2008-08-14 07:08:00
MOLLY STIEBER / Manheim Township graduate
The Strasburg Rail Road is a fun, relaxing way to enjoy the beauty of Lancaster County's Amish country, while learning a great deal about the county's history. Founded in 1832, the Strasburg Rail Road is America's oldest short-line railroad. In 1958, it became an established to......
2008-08-10 00:15:00
JON RUTTER, Staff Writer
She was born to run at 80 mph. Not that she still wanted to. Reading Car 10 had been resting on her laurels for decades. Then last year, the Strasburg Rail Road decided to make a special project of her. The motivation ......
2008-08-09 01:36:00
STEPHANIE WEAVER, Staff
The tension could be felt as Keith Galbraith studied his situation at the Lancaster Host on Friday afternoon. If he could get the right combination, Galbraith could eliminate one of his top rivals in a matter of seconds.With last year's champion, Gary Schaefers, having been eliminated ......
2008-08-02 00:51:00
CINDY STAUFFER, Staff
Linn Moedinger started out cleaning the toilets and diesel parts for Strasburg Rail Road.That was 40 years ago this month.A "railroad brat" — his parents were among the founders of the attraction — and someone who has performed most of its jobs during its histo......
2008-07-28 19:24:00
JAMES BUESCHER, Correspondent
It's a section of Route 30 that's seen as a "gateway" to Lancaster County: an area stretching from the East Towne Mall to Route 896 near Rockvale Outlets, a place that, at one time, was celebrated for its rolling hills, Amish farmsteads and idyllic streams but is now better know......
2008-07-10 00:01:00
PATRICK BURNS, Staff
Park City Center will soon be home to the Los Angeles-based retailer Forever 21 Inc., a popular teen shopping destination. The company will open its Forever XXI store sometime in August with a 10,000-square-foot space in the Bon Ton wing at Park City.With 39 stores nationwide, The Forever ......
2008-04-04 17:48:00
LARRY ALEXANDER, Staff
Two Lancaster County historic railroad sites will be featured on national television Monday.The Strasburg Rail Road will be highlighted on History's "Modern Marvels" at 8 p.m., followed at 9 p.m. by The Learning Channel's "Jon and Kate + 8," in which the stars v......
2008-01-11 00:25:00
LARRY ALEXANDER, Staff
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg has twins: two 58-year-old Diesel locomotives weighing in at 255,000 pounds each.The new arrivals were brought to the museum Wednesday via the main line at Paradise and the tracks of the Strasburg Rail Road.Dubbed the 902 and the 903,......
2008-01-06 00:05:00
MARTY CRISP, Staff writer
"When I was a kid on Christmas morning, I'd see the depressing assortment of gifts the adults got — shirts, socks, ties," said Strasburg Rail Road President Linn Moedinger. "And I'd think, if that's what it's like to grow up, I don't want to." ......
2007-12-23 00:11:00
MARTY CRISP, Staff writer
"When I was a kid on Christmas morning, I'd see the depressing assortment of gifts the adults got — shirts, socks, ties," said Strasburg Rail Road President Linn Moedinger. "And I'd think, if that's what it's like to grow up, I don't want to." ......
2007-12-16 00:06:00
MARTY CRISP, Staff writer
Christmas and model trains go together like mistletoe and smooches. This year, the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg is kissing up to yuletide train enthusiasts big-time, showing "The Polar Express" at its IMAX theater and offering a collection of eight new model-train gardens in its Hars......
2007-12-07 02:54:00
LARRY ALEXANDER, Staff
Santa's Paradise Express is about to pull out of the station.The popular holiday train ride features Christmas carolers, brass horns and a personal visit with Santa during its 45-minute journey through the Amish countryside.Festivities will begin as soon as the visitor reaches t......
2007-11-28 11:39:00
RYAN ROBINSON, Staff
When Caroline Novak started consulting for the Lancaster Farmland Trust in 2004, she made some bold statements. The nonprofit farmland preservation group and the county's Agricultural Preserve Board could double the number of acres they save from development each year, she predicted. M......
2007-10-29 11:32:00
RYAN ROBINSON, Staff
Here's a scoop: Ice cream is helping to save a 63-acre Amish farm in Fulton Township. Turkey Hill Dairy in 2005 began giving a portion of the proceeds from sales of its All Natural Recipe ice cream to the nonprofit farmland preserver, Lancaster Farmland Trust. Through the end of 2006, that......
