The Strasburg Rail Road is going green and expanding its freight operation at the same time. No, the tourist line won't be burning soybean-based biofuel in its coal-fired steam locomotives. But it's expecting to handle a tank car of the stuff sometime this week. The Norfolk So......

Kristi Largoza had planned to go into farming. These days, though, besides fields of corn, she oversees forests and fountains. Rivers. Highways. Baseball parks and suburbs, indeed, an entire snow-frosted mountain range. It's all inside Strasburg's Choo Choo Barn, the mo......

Spring has sprung! Trite, perhaps, but true nonetheless. Trees are budding, posies are popping and the Easter Bunny is busy going about his seasonal duties. To help him out, dozens of organizations and churches are hosting Easter Egg hunts this weekend and next. And the bunny himself (o......

Before the introduction of municipal water systems, water towers supplied the water pressure needed to operate household plumbing and fire suppression systems.The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries ushered in the evolving art and science of "water columns," whic......

Illinois is known as the "Land of Lincoln." Lancaster is becoming a body double. At least when it comes to filming documentaries about the country's 16th president. Scenes shot here by separate film crews will appear in two upcoming shows, "The Assassination of A......

As the "Great Western 90" steam engine pulled its nine coach cars full of smiling children past Nativity scenes set up in the cornfields of Paradise Township on Sunday, one special guest remained hidden in the express baggage car.For 50 years, jolly old St. Nicholas has been......

When Santa Claus first started riding the rails at Strasburg Rail Road a half century ago, Strasburg's station was hardly bigger than a phone booth and the engine pulling the passenger cars was powered by diesel, not the trademark steam the railroad is known for today. Back in those earl......

Thanksgiving is a few days away, but the bountiful year-round harvest of Lancaster and York counties is being promoted and celebrated in a new guide.Lancaster-York Heritage Region, a nonprofit organization that raises awareness of the cultural and economic character of the two counties sep......

One day in 1942, Rio Grande Southern locomotive No. 20 careened off the tracks in a mountain pass and pinched its boiler against a rock. Now, 66 years later, the Strasburg Rail Road mechanical shop is bolting and hammering the little coal burner back together again. In about three years, i......

Abraham Lincoln's ghost is said to haunt the White House, his home in Springfield, Ill., Ford's Theater and other places far away from Lancaster.But that didn't deter a film crew from conjuring Lincoln in Woodward Hill Cemetery on Thursday.The crew, from New York City-ba......

You've heard Sen. Barack Obama. You've heard Sen. John McCain. Now hear President Theodore Roosevelt.In this time of political speeches, the 26th president of the United States will make a stop this weekend at the Strasburg Rail Road, riding the rails with voters and giving whistle......

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......

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 ......

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 ......

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......

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......

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 ......

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 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,......

"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." ......

"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." ......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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'......

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......

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 ......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

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......