Steamtown Sets Railfest Activities

Steamtown National Historic Site will be holding a Railfest weekend on Sept. 2 and 3 featuring the theme of the transition from steam to diesel.

Diesel-powered excursions to Moscow, Pennsylvania, will run both days, departing Steamtown at 12:30 p.m. and returning around 3 p.m.

Other excursions will include shorter train rides on the Scranton Limited and an expanded schedule at the Lackawanna County’s Electric City Trolley Museum.

There will also be hand car rides, blacksmithing demonstrations, locomotive shop tours, presentations from railroad publishers, preservation groups, and entertainment by local musicians and other performers.

The Erie-Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society will an evening dinner and entertainment activity during after-hours events on Friday and Saturday.

A 7,500-pound 1925-built Whitcomb gasoline-powered locomotive will be on display. It is on loan from the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

The Railfest activities and programs are included in the park’s $7 daily entrance fee.

Leviathan Returning to Wellington for Excursions

The Leviathan is returning to Wellington over the Memorial Day weekend and will be joined by a replica of a Lincoln Funeral train car.

Illinois construction contractor David Kloke built the 4-4-0 No. 63 as well as a replica of the car that carried the body of assassinated President Abraham Lincoln from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Ill., in April-May 1865.

That train’s route took it through Wellington during the early morning hours of April 29 after it left Cleveland at midnight and arrived in Columbus at 7 a.m.

Between Cleveland and Columbus the train traveled tracks now owned by CSX and previously owned by the Big Four.

The Lake Shore Railway Association of Wellington will operate the Leviathan and the Lincoln Funeral Car over six miles of former Lorain & West Virginia trackage.

The excursion trains will include air conditioned coaches, a caboose, and an open air car (weather permitting).

Trains will operate May 23-25 at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., 3 p.m., and 5 p.m. A night photo session will be held at 8 p.m. on May 23 that will feature the Leviathan, the Lincoln Funeral Car and Civil War re-enactors.

Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 for children under 12 and $25 for seniors. Night photo session tickets are $50 and limited to 40 people.

Aside from building the Leviathan, Kloke also built the York, another 4-4-0 replica based in Pennsylvania at the Steam into History attraction near York.

He created the Lincoln funeral train car to mark the 150^th anniversary of Lincoln’s death. Kloke plans to begin tours with the car in May that will continue into the fall.

The tour of the Lincoln funeral train car will begin in Springfield, Ill., and visit many of the cities where the 1865 Lincoln funeral train stopped.

The touring replica funeral train car will have two lanterns that were used on the original funeral train.

For more information about the visit of the Leviathan and Lincoln funeral train car to Wellington, go to www.lsra.org.

Excusions From Lima to Run on Sept. 28

The Allen County Museum is sponsoring a series of excursions on Sept. 28 between Lima and Jackson Center. The diesel-powered trains will depart at 10 a.m., 12:45 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. from Lincoln Park in Lima and travel on a 42-mile roundtrip.

Tickets are $35 for adults and $20 for children under age 12. The consist of the train will include two locomotives and four coaches. The train will be able to accommodate 325 people.

Tickets may be purchased at the Allen County Museum or at trackside on the day of the excursion. For further information, go to:

http://www.allencountymuseum.org/ACM2/Ridin_the_Rails.html