Recently in trains Category

York Daily Record image of 1976 Freedom Train in York

In my recent York Sunday News column and blog post on the very successful visit of the 1948 Freedom Train, I said that the 1976 Freedom Train didn't stop here. That wasn't quite accurate, as pointed out by a reader who said that her dad was an engineer on the train, and the family saw him when it stopped here. It did stop, just not for long.

York wasn't on the exhibit schedule, but the 1976 Freedom Train did do a brief "whistle stop" here on July 1, 1976. It wasn't open to the public, but paused for perhaps 45 minutes. It on the way to the Harrisburg area stop at New Cumberland from July 2-5 from the previous stop of June 29-30 at Cumberland, Maryland. One reason, perhaps the main reason, for the stop seems to have been so Mamie Eisenhower could get off the train and be driven back to her home at Gettysburg,where she had earlier boarded.

The York Sunday News editorial that week had read:

York Welcomes the Freedom Train--that's the title of the 40 page narrative report written for York's 1948 Freedom Train Committee by Anna Lynch Morris. The cover above shows the streamlined train that carried precious documents of freedom on a nationwide tour from 1947 to 1949.

York Countians embraced the opportunity with their usual enthusiasm and organization. They even rolled out York's Liberty Bell for the opening. A special train car filled exclusively with York County history was put together by staff and volunteers of the Historical Society of York and displayed alongside the freedom train. Downtown merchants gave out information on the history of their locations, such as the Bon-Ton, site of Hall & Sellers printing press and Woolworth's, site of a German Reformed church service attended by George Washington. Schools were involved with displays and programs, including radio broadcasts. The list of activities goes on and on.

See below for my recent York Sunday News column on the October 9, 1948 Freedom Train visit and for more photos of the train and crowd. The photos were taken by Gazette & Daily newspaper photographers that day.

Please share your own memories of that historic visit in the comment section below.

York's Liberty Bell at the Freedom Train Stop

The other evening I was talking to a childhood friend who now lives in California. She said that her son and his family, who have just moved to Pennsylvania, recently visited the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. My friend remembered seeing a Liberty Bell in York when she was a child, while touring the Freedom Train during its stop in York in the late 1940s. She wondered if that bell was the Philadelphia Liberty Bell or a replica.

I did some internet searching and found an extensive web site on both the 1947-48 Freedom Train, which stopped in York October 9, 1948 and the 1975-76 Freedom Train, which only paused for about 45 minutes on the way to Harrisburg. That web site and others revealed that a double-sized Liberty Bell was cast, at the same London foundry that cast the original, especially for the 1976-76 Freedom Train. It now sits in front of Union Station in Washington, DC. The 1947-48 Freedom Train seems to have displayed mainly documents, not artifacts.

So then, what did my friend remember from 1948?

York County has had a good share of visits from U.S. Presidents. In one of a series of recent posts on presidential visits to York County, Jim McClure mentioned that William Howard Taft spoke to Yorkers from the back of a train. Click here for more on Taft's visits.

The photo postcard above, recently donated to the York County Heritage Trust Library/Archives, was sent by one of the members of the crowd to a friend.
It is addressed to Miss Mary Roser, Glen Rock, PA and was sent from Daniel Knaus, 258 E. King St. It was postmarked at York, Pa on April 6, 1910.

The message, written on both the front and back reads:

There was a lot going on in the Delta area in October 1877, as reported to the York Press by their Delta correspondent. For example, temperance meetings were flourishing there.

Sad news was received from the Black Hills that Dr. P. A. Dinsmore, of Peach Bottom, had passed away. The correspondent doesn't say what Dinsmore was doing in South Dakota, but it was the height of the gold rush in the Black Hills, so perhaps he had gone there to seek his fortune. (Did you know engineers with Custer, in 1874, are credited with discovering and spreading the word about the gold in those hills?) Click here for more on the Black Hills gold rush.

The difficult excursion of local citizens to the York Fair got the most coverage:

Dr. William Bigler stars in one of my favorite examples of how easy it was to get just about anywhere from here with the public transportation of over a century ago. At 2:30 p.m. February 5, 1890, Dr. Bigler simply stepped on the train near his home in Springvale (Windsor Township). A few days later he arrived at his son’s residence in Orlando, Florida. Simple, huh?

(See below for my previous Sunday News column on the multi-talented Bigler family.)

The “RAILROAD TIME TABLE” below from the November 20, 1877 Gazette shows how often trains left and arrived at York on the several railroads that connected here. That doesn’t even begin to address the multitude of stops made at every little hamlet along the way.

What is historical mitigation? A simplified example is that when a structure that might have some historical value is demolished, something is done to compensate for that loss.

When the Sovereign Bank Stadium in York, bounded by George, North, Queen, and Arch streets, quite a few structures were torn down. Some of these were railroad-related, so the York County Industrial Development Authority, with the research assistance of Justine Landis, put together a walking tour History of Rail in York, Pennsylvania. The free brochure, which is available at several sites, including York County Heritage Trust, points out ten sites in the area of historical significance, some of which are no longer standing.

The above images from the 1985 York Daily Record story were supplied to the newspaper by Gary L. Klinedinst.

A few older folks might still remember the spectacular train wreck at Centerville, just outside of Glen Rock that Friday afternoon of April 2, 1920. A February 1985 York Daily Record article captured Rev. Millard R. Kroh’s vivid memory of the day.