Strasburg Rail Road

I have been coming here now at least once a months since 2014. Always have steam engines running and an impressive place to visit. You may even catch Thomas and Percy on select weeks during the summer. Prices are great and the train ride through the Lancaster county Farm land is beautiful. If you are in the area you have to visit. The Pennsylvania RR Museum is right across the street.

This would have been a 5 star review had it not been for the poor service, food and atmosphere in the trackside café on premise. There are so many things to do not only at the station, but on the train, and along the route too. Our toddler had a great time at the playground area, which was just the right size for the space. There are also «cranky cars,» a souvenir shop, a café and an old time photo station. They had several ticket options for the train ride itself, and each staff member on the train was dressed in character with a smile on their face. There were some great little facts, and stories we learned on the ride & they also had someone come around to take pictures which were very cute. I did not know this before hand, but you can actually get off the train at a picnic area and only a few hundred yards away there is a little adventure farm which looked like a lot of fun. You can catch another train on the way back and make a whole day of it. The only tip I would give you is somewhere around the first and last 10 minutes of the ride, there is a pretty terrible smell most likely from a mix of cows & the turkey farm. That being said it was a still really fun, and just the right amount of time. I would definitely return & take advantage of even more activities the next time around.

This place still has that same charm it has always had. Something about a steam engine can still bring out the child in an adult.
Tips: on a nice day but tickets for the open air car and get on at the last car in the train. You can stand out on the balcony and be face to face with a steaming locomotive.
If you like model trains, make sure to go to the choo choo barn, one of the most detailed model layouts I have ever seen and super close to the railroad.
If you are more into the history of trains, the Pennsylvania Railroad museum is right behind the platform at Strasburg Railroad and is definitely worth a trip. They have a fantastic collection that is worth the price of admission.

Fantastic ride through Amish country. Ride is like 45 mins long in an old restored train. Get a 1^st class car for comfort and drinks while you ride.

When Thomas is here, it’s friggin mobbed with friggin toddlers friggin screaming every friggin where. It will drive you friggin crazy and suck all your friggin money dry if you’re not careful.
But you know what?
It’s also friggin awesome when your 2 year old son smiles as he’s riding Thomas.
I can’t be mad at them. It’s popular for a reason.

Great for kids and families! Haven’t been here in over 10 years and it’s still exactly like how I remember it. You stand and wait for the train and can get super close to it and see all the details of how this old coal train works. We sat in the dining car to get lunch and the food was very good. I had the soup with corn bread. The ride is not too long only 45 minutes. I definitely recommend this to any family with young children especially boys. They love this kind of stuff! My cousin was in awe the whole time!

Top notch. These people really care about the experience. I witnessed staff members consoling and helping folks coming in late, caroling away, and all around great attitudes/​service. This is not easy to find at a tourist trap kinda place like this.
We’ve been here several years now for Xmas events and each time they really go the extra mile to make it apecial for my young kids. Check this place out!!! But, buy your tickets several days in advance…

Wine and cheese train was uneventful. The train is beautiful but the wine selection was low grade and quality. I wish it was BYOB. I will not be purchasing this tour again.

Well if you have small children it is good because it only takes you down to the corner and back. But for adults it is a little disappointing.
Definitely can be skipped!

Normally a great thing to do with the kids, always have had a great time. DO NOT EVER WASTE YOUR MONEY DOING THE THOMAS TRAIN!!! the people here are not intelligent enough to handle as many tickets as they sell. The parking situation is horrible and it’s not worth the ridiculous prices they charge.

For some of us, a functioning Steam train is hypnotizing. They are such beautiful hand made snorting beasts, that moved America for 150 years. One can ride behind one here at Strasburg.
Excellent facilities and grounds. Excellent gift shops. Excellent «heavyweight » high ceiling passenger cars, unlike the claustrophobic Amtrak linear tombs.
I can’t give it a Five because the ride is too short and the scenery, although much better than a snorefest through the woods, is a bit too corn fieldy with no great trestle or gorge.
Nonetheless, a Destination place, worth a long drive.

