Strasburg, Pennsylvania

It was 1693 when French hunter and fur trader, Pierre Bezaillion, put down roots in one of the most scenic spots in Lancaster County establishing trade with the local Delaware Indians. That’s right, French. More French people – Huguenots from France’s Alsace region – soon followed. Curious, isn’t it, that a town and countryside that’s been alive with a bustling Amish culture for centuries traces its roots back to France? The name of the town never actually came to be until the mid 1700s when, again, the French named it in honor of Strasbourg, the cathedral city of their Alsace homeland.

Even though the Strasburg Rail Road, chartered in 1832, was to connect the community to the nation’s passenger and freight system, in the end, major rail traffic never made it to Strasburg. The Strasburg Rail Road – the oldest continually operating public utility in Pennsylvania – exists to this day. It was saved by the Strasburg Rail Road Company in 1957 to become one of Pennsylvania Dutch Country’s most beloved family tourist attractions – and a cultural icon of Strasburg.

Despite the trade setbacks Strasburg experienced in its early days, this quaint crossroads village managed to continue to thrive. Strasburg Road, a route between West Chester and York, kept a steady stream of wagon and stagecoach traffic flowing.

Strasburg, Pennsylvania

Every effort is directed toward authenticity. Most of the coaches arrive sans seats of any kind whatsoever, so it is necessary for the railroad to search out and purchase seats of that period. Most of the coaches arrive with coal stoves, but none of them arrives complete with the coal oil lamps with which it began service. Antique coach lamps are not a popular item on the market, so each car's lamps must be constructed from scratch after considerable research. Former president Don Hallock is personally responsible for most of the lamps in the railroad's coaches. Even the East Strasburg Station is the genuine article. Originally built in 1882 along the Reading Railway's Lancaster branch twenty miles from its present location, this ornate structure was purchased from the Reading, cut into nine sections, transported by flatbed truck to its present location and reassembled board for board.

William M. Moedinger - The Road to Paradise - 1971

"J" Tower was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and originally located in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania. In its later years of operation the PRR labeled the tower as "Lemo." After the tower closed it was relocated to the Strasburg Rail Road and restored for use as a museum site.

Wikipedia

The railroad’s shop facilities are among the tops anywhere, with a 50’x170′ back shop fully equipped with drill presses, a quartering machine, a 600-ton 1913 90-inch Niles wheel lathe once used by Northampton & Bath Railroad, a 600-ton wheel press, a 3’x10′ milling machine, a 10-ton overhead traveling crane, drop tables, and other machinery rescued from area railroad car repair shops. SRC doubled its facilities with a new addition to the back shop in 2017. The railroad manufactures many hard-to-find steam parts not only for its own use but as products for sale, such as injectors, safety valves, firebox staybolt materials, coach seats, and reproduction coal stoves, and derives a significant portion of its income from outside contract work. The most recent restoration, a beautiful Baltimore & Ohio six-axle lounge car dating from 1911, debuted in service last December after more than four years of work, christened Linn W. Moedinger, in honor of the recently retired SRC official.

Kurt R. Bell - A Visit to Strasburg - Railfan & Railroad