Arrive To: Individual arrivals and check ins. Program registration with Program Coordinator

Dinner: A delicous dinner is included this evening next to the hotel.

Evening: Program Orientation with coordinator

Lodging: Country Inn of Lancaster

Meals Included: Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is included at the hotel this morning.

Morning: Everyone: Explore all of the great trains at the Railroad Museum of PA led by a museum historian. Following our exploration of the museum stock with our guide, we visit The Railway Education Center which will provide stimulus, planned learning through hands-on experience that may include visiting the rail station, building a section of track, shoveling coal into a locomotive’s firebox, and board a vintage passenger coach. Alternate stops can include sorting mail in the Railway Post Office, inspecting trains as freight conductors, and loading and unloading baggage from a vintage passenger train.

Lunch: A picnic lunch is served on the grounds of the Strausburg Railroad.

Afternoon: Enjoy an afternoon journey aboard the Strasburg Railroad. The Strasburg Railroad, a historic operating steam railroad located directly across the street from the Railroad Museum, runs their train rides in vintage coaches, mostly with steam locomotives. The rides are well narrated, with great views of Amish farmlands. Taking a trip on the Strasburg Railroad is an experience not to be forgotten!

Dinner: EVENING EXCURSION: Tonight a local guide takes us to a real Amish home for a traditonal Amish Meal. Following dinner he will take us through the true Amish countryside with a quick stop on an Amish Farm before sunset where you will meet the local farmers.

Lodging: Country Inn of Lancaster

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is included this morning.

Morning: FIELD TRIP: This morning we travel to York, PA to Steam into History on the Northern Central Railway. Steam into History, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that operates a steam train to chronicle the role York County, PA., played in Civil War history and to promote the area as a tourist destination. We will also visit with the Harrisburg National Railroad Historical Society. Here, we learn about the Harris Interlocking Tower which was vital in traffic control through what was once a maze of tracks at the north end of the Harrisburg Passenger Station. This tower used an Interlocking Machine to control all signal and switches in the area with 113 levers.

Lunch: Lunch is included today at nearby restaurant.

Afternoon: Excursion: This afternoon we travel to Middletown, PA to visit the Hummelstown Railroad. Enjoy this 11 mile train ride along the Swatara Creek, while learning the history of the area. Passengers board our 1920's vintage, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western coaches at our 1891 Freight Station in Middletown, Pennsylvania. After leaving Middletown, the train follows the towpath of the historic Union Canal and alongside the peaceful Swatara. The narrator relates the history of the Canal (completed in 1827), the location of Canal Lock #33, a century old limekiln and the folklore about Horse Thief Cave. On the return trip, you will enjoy a “sing-along” of tunes from the railroading days, as well as fun songs for young and old alike.

Dinner: Dinner is served at a Dutch Wonderland.

Evening: EVENING: This evening enjoy a night at Dutch Wonderland! Since opening on May, 20, 1963, Dutch Wonderland has consistently been recognized as a premier family amusement park and has been voted one of the Top 5 Best Kid’s Park in the World by Amusement Today magazine. We invite you to plan a visit to find out why generations of families have visited us and proclaimed us to be A KINGDOM FOR KIDS! There’s something for everyone when it comes to rides and attractions! Just measure your precious gems to determine what ride height category they fit into, then look for that gem symbol to easily distinguish which rides are for you! Make sure to pay attention to the additional ride restrictions listed and ask an attendant if you need help or have questions.

Lodging: Country Inn of Lancaster

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is included this morning at the hotel.

Morning: FIELD TRIP: The Pioneer Tunnel is a horizontal drift mine. Its level tunnel runs 1800 feet straight into the side of the Mahanoy Mountain. You make the trip riding in open mine cars pulled by a battery-operated mine motor. The mine is inspected daily by the mine's foreman and periodically by state mine inspectors. The temperature inside the mine averages 52 degrees, so a sweater or jacket is recommended. Deep inside the mine, you will alight from your car and follow your miner-guide as you are given an explanation of how coal is mined. There are storyboards inside the mine depicting the mining operation. Your guide will point out the numerous coal seams and describe various configurations of passageways, some cut from solid rock in order to reach the coal. The trip is educational as well as entertaining. Next, travel back through time on an old-time narrow gauge steam locomotive, the Henry Clay. Built in the 1920's, The Henry Clay takes you on a scenic three-quarter mile ride around the side of Mahanoy Mountain to show you another kind of mining called strip mining. You'll visit the Mammoth Stripping, an area where an unusually thick seam of anthracite known as the Mammoth Vein outcrops to the surface of the earth. Here, in days gone by, monstrous steam shovels ripped out millions of tons of coal from the exposed vein and left a wall of solid rock 150 feet high extending westward as far as the eye can see. Much of the coal was pulled out by the narrow gauge predecessors of our own Henry Clay, a lot of it on the same track bed. Learn about the Centralia mine fire as you gaze across the valley to find smoke rising out of the ground. This perpetual underground fire has resisted all attempts to extinguish it, and has necessitated the relocation of many residents. Nearby is a relic "bootleg" coal hole. This and others in the area were dug by men who were willing to defy trespass laws and brave cave-ins to obtain a few bags of coal to sell or heat their homes.

Lunch: A picnic lunch is served at Pioneer Tunnel Cafe.

Afternoon: FIELD TRIP: This afternoon you and your grandchild will have a wonderful opportunity to explore the Eckley Miners Village. Here you will learn about the Pennsylvania Coal Industry. Explore the many village buildings and equipment including the schoolhouse, steam shovels and the company store. This exciting visit will let you understand the life of a coal miner in Pennsylvania and its connection wth the railroads in PA.

Dinner: Dinner is included at the resort.

Evening: Evening Activity: TBD

Lodging: The Woodlands Inn & Resort

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

Breakfast: Breakfast is included this evening.

Morning: FIELD TRIP: Enjoy guided exploration of Steamtown which concludes with a train ride. Established by an act of the United States Congress on October 30, 1986, Steamtown officially opened to the public in the summer of 1995, and celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2005. Congress established Steamtown to interpret the story of main line steam railroading between 1850 and 1950. Much of the collection of steam (and a few diesel) locomotives and freight and passenger cars was originally part of Steamtown USA. That collection was originally assembled by the late F. Nelson Blount and was located in several places in the northeast United States before moving from Bellows Falls, Vermont, to Scranton in 1984. Blount's death in an airplane accident in 1967 had cut off the main financial support for Steamtown USA, but much of his original dream to have a museum in a working railroad yard with excursions on steam trains and a functional locomotive shop has been realized at Steamtown NHS.

Lunch: Lunch is served at the lovely Lackawanna Radisson Hotel, which was the grand DL&W Railroad Station.

Afternoon: Excursion: Enjoy self guided exploration at the Electric City Trolley Museum in Scranton. The Electric City Trolley Museum Association is a volunteer non-profit group that supports the activities of the Electric City Trolley Museum in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA, at the Steamtown National Historic Site. The association is an outgrowth of predecessor preservation groups including Buckingham Valley Trolley Association and East Penn Valley Traction, which conveyed to the museum most of the trolleys and artifacts in its historic collection. Association members support the Electric City Trolley Museum with their time, talent, trolley expertise and contributions. The Electric City Trolley Museum Association is IRS recognized as a 501(c)(3) registered non-profit organization.

Dinner: This evening we enjoy dinner at a local restaurant or at the hotel.

Lodging: The Woodlands Inn & Resort

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner