Extraordinary Stories From An Ordinary Guy: The "A Trip On Ephrata's Shortline" Story

It was an ordinary day. Traveling with my grandson Caden in the Mountaineer. He has passed the weight limit for sitting in the front seat and it is so much more fun to have a front seat passenger than one behind me. Saw a few notices in the newspaper lately

Columbia's "O" gauge Lionel Railroad.

about train displays in a few local com- munities and today the two of us are going to check them out. The first stop is in a town only about 10 minutes from his house. Place called Columbia and the display is in the Columbia Historic Preservation Society building on Third St. Stopped for lunch first at a McDonald's then headed into Columbia from the east end of town. Caden saw the sign first that said we were on Walnut and Eighth Streets so he told me which way to head to find our destination. In the distance we could see the Susquehanna River and he figured that would be Zero Street if we reach that point. He thinks like his granddad, so he does. Turned left on Third and found that the parking lot was on the side of the building, but by the time we discovered that, we were already past the entrance to the lot. Went around the block and this time, as we made the turn onto Third, we discovered the alley into the lot was one way coming towards us. Another trip part-way around the block and in from the rear put us right were we wanted to be.

Photo by Caden at Ephrata. You can see the reflection in the
plexiglass of the penguin that was on his shirt. My wife thought
it was a logo on the building in the background.

Walked in the door and to the left we saw a wounded soldier in a wagon and an Indian standing above him on the second floor landing. Then I saw the 1863 Civil War Recruiting Poster and realized we were in for some fun. Gave a donation and headed towards the trains. Five minutes later we both found that the civil war relics were much more enjoyable than the train display. The "O" gauge Lionel Trains were nice, but the

One of the many bridges on the Ephrata layout.

layout was very small with just one rectangular piece of plywood and a few buildings to it. Spent maybe 20 minutes in the building and headed to the car for our next stop. Forty minutes later we turned onto Sugar Alley in the town of Ephrata, PA (pronounced F-ra-ta). The Short Line Model Railroad Club, started in 1980s in a storage unit in nearby Brownstown, is now located in the basement of a building off State Street.

Caden takes a shot while I capture him in action.

All HO-gauge trains and really neat layout. The fluorescent lighting has green drapes around it so it doesn't interfere with the ambiance of the train layout, if that's possible! You can tell right away that the scenery is the star of this layout rather than the trains. Caden was using my fixed lens Sony digital camera while I was taking shots with my larger DSLR Sony.

This shows some of the scenery as well as coal cars.

I think I can tell what he will be getting for Christmas next year from his grandma and me. The 60' x 36' layout was developed to look like the coal region of Pennsylvania. Boy, did they do a nice job. Even though the layout is still in the construction stage, as my friend Jerry in State College tells me that's the way all layouts are, it had remarkable trees and foliage on the steep mountains with tunnels that ran through them.

Young boy who was one of the train club members.

There were supposed to be 8 or 9 trains running on the 1,000 feet of track, but I think they exag- gerated both the numbers somewhat. One item that was really unique that I read about on their web page, but didn't get to see since the owner of the item wasn't there today, was a new train car called an iCar. Something brought about by Apple I assume that was placed in front of the engine and would hold an iPhone.

Another bridge with fisherman in the stream.

As the train traveled throughout the layout you became a passenger and saw exactly what the train engineer would have seen. The video I have added will give you an idea what it can do. Well, after about half an hour and at least 200 photos from the two of us, we left feeling much better about our day's journey into the world of miniature railroading. On the way home we both agreed that the professional display at a place called The Choo Choo Barn in Strasburg, PA is so much more that any amateur display we could ever visit. But our trip was a huge success. After heading to my place we downloaded the SD cards onto my Mac and enjoyed the day all over again, this time with Amah (our grandkids name for my wife). It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - a few more photos and the video from the iCar.