Steam & Excursion > Robbery Sunday at the Strasburg Rail Road

To my dismay, I was witness to robbery at the Strasburg Rail Road on Sunday
during the 4 PM excursion.

Armed men boarded the train, apparently by the new picnic grove at Leaman
Place and harassed passengers for their cash and jewelry. When the train
arrived at Cherry Hill, the sheriff and his deputies seemed to gained the
upper hand and were able to arrest and de-train the robbers. Fortunately,
there were no reported injuries. What a harrowing experience.

Humor, like these images, captured on the dark side.

/Mitch



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/14 06:55 by Mgoldman.

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Bonnie and Clyde, the gang and the sheriff!

At the time of purchase, passengers are given fake jewelry and other
items to hand over during the robbery - a nice adventure and something
out of the ordinary at the Strasburg Rail Road!

/Mitch

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I know this is all supposed to be in good fun but, to be honest, this looks all too similar to actual robberies that occur on the transit systems in many cities.

Couldn't SRR come up with something that doesn't involve pointing guns at their passengers?

Dosen't this conflict with the non-violent traditions of the Amish?

Maybe I'm a square but the chicken and rice soup in the restaurant, riding in an open car behind the locomotive, and the chance of meeting an Amtrak run were enough to bring me back for another visit.


In any case, thank you for sharing the news and the high quality photos.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/14 00:29 by rrhistorian.

OMG, call the PC police. The anti-gun poster is probably the same guy who ratted out the little girl for bringing a toy "Hello Kitty" plastic gun to school. Most tourist railways...like it or not...do many special promotions to lure in the crowds be it Thomas, Polar Express including Santa (can I say Santa?), or simulated robbery. In the U.K. they even have WWII weekends complete with armed troops etc. This event looks like it was well done. I'm sure the passengers were well aware the guns were fakes or not loaded. Personally I don't see the harm.

rrhistorian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I know this is all supposed to be in good fun but,
> to be honest, this looks all too similar to actual
> robberies that occur on the transit systems in
> many cities.
>
> Couldn't SRR come up with something that doesn't
> involve pointing guns at their passengers?
>
> Dosen't this conflict with the non-violent
> traditions of the Amish?
>
> Maybe I'm a square but the chicken and rice soup
> in the restaurant, riding in an open car behind
> the locomotive, and the chance of meeting an
> Amtrak run were enough to bring me back for
> another visit.
>
>
> In any case, thank you for sharing the news and
> the high quality photos.


I agree. Even though this may be in good fun, with all the violence we hear about going on in the world today it won't take but one nut case to board one of the trains and kill a bunch of innocent people including the actors and when the families of the victims start filing multi million dollar lawsuits, between that and the fallout from the news media the Strasburg Railroad will have to permanently close it's doors. A word of friendly advice to anyone on here connected to this railroad, I'd drop this idea like a hot rock and replace it with something else that doesn't involve guns at all.

Well I liked it Mitch! The world is getting way to PC for me.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/14 04:31 by CPengineer.

The only minor issue that came to my mind was, what is the current "license to carry a concealed weapon" law in Pennsylvania? Some unsuspecting protective citizen could have been caring a REAL & LOADED weapon.

Great...that's just great. The Strasburg going into train robberies now. What, no stage coach and horses? FYI, Bonnie an Clyde used as 1932 Ford, not a model T. Everything for kids and marketing. I guess pure steam doesn't attract enough kids anymore in this two thumb world we now live in. Steam locomotives are no longer part of the transportation business...they are part of the entertainment business. Just as long as the time for the ride doesn't exceed 1-hour. Mom and other grown ups don't want to be "locked up" for longer than that.

HotWater Wrote:
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> The only minor issue that came to my mind was,
> what is the current "license to carry a concealed
> weapon" law in Pennsylvania? Some unsuspecting
> protective citizen could have been caring a REAL &
> LOADED weapon.


That's another valid point HotWater. Look, I'm not trying to sound paranoid or anti gun because I'm not. All I'm saying is, is this type of "acting" could end up setting the stage for eventually being a real life tragedy looking for a place to happen.

