The "I'm Growing Old, But Not Up!" Story

Daughter Brynn, grandchildren Camille,
 Caden and Courtney

It was an ordinary day.  I have a car full of alleged train buffs heading to Strasburg, PA to visit the Choo Choo Barn.  With me is my beautiful wife, Carol, daughter Brynn, oldest son Derek, and my 3 grandkids which would be Courtney, Camille and Caden.  Last year Caden and I visited the Choo Choo Barn and thoroughly enjoyed it, but we are boys.  Taking a chance that the girls in our group will love a "boy thing" as much as we did.  First a few notes about the Choo Choo Barn.  It was officially started in 1961, but was originally born in 1945 in the basement of George Groff of Strasburg.  George had just returned from a tour of duty during WWII and had purchased a $12.50 Lionel train set for his two-year-old son Gary as a Christmas gift.  Yeah right!  My guess is he wanted it as much for himself as he did for his son.  Anyway, within a few years the train yard that resulted covered a large portion of his basement.  I'm sure the two-year-old did quite a bit of the work on it.  Before long the family was opening the display for neighbors and school groups during the Christmas holidays.  When the family grew and was ready for college, George realized he could use his very popular train display to help finance college tuition bills.  He wanted to expand the display so in early 1960 he bought a barn that was for sale along Rt. 741 just West of the Strasburg Railroad and the Choo Choo Barn was born.  It opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1961 to rave reviews, so to speak.  In other words, it was a hit.  It started with 6 trains, 6 animated figures and 600 square feet of detailed landscaping.  Over the next few years the display continued to grow as did the customers.  Tuition was achieved!  When the elder Groffs retired in 1979, Tom, the youngest son, and his wife, took over the operation of the business.  A lot has changed since the family train yard drew it's first customer.  Tom and his crew of workers enlarge the layout every year with more trains, scenery and animation.  They also close for a few days before Thanksgiving so they can "transform" the layout into a winter wonderland.  This year, being their 51st year, there are 51 Santas for kids and adults to try to find throughout the layout.  And boy was it fun to find the 51 Santas amongst the 1,700 square foot model train extravaganza, which includes 150 hand-built animations and 22 moving trains.  Displays such as a ski resort, softball field, baseball stadium with lights and bleachers, a full three-ring circus, Amish barn-raising, real goldfish in a few locations, a Boyscout campsite, a model of Lancaster's version of Hershey Park known as Dutch Wonderland, and my favorite, a house that catches fire about every 10 minutes and is put out by a nearby fire company.  Well, getting back to our visit, we paid our entrance fee and walked through the black curtain into another world.  The miniature world of "never-never" land where you never cease to age.  Let me tell you my wife's face was aglow as she looked over the enormous train display in front of her.  "Do you see this" and "look at that" was all she could say.  My daughter and granddaughters immediately started looking for the 51 Santas as well as pointing out some of their favorite items on the display to each other.  My son and grandson were having a great time pointing out just about everything in front of them.  And me ..... well, I was a kid all over again.  And I loved it!!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS- Check out some of the items on the fantastic train layout: 

George Groff working on his train yard.

Children gathering to view the basement train display.

Original sign directing customers toward the entrance.

Entrance as it now appears along Rt. 741

A partial view of the Choo Choo Barn layout.

Monument featuring Presidents of the USA.  Remember this is in miniature!

Train station showing the yellow Choo Choo Trolley and the Pennsylvania Railroad train.

Baseball stadium with lights and bleachers.  My second favorite display.

Ski slope and lodge at simulated nighttime.

Slumbering Groundhog Lodge tractor-trailer.

Part of the three-ring circus with many animated displays.

My favorite!  The fire engine is housed to the left in this photo and responds to the burning building about every ten minutes.  The fireman on the ladder chops a hole in the roof while the fireman which cannot be seen behind the tree sprays real water on the roof.  In the driveway of the home is another fireman saving a person.  The smoke that comes from the roof cannot be seen in this photo.  You'll have to see it for yourself when you visit the Choo Choo Barn. 

Workers make repairs to a steam locomotive.

Amish workers perform tasks as they rebuild a barn for a neighbor.  Many of the workers actually move.