One Saturday afternoon in late July we took a ride on the oldest locomotive in America. Strasburg railroad in Lancaster has been operating since 1832.
I booked three tickets, $17 each for me, wife and mother-in-law. My infant son rode the train for $2. Upon arrival we were greeted by a friendly staff who checked us in and directed us to the platform. Before entering the platform another friendly staff took our temperatures to make sure we weren’t overheating from the July heat.
Signages for social distancing and wearing mask while on the station were posted everywhere and we heeded.
After a brief walk on the platform we found our open air car, one or two cars behind the steam powered rail engine. We boarded and sat comfortably on a wooded seat organized in two rows. Immediately arrived a gentleman with a bunch of leaflets in hands and asked if we spoke Hindi. Soon we realized that the gentleman wanted us to read some religious scripts. After we replied we didn’t speak Hindi in English, he handed us one leaflet in English and left.
Soon the century old train started roaring and we realized it wants to get going. The train slowly left the platform after emitting a huge plume of black smoke in the air.
The one way ride was around 20 minutes and it took us through acres of corn fields, woods, and rural areas in Strasburg. We came back the same way. We expected that the train would take us through Amish villages and we’d see their activities while sitting on the train but unfortunately it didn’t happen.
Although we didn’t see what we’d hoped to see, the 45 minutes ride on the oldest train in America gave us plenty of entertainment anyway.
SHAHED I. NOYON 
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