One thing to remember is that this also benefits local charities as well. In addition to the fake jewelry and such, passengers are also encouraged separately to give money to the "robbers", which in turn is donated to a local organization (I can't remember which off of the top of my head). So this isn't just theater, but it's for a good cause as well.

Many, many tourist railroads do a "train robbery" special. It's not just Strasburg. Paranoia in this world has spread very far.

Jim Lipnitz
Morrisville, PA
Big Jim Video Productions

bigjim4life Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Many, many tourist railroads do a "train robbery"
> special. It's not just Strasburg. Paranoia in
> this world has spread very far.

You can say that again!

Thought this practice was fairly typical.

FYI - the guns had silly red stopper caps and plugs
on their ends and the robbers were acting in a near
comical fashion. All passengers were advised of the
event in advance and given fake jewelry to hand over.

The steam train ride IS enough for most folks but
this is just an added bonus for some. After all,
there were 5 earlier "regular" excursions and 6
the day before.

Kudos to the railroads finding other ways to attract
more business and finding new ways to keep people
coming back.

/Mitch

Well...hauling a freight train up a hill...slipping and finally stalling out. The crew cutting the train in half, laying sand ahead of the engine, and taking half the train up the hill to a siding. The engine going back for the second half of the train, laying more sand again, and making a run for it. At the top of the hill, reassemble the train and continue the journey. I've seen this operation repeated several times in the steam days in Mexico and Spain. Great action, smoke and noise! Now, this to me would be a new exciting way for people to come to a railroad. It sure brought me back in the early 1960's! (No guns or robberies were involved.)

Keystone1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well...hauling a freight train up a
> hill...slipping and finally stalling out. The crew
> cutting the train in half, laying sand ahead of
> the engine, and taking half the train up the hill
> to a siding. The engine going back for the second
> half of the train, laying more sand again, and
> making a run for it. At the top of the hill,
> reassemble the train and continue the journey.
> I've seen this operation repeated several times in
> the steam days in Mexico and Spain. Great action,
> smoke and noise! Now, this to me would be a new
> exciting way for people to come to a railroad. It
> sure brought me back in the early 1960's! (No guns
> or robberies were involved.)

Keystone, you know very well that if Strasburg or
nearly any other tourist line ran trains that way
they would not run any trains the following year.

Because Strasburg runs their trains as they do is
the reason we can run the charters we run.

/Mitch

Keystone1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just as long as the time
> for the ride doesn't exceed 1-hour. Mom and other
> grown ups don't want to be "locked up" for longer
> than that.

Clearly you don't have young kids.

I don't patronize any recreational/preservation railroad run that includes hold-ups--I'll ride their trains, but not during these silly hold-ups and train robbery events.

I have no issues with the 2nd Amendment, I just think the whole robbery thing is hokey BS.

I ride preserved and recreational railroads for the historic experience, not for corny theatrics.

Art House

SMH

While many of us on here will ride the train time and time again because we enjoy trains it's hard to get the non-railfan to be a repeat customer. Having these type of events will draw in people who want something entertaining to do that isn't necessarily train related.

OK guys...can we expect the N&W J to be held up on Christianburg grade, or maybe after just punching out of Montgomery Tunnel, while pushing a ball of coal smoke ahead of her while emerging?

"Robbery at the Strasburg"....I was just glad to find out that copper thieves or meth heads had not vandalized and stolen things for real.

True to Trainorders, some respondents have used their comments to attack me personally rather than engage with the ideas.

For clarification, I was taught firearm safety by my Grandfather, a WWII combat veteran. His principles were simple - a firearm is a tool with great power and it must be treated with great respect at all times. Never point a firearm at someone that you don't intend to harm. I don't think this is PC - the only PC that my grandfather knew was the Penn Central.

In the first photo, it looks like the fellow with the rifle is pointing it at someone in the coach. Whether or not this is intentional, I think it demonstrates an unsafe practice.

I like the idea of adding value to tourist railways. Since this year is the centennial of the start of WWI, what about having a Red Cross day or a charity relief day - with volunteers replicating the role of charities in collecting donations on trains and at stations during that conflict. It celebrates this positive chapter in American history vs. glorifying criminality.