2007-10-07 00:05:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Staff writer
There's a locomotive tearing through Ken Murry's well-tended garden. And there's a passenger train barreling through Mel Pankuch's pristine backyard. That's just fine with both men. Murry, 69, of Mountville, and Pankuch, 67, of New Holland, are garden-railway enthu......
2007-10-03 20:20:00
CINDY HUMMEL, Correspondent
Strasburg Township supervisors Monday approved an ordinance that states fewer tracts of land can be subdivided off farms.Under the new agricultural zone ordinance, farm owners who have 50 to 99 acres could subdivide one parcel from the parent tract.The previous ordinance allowed a s......
2007-09-12 00:58:00
CINDY HUMMEL, Correspondent
Strasburg Township supervisors Sept. 4 approved a conditional use for the subdivision of three lots off a 96.9-acre farm.In the process of settling an estate, the John Fisher family requested the conditional use for three 2-acre lots on which to build homes. The parent tract has an address......
2007-08-22 01:38:00
JAMES BUESCHER, Correspondent
Because of requirements relating to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the cost of an Amtrak station proposed for Paradise Township has soared to $10 million."We here in Paradise have no problems with the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act," supervisor Dennis Groff said. " &he......
2007-07-06 00:14:00
RACHEL FETROW, Staff
Getting lost in a cornfield is always a possibility in Lancaster County. But is it something people do deliberately?Each year anywhere from 60,000 to 80,000 people do just that at Cherry-Crest Farm's "Amazing Maize Maze," according to Cathy Kornfield (no joke!), the farm'......
2007-06-21 00:01:00
PATRICK BURNS, Staff
Strasburg Rail Road Shops announced Wednesday it has sold products involved in the June 13 recall of 1.5 million Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway sets made by RCS Corp.The shop last week believed its merchandise was not affected by the recall of the Chinese-made toys, which have surface......
2007-06-07 14:06:00
CINDY HUMMEL, Correspondent
Strasburg Rail Road president Linn Moedinger told a crowd of about 200 people on Wednesday that the railroad, "never did anything in a normal fashion." In a re-creation of a whistle stop tour of political campaigns gone by, Moedinger spoke from the back of an observation car after it ......
2007-06-05 14:00:00
CINDY HUMMEL
Bill Grager has been working as a conductor on the Strasburg Rail Road for a third of a century. Grager, now an assistant principal of Lampeter-Strasburg High School, also served as music conductor at the district's Martin Meylin Middle School for more than 20 years. In 1986, his du......
2007-05-17 13:38:00
CINDY HUMMEL, Correspondent
The Strasburg Rail Road will go back in time to celebrate its 175th birthday on June 6, and Gov. Ed Rendell is scheduled to play a role in the celebration. Rail Road President and Chief Mechanical Officer Linn Moedinger said the event will include a re-creation of a whistle stop campaign of byg......
2007-05-16 12:30:00
JACK BRUBAKER
The second edition of a book about a local narrow-gauge rail line, out of print for more than two decades, has been published by the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg. "Little, Old & Slow: The Life and Trials of the Peach Bottom and Lancaster, Oxford & Southern......
2007-04-28 00:01:00
Larry Alexander, Staff
To the farmers of southern Lancaster County who depended on it, the Peach Bottom and Lancaster, Oxford and Southern Railroad was lovingly dubbed the "Little, Old and Slow."But during the 50-plus years it chugged between Peach Bottom, Quarryville and Oxford in Chester County, it w......
2007-04-09 07:58:00
Michael Yoder, Staff
Laurie Mackison has done almost every job imaginable at the Strasburg Rail Road except engineer or conductor.But it's her early spring assignment that gives the greatest satisfaction — dressing up as the Easter Bunny.Dozens of people braved unusually chilly spring temperat......
2007-04-03 13:56:00
Cindy Hummel, Correspondent
A railroad experience aimed at adults will head down the Strasburg Rail Road tracks at full speed beginning April 7. The wine and cheese train is returning, after a successful experiment last summer. People purchased tickets for last year's train faster than anticipated, recalled manag......
2007-03-03 02:07:00
James Buescher, Correspondent
A federal agency has rejected a $2.4 million Amtrak railroad station proposed for Paradise Township because of concerns the site would limit access for people with disabilities.Officials have hired an engineering firm to consider alternative sites in the township for the long-awaited stati......