created: July 2, 2001
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania is located across the road from the Strasburg Railroad in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country. The museum houses a very important collection of locomotives and rolling stock from railroads that operated in Pennsylvania. Its archives contain extensive photographic and print resources of importance to research in the Commonwealth's transportation history. A large proportion of equipment is under roof in large, enclosed pavillions, which makes photography difficult. Therefore this photo essay contains only a small sample of the things you can see when you visit.
Pennsylvania Railroad Mikado (2-8-2) steam locomotive No. 520. These locomotives were Class L1s on the Pennsy: "L" signified 2-8-2 wheel arrangement (2 pilot wheels, 8 driving wheels, and 2 trailing wheels); "1" for the first type in the class; and "s" to denote that the engine was equipped with superheaters. Class L1 dated from World War I, when it was state-of-the-art mainline freight power, and engines of this class survived in yard and transfer service to the end of steam. With single examples of other PRR steam engine classes, No. 520 was stored in the roundhouse at Northumberland, PA during the 1950s. All of the engines preserved by the PRR after dieselization eventually found their way to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
Pay Car, Cumberland Valley Railroad, ca. 1850. This car represents both passenger car technology of the mid-Nineteenth Century and one of the oldest railroads in the Commonwealth. In its day, this car travelled the line with the payroll for railroad employees. The Cumberland Valley RR ran between Hagerstown, MD and Harrisburg, PA, forming an important connection between southern and northeastern markets. The line was controlled by the PRR from the mid-Nineteenth Century, played a supporting role in the northeastern railroad wars of the Gilded Age, and was absorbed by the Pennsy in 1919.
Baggage Cart, Reading Railroad. The Railroad Museum's collection ranges from the massive to the miniscule. This simple cart might seem to be on the lower end of that scale, but for the railroad it represents. The Reading Company dominated Pennsylvania's Anthracite Coal region -- politically, economically, and socially -- for over half a century. The Reading Company gave us the Molly Maguires, the Wooten Firebox, and the Mother Hubbard locomotive.
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