We did the railroad in combination with a scooter tour from Strasbourg scooters. We had tickets to the first class car with wine and cheese «Samples». Wish it was a bit longer, but overall a fantastic time. Great staff on the train, wine was definitely drinkable… but nothing to write home about. Would have been 5 star but it only lasted 45 minutes.

We visit monthly our three year old loves trains!
We like to go on the open air ride. If you get on the car close to the engine pulling out of station you can ride standing outside. Great photos there.

I hate to rate this 3 stars, but it just wasn’t top-​notch in my book. I think it’s a really cute attraction, but it wasn’t worth the money for the ticket, in my opinion. I couldn’t hear the conductor’s voice at all where I was sitting in the open air car, and there really wasn’t much of a view on my side of the train. On my side of the train, the view was mostly blocked by trees, and then occasionally there would be graffiti-​covered sitting train cars or at one point, there were marble slabs at a marble storage place…
It seemed like the other side of the train had a much better view of farms and country. We would have moved to that side, but the train was full. :)
Each ticket for the open air car was $ 14.00, and I felt my experience was worth half of that. :/​
There were many families and children on board, though, and I could see that the children loved it, which I think is great! :) I also appreciated that the staff were very friendly to the families on board, and even took time to take photos with some of the children. I’d recommend it to people with very young children. :)

A beautiful area and countryside. The $ 16 per person fee is worth every penny. I was aboard the last train ride that departed and I’m glad I missed the crowd with the crying children
I was able to get an up close look at the farms, greenery, farmers at work, and enjoy the narration during our 9 mile excursion. I will be returning again

My Love Letter to the Strasburg Railroad:
It’s really amazing to see what the Strasburg Railroad has become over the last 10 – 15 years.
At the core it’s still the same nine mile round trip that they’ve been doing forever even though they’ve added a lot of newer more Disney-​ish elements to the place to I supposed «freshen it up» some of which are good, some of which personally I could do without but either way it doesn’t really detract from the core ride itself.
The basic operating year starts on Presidents Day weekend. Then they go dark for a few weeks to reopen weekends only in March, then daily from April until October and then weekends only again in November & December. All of this equals out to a lot of rides and the most amazing part is that everything is still 100% S-​T-​E-​A-​M!
Between all of the dinner trains, wine & cheese trains, Thomas the Tank Engine visits and everything else our favorite is still to pack a picnic and then get off at Groff’s Grove as the train is heading West on the return trip from Paradise to hang out for a few hours.
The Grove has an outhouse type toilet, well water pump, lots of picnic benches, a few playground type items for the children but especially after the train pulls out it’s nothing except peace and quiet. Other people might get off but as an example this past Saturday we were at Groff’s for three hours and only two other families got off and the last hour it was just us. Nothing but the sun, the trees and the occasional whiff of fresh manure in the air. #Perfect
If you go to Strasburg a few points worth noting:
* The PA Railroad Museum is across the street. Strasburg cross sells tickets for the museum both on their website and in person. It is well worth the visit if you have never been. Awesome first rate collection which will make any foamer froth with delight.
* From Memorial Day weekend until early November Cherry Crest Adventure Farms is located along the tracks right by Groff’s Grove. Strasburg and Cherry Crest both cross sell tickets for the other attraction and you can park at the station in Strasburg, ride to Cherry Crest and then back to Strasburg later in the day.
* If you want to freak out your younger kids go out for a ride maybe a week or so before a Thomas Weekend and there is a decent chance that you’ll see Thomas outside the shop without his face on. This occurs because most Thomas rides around the country utilize a «dummy» or non-​powered Thomas where as the one that is based at Strasburg is the only full functioning steam engine that is used so when they are doing maintenance on it you’ll see the blue body without the face.
* The food that is offered on the dinner trains has come a long way. A few years ago they switched to having it handled by Hershey Farms over by the Sight and Sound Theatre. Prior to that the menu I think was handled in house and it hadn’t changed in years which made everything quite boring/​tired. Now they have various themed meals like Dutch, German and Chocolate.
* There are now a lot of freight cars in their yard because they do handle their fair share of freight traffic. It helps to keep ticket prices more in check and to no doubt continue the never ending restoration process with the rolling stock.
* If you’re a brochure rack whore like I am, on the other side of the building where you buy/​pick up your tickets at the station is the Holy Grail of probably every attraction worth and not worth knowing about in the region.
* To be fair I need to mention two negatives. Number one would be that what they do know with trying to push having a picture taken on board is stupid. That’s an idea that I assume they borrowed from the New Hope and Ivyland and it’s stupid there and it’s equally stupid, pushy and tawdry here.
Number two would be that compared to even a few years ago the number of rides they offer per year is down. After Presidents Day weekend they never closed and now there are far too many days with only three trains per day where as they would go to four or five per day far earlier in the operating season then they do now which aside of Saturday’s doesn’t happen until after Memorial Day.
But those issues are minor. If you’re lucky you get a beautiful sunny day, Jack is doing the commentary like he did this past Saturday and you have an amazing ride on what is bar none the best tourist railroad in the country.

