Strasburg Railroad - a popular place to visit but not to model???

I don't know about anyone else but for me rolling stock really isn't a consideration.  If I want to model a particular railroad and nothing is available pre-lettered, I would work on getting custom pieces done.  Depending on how particular you are though, there is stuff available for Strasburg.

 

For me, my choice of road was determined by my level of interest, which was sparked by living next to the tracks.  I am interested in other roads as well but my main one is the Ann Arbor.  I fit the others around that.

 

Maybe the Strasburg just never got the following that some of the other roads in the area did.

See www.strasburgmodelrailroad.com as well as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTTmrA_gOpw

Kenn, I assume that the Strasburg Railroad is not modeled much is because it is not a Class 1 carrier or even a major bridge line. The line does not boast long coal drags, high speed intermodal trains, a large industrial switching area or the logging industry. It is basically a tourist line. That being said, it is still a popular railfan and toy train collector rail line. There a alot of train related places to visit in the immediate vicinity. As a matter of fact my wife and I are going on a trip to Strasburg and Gettysburg, PA. in October. We have purchased tickets for a ride on the Strasburg Railroad and to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania already. We plan on also visiting the TCA Toy Train Museum and Choo Choo Barn. It should be a great time!

Bob.

 

Well, the Strasburg equipment sure is charming and photogenic.  But the for the "track plan" all one would need is a long, long straight run!

Tom Groff has modeled the Strasberg RR on his Choo-Choo barn layout it is one of his many automations of the Lancaster, Pa area

I have all the Strasburg  equipment offered by lionel. I plan to have a point to point shelf over my layout, approx 60 lineal feet. I plan to selectively compress the operation including the sprung switches at the runaround. Its funny this post showed up today as i am working on the automation circuitry for this.  The layout room isn't even finished yet, so its gonna be a while!

 

RW

First of all I enjoy the Strasburg Railroad since I do not live that far away from it and I have been there numerous times. At the present time I do not run anything since I have no room to model anything. But the Strasburg RR would be a good one to model for someone who has limited space and wanted to do a point to point RR.

 

I have not purchased any of the Strasburg RR offerings since it is not high on my of priority list. It is hard enough to keep up with everything that I do like. I'm more of a operator then a collector, even though I have no room for a layout at this time. My dad worked for the B&O for a short time before he went to work on the Patapsco & Back River RR which was the RR for the Bethlehem Steel Co. in Sparrows Point MD. I tried to get hired by the RR but it was a no go. 

 

And my dad had some Lionel trains that he would set up for Christmas time. He had a 253 pre-war passenger set that his dad had. And it went with 671 Pennsy & 6250 Seaboard that he bought when I young. I also had some uncles that worked for the RR and they also set up trains at Christmas time. So my love for model trains started a long time ago.

 

Now for the trains that I collect and operate is more about what appeals to my eyes. I like trains that are colorful and unique. I also like to make up very long trains using the same types of cars. And I came to like seeing these from the old Lionel catalogs where they would show you the item they were selling but I always liked seeing the long trains (@ tank cars) that would appear in the backgrounds on the different pages. Another one of my passions are the operating accessories and cars.

 

My favorite road names are the B&O, C&O, PENNA, SP, UP & Beth Steel but I'm not limited to those names. But some items just jump out and bite me like the Mil. Rd S-3 even though it is not that colorful, I just had to get it.

 

But as for the Strasburg RR, I have only one box car.

Lionel has made Strasburg freights cars starting with a 5200 series car in the 80's. They have a passenger set with thier 0-8-0 as the exNW 4-8-0.
K-line did a Plymouth.
MTH did 19th cent passenger cars as the ex BM cars Strasburg uses, steamers as both Stradburg and the heritage CP and Pennsy. They also did the ex NYC SW Strasburg uses for freight these days.

Of all of them I only have the Plymouth.

I agree that most of us don't model rail roads like Strasburg because of it not being a class 1 road.  

 

Most of our layouts are kind of like Strasburg's operation though.  No we don't have one long straight piece of track but most of our layouts have a scale mile or less of track.  I for one try to operate prototypically on my less then mile of straight track. My 2 little 0-8-0 switchers bring in cars from my off layout staging yard and place them at sidings and industries.  Passenger trains come from the off layout staging yard and stop at my station sometimes dropping off RPO or Mail cars that get switched on to other passenger trains.  The train then goes back onto the staging yard as if it left my small town.  Once in awhile a full train rumbles through my town.  All of this is kind of similar on how Strasburg really operates.