Strasburg Rail Road
Near Intercourse, Pennsylvania
The Strasburg Rail Road holds a remarkable claim: it is the oldest continuously operating standard-gauge railroad in the western hemisphere, running under the same charter since June ninth, eighteen thirty-two. It was born of frustration. When the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad laid its line from Philadelphia toward the Susquehanna River, it bypassed the town of Strasburg by five miles, threatening to strangle the community's commerce.
Local farmers and merchants petitioned the state legislature, obtained a charter, and built their own short link to connect to the main line. The little railroad limped along for more than a century before falling into near-abandonment. In nineteen fifty-eight, local rail enthusiasts purchased it and revived it as a tourist operation.
Today steam locomotives haul more than three hundred thousand visitors a year through the Lancaster County countryside, making Strasburg Rail Road one of the most successful heritage railways anywhere in the country.
