Pennsylvania's budget crunch is starting to affect Lancaster County's three state-owned museums, which are being forced to lay off employees and reduce hours of operation.Nine of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's 16 staff members were furloughed this week, and staff cuts ar......

Tulle veil tucked delicately into place, pristine white gown worn to perfection, Erica Bare carefully maneuvers her wedding train, slides her feet into blue polka-dot plastic boots and jumps into a creek.In full bridal attire, the Quarryville resident also leans against the rusted railing ......

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania soon will be inviting guests on a journey to places few visitors have gone before.The museum is creating a computerized information center that will include virtual tours of unique locomotives and rail cars not open to the general public.Pieces of......

In a 1927 ceremony in Washington, D.C., President Calvin Coolidge honored Charles Lindbergh for flying The Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, N.Y., to Paris, the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic. Newsreel makers filmed the presidential ceremony to be shown in New York theaters. On......

The days of Conrail will come alive again this weekend at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg.The museum, in conjunction with the Conrail Historical Society, will feature the equipment, history, spirit and people of Conrail, which ended its run 10 years ago."Visito......

If the budget passed by the Senate in Harrisburg were implemented, Pennsylvania history could be put on hold.The $27.3 billion spending plan proposed by Senate Republicans and approved along party lines earlier this month would cut funding to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commissi......

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is rolling out the red carpet to honor a movie star this weekend. A large and loud movie star. No it's not Rosie O'Donnell. It's the iron horse — a giant, smoke-spewing machine that has filled movie screens since, well, since there were......

Worth a drive
The current iteration of the experimental-indie-rock sensation Animal Collective, from left, Geologist (Brian Weitz), Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) and Avey Tare (David Portner), will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. It'......

For the past decade Charter Day has given Pennsylvanians the opportunity to spend a Sunday afternoon in March getting in touch with their historical heritage — for free.But this year's annual event took on a more poignant tone because proposed budget cuts threaten to close as man......

Under Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed budget, some of the state's historic sites could become, well, history.Barbara Franco, executive director of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, told legislators at a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee on Monday that proposed c......

Phillip Brown slowed the locomotive to a lazy chug as the train rounded the turn near the tiny village church.He carefully maneuvered the cars past the post office and general store, letting them pick up speed as the train crossed the bridge heading into the east side of town."......

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the Keystone Chapter of the Studebaker Drivers Club have teamed up to spotlight the genius of industrial designer Raymond Loewy.Loewy, a car designer for Studebaker Corp. for 21 years, also plied his trade for the Pennsylvania Railroad.So when......

Work on a new Strasburg bypass is about two months and some paperwork away."We've been working on this for a very long time," borough Mayor Bruce Ryder said Thursday. "We are very much looking forward to having it done."Greg Penny, a spokesman for the state D......

Step into the 18th century. Watch pack horses pull a cart to one of the local farms. Drive a locomotive from Lancaster to Harrisburg. All of these activities have become easier to do this August, thanks to a new program run by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission....

If you ask a kid in the summer to name the first president of the United States, chances are it might take him a minute or two to answer. According to a Johns Hopkins University study, children actually lose knowledge over the summer, when they are not learning. The Pennsylvania Historical......

The age of steam locomotives is just a memory to older Americans, while their children don't recall it at all.But now, visitors to Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg can see the golden years of railroading through the eyes of a well-known railroad artist."Railroad......

In life and in death, artist Ted Rose was rather a private man. Although his passion was painting specific landscapes — mainly the industrial landscape of depots, trains and grain elevators, but also the Southwestern desert beauty that he called home — Rose was never pigeon-hole......

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......

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission will publicly display the original 1681 Charter, granted by England's King Charles II to William Penn, from noon until 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 9, at The State Museum, 300 North St., Harrisburg. In addition, admission to the planetarium and t......

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,......