Lots of fun for young kids and grand kids. Went to the Easter Bunny Express ride. Also now have the parlor car which offers drinks and snacks while sitting in an uncrowded railroad car. More expensive than the standard ride but you can avoid all the noisy kids. Nice 45 minute ride up to Paradise, although we could have done without the commentator over the loudspeaker. And its right across the street from the PA Railroad museum which is a nice place to take the kids if they like looking at big old trains and train cars. They also have special train weekends including Easter, Thomas the Train, Christmas and others.

The Strasburg Railroad is a pretty cool place to check out even if you don’t ride the train. If your just visiting the area, and don’t want to drop roughly 16 bucks a ticket you can still enjoy watching the trains pull in and checking out the little shops around the station.
On our trip we did in fact drop the 16 bucks and opted to take the open car train ride. The ride itself is very short (45 minutes round trip), but I understand that railroads have lost so many rights to tracks that it’s hard to find a long ride. But overall this ride was nice. A beautiful view of the Dutch Country side of PA, and passing some little picnic grounds, and other nice sites. Overall it’s a cool place to stop while visiting this area of PA Dutch Country.

Such a peaceful train ride out to Amish country. This is a must if you are in Lancaster county. My husband would come with his family years and years ago, and we made a trip out here on NYE’13.
It was really pretty even if it was really cold. The conductor, funny enough, was from Boston which was cool. The architecture in the cars are historic and well kept, and the scenery is beautiful. Prices are reasonable and the shops are cute :)
Again, a must event if you are in Lancaster!

We did the Octoberfest Dinner on the Strasburg Rail Road and while it was a little corny, it was also ridiculously fun.
To start with, there are a bunch of different themes that run on this train. There is a cheese and wine tasting going on in one car, and I think they also do brunch. I know that they are doing a Steampunk thing in a few weeks (which should be awesome, because the trains are *gorgeous*).
The trains are all authentic original trains from… days of yore. Yeah, I have no idea. I’m not crazy train history fan, although I do love trains. The Strasburg is gorgeous — each car has been beautifully restored and the wood paneling and the gorgeous glass windows and fixtures are gorgeous.
If you do one of the evening dinner/​wine trains, be sure to get there about 30 minutes early. You still have to pick up your ticket at the station, and the train leaves on time.
We arrive and are quickly seated. Although the discription said that we would be seated with another couple, we had our own table. YAY. The food was decent — it was plain German food (warm soft pretzels, wurst, brats, peirogies and potato salad… so carbs and fat and no green veggies! HA!), and all of the beers that were served were from local Lancaster County breweries. The service was great — there were 2 servers for our car, but they were fast, efficient and nice (if not too chatty).
The train only goes 9 miles, about 45 minutes all together. We got to see the countryside as the sun was setting, so that was reallly awesome (and we also passed by the Cherry Hill Corn Maze, which is another review in itself).
So yes, it’s a little corny, and a little dorky, but it was really charming and incredibly fun. If you’re in this area and looking to do something different for dinner, I recommend that you purchase tickets to ride the «rails of history» (yeah, I didn’t make this up — it was the über corny conductor that was doing running commentary throughout the ride)…