Northern Central Railway rolls into the 1950s with two new (old) cars
YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) “We have educational, historical, fun, family fun, adventure excursions for every age range you can think of,” says Ashley Zimmerman, the Executive Director of the Northern Central Railway in York County. Over the past decade, they’ve been giving visitors a taste of what travel by rail was like in the 1800s, starting with their steam locomotive, the “William H. Simpson”, and building from there.
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“We started with two coach cars,” explains Zimmerman, “Now we have four 1800s coach cars that we’re very proud of.” Those four cars were built by the Railway.
Starting with an inaugural trip this Friday, they’re ready to offer visitors a trip to another era of passenger rail, with two cars from the mid-20th century. The two cars were both built by the Pullman Car Company of Pennsylvania.
“We really felt like we needed to broaden our, for lack of a better word, our product offering essentially to our consumers and what they can do. And we really want customers to come experience the railroad, but then come back for new experiences. So this allowed us to kind of broaden our offerings to the organization, to the county, to the community.”
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The two cars are being leased from Bill Hatrick, who has spent years restoring them. We started our tour in the lounge car, built in 1949. “This has been a labor of love,” he says. “When I first saw it, actually, it was a basket case. This whole beautiful lounge was gone. It was last used as a dance car. And so they stripped this beautiful lounge.”
“This is what I would call a streamlined moderne interior. A lot of people might say art deco, but I don’t think it’s quite correctly deco, but definitely streamlined moderne. And it’s just timeless.”
Some fixtures are original –
“There happens to be one table in the car. It’s on the back of the car. And you can see the four symbols of the deck of cards and that is an original.
-Others are meticulous reproductions, like a writing desk.
“Many, many railroads had lounge cars that would have a writing desk on board. I mean, you might be traveling three days or more, even going coast to coast. Certainly train travel is a little slower than flying and they would have the railroads would have their stationery envelopes, monogrammed, of course,” says Hatrick.
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Other amenities include a quarter circle bar-
“Very stylish and a very popular place on board the train.”
And behind the bar, a barber shop.
“Most of the railroads back in the day on their premium trains, especially the trains that would attract the business traveler willing to pay a little extra for the service, had barber shops on them. So he could avail themselves of the services here in the barbershop and not only a haircut and shave, but also a shower. The barber was in charge of the shower facilities. And so you could arrive dapper at your destination city, ready for your first appointment.”
The other car, built in 1950, isn’t quite as luxurious as the lounge car, but definitely comfortable for a long trip.
“This car is a 44-seat long-distance chair car. You might call it a coach, but a lot of railroads built nicer cars for overnight travel and typically called them chair cars. And I like that sounds a lot better than just coach,” says Hatrick.
The luggage racks are full of suitcases and boxes.
“Just for ambiance,” explains Hatrick. “I started collecting the older suitcases and even some of my friends joined in and would donate or say, ‘Hey, here’s a good buy.’ And we just filled a luggage rack with vintage luggage and everyone loves it. They’re even tagged with vintage authentic railroad baggage tags.”
The seats have lots of leg room and are spaced so you can tilt your seat back, so you won’t disturb the passenger behind you (too much).
Want to talk to friends or family behind you? No problem – the seats can be rotated. (Actually, this is so the railroads could run the cars back and forth without having to turn the cars around, but it makes it possible to have conversations without getting out of the chairs.)
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So how long will the two cars be at the railway? Both Hatrick and Zimmerman hope it will be quite a while.
“The people here are just tremendous. And the staff, the equipment, the 1880s or sixties impression, civil war era impression, whether they’re American type locomotive and their older passenger equipment, is just incredible to me,” says Hatrick.
“Our goal is to continue to add to the mid-century Pullman style cars, with a dining car eventually. So, this is a nice way for us to test those waters and see what other opportunities we have for growth and offerings,” says Zimmerman.
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