Where should I go?

[Conrail]

I'm coming up on my 12th b-day and every 4 years my family takes a train ride. On my 4th B-Day my family took a train ride to Altoona then on my 8th B-Day my family took a train ride to Harisburg. So where should I go? I'm open for suggestions. :huh: :huh:

 

[Guest]

how about vermont? or maybe to washington dc for the day ?

 

[PRR 60]

Trevor:

I guess the choice depends on whether your family wants to stay in a hotel overnight. Since you will start your trip in Lewistown, you are pretty limited in options for a one day Amtrak out and back ride. With the schedule of the Pennsylvanian, getting back the same day means going no further than Harrisburg to the east or Altoona to the west, and you have already done that. But since you, at 12, will not be a little kid any more, maybe you can talk your family into a night in a hotel.

If you can, I suggest heading to Philadelphia for a day, spend the night at a downtown hotel, and head back the next day. The Franklin Institute is a great science museum with the famed walk-through heart, a huge steam locomotive right inside the building, and an Omnimax theater with pretty neat movies. And, since you are obviously a train fan, you will love 30th Street Station. You also could have dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe which is located in what once was another major Philadelphia train station, Reading Terminal.

Going west is not quite as good for seeing something in the city. Pittsburgh is a great city, but the train does not get you there until evening and, except for Sunday, leaves early morning. Not much time for fun there, but you would still have a great train ride and you will go around Horseshoe Curve. If you stay at the Sheraton Hotel at Station Square you will have freight trains passing right by your hotel all the time. That alone is fun for a train fan! Pittsburgh hotels are also a little cheaper than Philadelphia hotels.

So, those are my two suggestions. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. And, just a little early, Happy Birthday! One more year and you're a teenager!

Bill

Franklin Institute

Station Square

 

[GG-1]

Aloha Trevor

Think I agree with Bill about the Ben Franklyn Museum. I was about your age when I first drove the locomotive all of ?15 feet, Still fresh in my mind 40+ years later.

Happy Birthday, Good Luck you may get to drive a Maglev train.

Eric

 

[Conrail]

Thanks guys but my family can only afford to go as far as those places I said in my earlier post and my dad is trying to talk me in to riding a stupid bus to Latrobe, wander around, and then go back by train. The reason I don't want to take the bus trip is because the owner dosen't need that money and Amtrak needs that money.No offense to anyone that works with buses. B)