My New Year's resolution for 2008 is to get rich.I don't know how I'll do that, but it's my goal.It's not that I want a big house or a fancy car. And I certainly don't relish going into a higher tax bracket or having supposed "long-lost cousins" knocking on my door to tell me they n......

When the Strasburg 275th Anniversary Committee began planning its New Year's Eve celebration, some thought dropping a train might be fitting — but completely impractical.True, the area is known for attractions like the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania and the National Toy Train Mu......

It's the locomotive that helped jubilant Americans honor Charles Lindbergh.In June 1927, the Pennsylvania Railroad E6 Atlantic locomotive No. 460 raced from Washington, D.C., to New York City bearing newsreel footage of Calvin Coolidge presenting the famed aviator with a presidential m......

All aboard the Peanuts Express. Next stop, the governor's residence.Snoopy, Linus, Lucy, Schroeder, Woodstock and good ol' Charlie Brown will spend this holiday season riding the rails around Gov. Ed Rendell's Christmas tree, thanks in part to the folks at the Railroad Museum o......

Admission fees at Landis Valley Museum and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania will increase by $1 beginning next year to help pay for improvements at both sites.The museums have not raised rates since 2002, Barbara Franco, executive director of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commi......

The history of warfare is linked indelibly to transportation.From aircraft and naval vessels to jeeps and motorbikes, the military always has had to find better ways to get where it needs to go. That's where the histories of trains and troops overlap."Railroads really were ......

The sign at a vendor's table at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania read "Stop, Look, Listen." And that's exactly what enthusiasts do at model railroad shows."I can't explain it; there's something magical about it," John V. Luppino, operations manager of......

Ryan Kunkle, supervisor of visitor services at the Railroad Museum of Pa., can remember lying in bed as a little boy as the not-too distant echoes of train whistles lulled him to sleep. "The trains got in my mind and they never let up," he says. He's not alone. An est......

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......

The circus calliope began playing at lunchtime, the sound seeming to carry across the parking lot and out to the rest of Strasburg, as Tom Persell gazed upon the small-but-special world of his circus. They were all there, and you could almost feel the excitement of a circus comi......

Stepping out from behind the veil of time, Pennsylvania Past Players spent Thursday mingling with modern-day visitors at two county tourist attractions.The Past Players, 18 actors and Civil War re-enactors dressed in period attire, spent Thursday afternoon in Strasburg, strolling the groun......

Railroad enthusiast Gary Wemyss has been coming to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg every summer for as long as he can remember. This year, however, the Rockport, Mass., resident won't make it past the front door. Starting today, the railroad museum, Ephrata Cloister an......

More than 24,000 state government workers are staying home today,  casualties of a partial government shutdown.Following a full day of budget negotiations Sunday, Gov. Ed Rendell announced at 11:15 p.m. that talks with state Senate leaders failed to move far enough to avert the furlou......

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg will use a federal grant to protect an important part of America's railroading past.A $42,912 Conservation Project Support grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services will help the museum create new photographic image......

The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania has a new look.The museum officially dedicated its $1.4 million face-lift during a ceremony Friday.About 100 people, including some in Victorian garb, 1940s fashions and railroad conductor and train personnel outfits, crammed into the lobby for th......

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......

Kids can travel along the Pennsylvania Trail of History for free today.To raise awareness of the newly expanded Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, all historic sites administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission will admit two children free with the purchase ......

When Bob Reese was about 12 years old, he and his friends walked from the southern end of Lancaster to the railroad station so often he knew the train schedules by heart.Reese liked trains so much he thought he would work for the railroad when he grew up."But Uncle Sam thought ......

On March 4, 1681, King Charles II of England granted to William Penn a charter for land in eastern North America.The specific tract was situated west of New Jersey, north of Maryland and south of New York and would be known as the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.Now, 326 years later, t......

It's the little engine that could.

Weighing in at just 12 tons, the small Vulcan switch engine, a new addition to Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's collection, and its half-dozen or so siblings, were once the workhorses of some of the nation's largest rail yards.

In use for dec...