Tag: lancaster-county-pennsylvania

Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Ronks, Pennsylvania

by jbcowgill, posted in Uncategorized

When you think about railroads and the state of Pennsylvania, there are so many famous rail sites and railroad excursions that you can bring up.  The railroad is a major part of the history of the state of Pennsylvania.  The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania encompasses all of that history under one roof.

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has one of the largest collections of locomotives, rail cars, and artifacts in the United States.  You will notice this is before you approach the museum from the east or the south.  The collection includes steam locomotives including the Lindbergh locomotive that raced a plane, electric locomotives, diesel locomotives to include the last E7 in the world, historic box cars, plus many others under one big climate controlled roof or outside where there is also an old turntable.

Among the huge collection you will also find model train displays, an honor roll, a kids play area, a train simulator, and a gift shop just to name a few.  Be advised that when you come to this museum, you will need to give yourself plenty of time to see everything.

If that is not enough, the Strasburg Railroad, the oldest short line railroad in the United States, is across the street where there is plenty more to do.

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is located in the Pennsylvania Dutch Country in the Lancaster suburb of Strasburg, Pennsylvania on Pennsylvania Route 741 (300 Gap Road) just east of Pennsylvania Route 896.  It is open all year round.  General admission is $10.00 for adults, $9.00 for seniors and $8.00 for children 3 to 11.  (Rates many vary due to specific events.)  Go to www.rrmuseumpa.org for more information on museum hours, to learn about the history of the museum, to read about their numerous restorations and to look up special events hosted by the museum.  For the rail fan, this place will fail to disappoint you.

The National Toy Train Museum, Paradise, Pennsylvania

by jbcowgill, posted in Uncategorized

The town of Strasburg in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania is a railroader’s heaven.  You have the famous Strasburg Railroad, the oldest short line railroad in the United States.  You have the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania right across the street with the large collections of locomotives and rolling stock.  You have the Choo Choo Barn that holds a large model train display depicting Lancaster County.  You can spend a night at the Red Caboose Motel where you stay in a real caboose.  In the town itself, you have the Iron Horse restaurant.  With all of that, you are probably wondering what else could be in Strasburg.  One place that you cannot overlook is the National Toy Train Museum.

In case you are wondering, this is not one of those toy train museums where you have this small train display.  This is a museum that has a very big collection of toy trains.  From the very moment you enter the building that is built to resemble an old train depot, you are greeted by walls and walls of trains from Lionel to Bachmann to American Flyer from the early years to the present day.  Yes, there is that many trains.  Along with the shelves full of trains are, what everyone wants to see, the model train displays of every single scale.  You can also see videos of the trains as they roll through the displays and visit the National Toy Train Library, which has a very extensive collection of books, catalogs, postcards and much more.  As mentioned, this is not your normal train museum.

The National Toy Train Museum is located at 300 Paradise Lane in Ronks, Pennsylvania next to the Red Caboose Motel and Restaurant just north of Pennsylvania Route 741.  They are open from 10:00am to 5:00pm on most days, and admission is only $7.00 for adults.  You can get more information at www.nttmuseum.org.

If you ever want to meet people who play with trains, the National Toy Train Museum has people who have many trains to play with.