Strasburg, PA

The East Strasburg Station is situated on the historic Strasburg Rail Road. Located near the Borough of Strasburg in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the Strasburg Rail Road played an important role in the development of the transportation network in Central Pennsylvania, carrying both freight and passengers. Incorporated in 1832 by a special Act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, the railroad received its earliest national attention on February 22, 1861, when President-elect Abraham Lincoln stopped a few miles away at Leaman Place, while heading to Washington, D.C. for his inauguration. In preparation for his visit, Strasburg Railroad purchased its first passenger car to transport people to and from Leaman Place.

Following World War II, the nation's investment in improved highway transportation put railroads such as the Strasburg Rail Road on the verge of extinction. Destruction of the tracks due to storms in 1957 further complicated matters, placing an embargo on carload freight. With rail owners unwilling to invest in the necessary repairs, local industrialists and rail fans Henry K. Long and Donald R. Hallock gathered a group of interested individuals to purchase and restore the property, and ultimately save the railroad.

After repairing the four-and-a-half miles of track, the group began acquiring an inventory of historic locomotives and passenger cars from across North America and repurposed an old feed mill as a station. America's oldest short-line railroad reopened to visitors in 1958 and in 2008 celebrated its 50^th anniversary as a tourist railroad.