As a result, the Lionel Corporation ceased its standard metal toy train production and instead fabricated items for the Allied troops. War Production Board opens in a new windowprohibited the manufacture of toys using critical war effort materials, such as steel or iron. (Don’t forget to wave at your family and friends when your train car circles past the station!) In the museum’s opens in a new window Build, Drive, Go exhibit, visitors can peruse cast-iron, steel, plastic, electric, and even paper toy trains. The opens in a new windowStrong Express Train on the museum’s first floor is a mini-locomotive ride for children and their accompanying adults. My dad kept a souvenir cassette tape of railroad-themed songs in his pick-up truck for ages, and I can still remember all the words to “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” and “ opens in a new windowOn the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe.”Īlthough I haven’t been back to Strasburg in more than a decade, I’m surrounded by trains here at The Strong. (I believe we opted for the “Baggage Car” floor plan, which housed two sets of bunk beds.) Daytime activities included the Strasburg Railroad’s scenic 45-minute round-trip train ride through the countryside, climbing in and around old trains at the museums, and eating our weight in delicious opens in a new windowshoo-fly pie from an Amish farm market.
For total railroad immersion, we stayed at the Red Caboose Motel, a compound of 38 retired cabooses turned into tourist lodging. Among Lancaster’s attractions is the town of Strasburg, home to the opens in a new windowStrasburg Railroad the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the National Toy Train Museum. Awdry watching the PBS show Shining Time Station and playing with metal opens in a new windowThomas & Friends train cars (which feel worse to step on than Lego bricks, FYI).
Both Bobby and Billy loved reading the Thomas the Tank Engine series by Reverend W.
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, became a frequent destination for the Novakovics, thanks in part to my younger brothers. Growing up in Pennsylvania, my parents frequently looked for family excursions within a few hours’ drive from our home near Pittsburgh.