arriving on property on July 20, 1991, it went through a restoration lasting 2 years and then was returned to operating condition on November 4, 1993. No. 475 would occasionally be refitted to resemble its sister locomotive No. 382 for Virginia Creeper photo charter events hosted by Lerro Productions on various occasions. Additionally, for the movie Thomas and the Magic Railroad No. 475 and three passenger cars (only two of which wound up being used) were re-lettered "Indian Valley".

"Thomas" is actually Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal No. 15, built in March 1917 by the H.K. Porter Company. The locomotive was sold to the SRC by Keith Brigode from the Toledo, Lake Erie and Western Railway in March 1998 and rebuilt to resemble the character, Thomas the Tank Engine for the SRC's annual Day Out With Thomas events. In April 2014, Thomas's face was replaced with the animatronic CGI face with the mouth's ability to open and close, and a voice speaker.

No. 972 was acquired from Rail Tours Inc. of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania after the company could not afford the payments for mechanical repairs that Strasburg was performing on the locomotive at the time. It currently sits in storage awaiting repairs.

SRC also has a collection of early internal combustion locomotives; all but No. 1235 are in operation.

No. 1 has operated on the Strasburg Rail Road ever since it was built in 1926. The engine is notable for being used to reconstruct the track and rails for the railroad between 1958 and 1959 after the railroad was purchased to become a tourist line.

No. 2 was acquired by the Strasburg Rail Road in 1984. It is occasionally used to move heavy equipment around the railyard. The engine would occasionally be re-themed to the Thomas character "Rusty" for the Day Out with Thomas events.

No. 10 originally operated for the Lancaster, Oxford and Southern Railway until the line closed in 1918. In 1919, it was sold to the Grasse River Railroad in New York where it continued service until 1960. That same year it was sold to Winston Gottschalk of the Strasburg Rail Road and arrived on the property two years later in 1962. In 1991, it entered the Strasburg shops for a complete restoration. After six years of restoration work, the railcar re-entered passenger service in 1997 and has continued operating since then.

No. 8618 originally operated for the New York Central Railroad until being acquired by the Strasburg Rail Road in 2009. The engine is used mainly for freight services but also can step in to haul excursion trains from time to time. The engine occasionally had been re-themed into the Thomas character "Mavis" for the Day Out with Thomas events.

No. 1235 is an ex-ATSF SSB-1200, rebuilt from a 1953 EMD SW9. In 1984, it was sold by GE to Celanese Corp. It was brought to the railroad in late 2018. It arrived in poor condition, painted in faded Santa Fe dark blue, and is currently undergoing restoration to operational status.

The railroad also has a collection of Cagney locomotives, but only one is in operation.

No. 3 is a gauge miniature type steam locomotive that may have originally operated at Coney Island, New York, it was acquired by the Strasburg Rail Road in 2003 and has remained in active service ever since.

No. 9 is another 15 in gauge miniature type steam locomotive that also may have operated at Coney Island. It was acquired by the Strasburg Rail Road in 2012 to operate along with No. 3. It is currently sitting in storage awaiting to enter service.

Former units
Both No. 1223 and No. 7002 were leased for operation. No. 1223 was leased from the PRR from 1965 to 1968, from Penn Central from 1968 to 1979 and from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1989. No. 7002 was also leased from the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. After ultrasonic testing both engines were found to have thin spots in their fireboxes, which are a part of their boilers, thus the engines were taken out of service. The railroad stated they could have done the repairs but the lessor, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, wanted to preserve the historical fabric of each locomotive and did not renew their leases the following year. No. 1223's last day of service for SRC was Thursday, October 26, 1989, while No. 7002's was earlier that year in January right after filming a Prudential Insurance commercial in Harrisburg Train Station. They have both remained on static display since being removed from service.

SRC No. 4 is a camelback-type locomotive originally built as Reading Railroad A4b No. 1187 by The Baldwin Locomotive Works. The locomotive has the distinction of being the only SRC locomotive to arrive under its own power, doing so in 1962 from E&G Brooke Iron Company of Birdsboro, PA. It had inadequate strength for SRC's heavy trains. As such, it ran as a switcher during the summer months from 1963 to 1967. After a loan to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, it long sat dismantled pending long-term future restoration. It was acquired by the Age of Steam Roundhouse in Sugarcreek, Ohio during a July 15, 2020 auction and left the Strasburg yard on July 31, 2020.

Units visited or rebuilt
Locomotives that visited Strasburg either for events, to undergo a rebuild or, under a lease agreement:

B&O Tom Thumb Replica visited once for a rebuild, owned by B&O Railroad Museum.

B&O 25 William Mason visited for a rebuild to prepare for an appearance in Wild, Wild West, owned by B&O Railroad Museum.

No. 611 visited in 2019 for the N&W Reunion of Steam event, visited again in 2021 and 2022,  owned by the Virginia Museum of Transportation. It ran its last excursions in late May 2023 and returned to the VMT.

No. 764 is an ex-Union Pacific (built), ex-Amtrak, ex-Maine Eastern, owned by RR Power Leasing, temporarily leased in 2016.

No. 37 is an ex-Sugar Pine Lumber Company. Last operated in the 1990s. Purchased by Timber Heritage Association in November 2003 and moved from Wilmington & Western Railroad to Strasburg Railroad in 2010 to await funding for restoration to operational status. Recently, the locomotive was sold to the Age of Steam Roundhouse.

No. 39 is a PRR G5 class "Ten Wheeler" type steam locomotive. Ex-Long Island Rail Road. The boiler arrived on the property in 2008; currently awaiting restoration. The remainder of the locomotive's parts are stored at the Railroad Museum of Long Island.

No. 98, though never owned by SRC, was stored at East Strasburg station from 1960-1964. No. 98 was purchased by father and son T. Clarence Marshall and Thomas C. Marshall, Jr. from Paulsen Spence's ill-fated Louisiana Eastern Railroad collection, for use on Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc's Wilmington and Western Railroad. No. 98 arrived on the Wilmington & Western in 1964 and was operational by 1972. No. 98 is currently out of service undergoing a overhaul and is expected to be operational sometime in 2023-4.

The Walt Disney World Railroad locomotives, No. 1 Walter E. Disney, No. 2 Lilly Belle, No. 3 Roger E. Broggie, and No. 4 Roy O. Disney, have each individually traveled to the Strasburg Rail Road shops for federally mandated rebuilds since 2010.

Pre-1958
Strasburg rostered at least six steam locomotives prior to 1958. Evidence suggests that Strasburg only rostered one locomotive at a time, operating it until it was no longer economically viable and then purchasing a replacement locomotive.

Accidents

 * On September 4, 2014, an empty excursion train was departing from the station when the open air passenger car No. 99 suddenly derailed. There were no injuries. The derailment was caused by a glitch in one of the track switches by the station. The crew eventually got the passenger car back on track by 3:30 pm.
 * On November 2, 2022, while running around a passenger train at Leaman Place, Paradise, No. 475 collided head-on with an excavator parked on a siding. The impact punched a hole in the smokebox door. No crew or passengers were injured, and the damage done was deemed relatively minor. The collision was broadcast live via Virtual Railfan and was caught on video via cellphone by one of the passengers on board the train that day. The accident was caused by a misaligned switch, and it is being investigated by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Strasburg announced that repairs on the No. 475 locomotive had commenced on November 3, the day after the accident. Repairs were completed with the No. 475 locomotive returning to service on November 7, 2022.

In film and television
The Strasburg Rail Road and its locomotives have appeared in a number of films and television series, including Hello, Dolly!, Wild Wild West, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, The Gilded Age, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, The Men Who Built America and I Heard the Bells.