Columbus day. It was a beautiful crisp October morn that dawned. I was off work, no school for my son and my wife took the day off her job as well. I planned on getting some outside chores done in the morning and then spending the afternoon mixing batches of plaster in the layout room before going out for dinner that evening. Perfect! However my wife had other plans. Her grand idea was for the three of us to go get lost in a corn field maze in Lancaster County instead! “Great” I thought as I struggled to put on a happy face and gladly went along with this superb idea. (Can you sense the sarcasm?) Well, we started off on our adventure and drove merrily along. Down I-283 paralleling the Amtrak main line still under it’s old catenary on its way from Harrisburg to Philadelphia, to Rt. 30 to Rt. 896. I looked forlornly out the car window as we passed the Strasburg model railroad shop. I gloomed as we flew PAST the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and it’s yard full of old motive power. My attention was grabbed by the falling apart, weather beaten, rusting away ex-PRR GG1 sitting by the roadside. We pulled into the Cherry Hill Adventure farm. We paid our admission and proceeded onto the property. Suddenly I was staring at a plume of smoke and steam rising above the cornfields and was hit with the sudden realization that the Strasburg railroad ran directly through the middle of the attraction! Cooool! We ended up having a super fun day as a family and every time the whistle sounded I grabbed the camera to get a few shots of a beautiful train and the occasional rail bus that came along as we laughed and played and had an absolutely wonderful day! Enjoy the pics!
Matt
