The Friends of the Stewartstown Railroad are proud to participate in Give Local York 2026, raising funds to restore historic Passenger Coach No. 1341 — and we need your help!

Our goal is to raise $15,000 to sandblast, prime, and repaint the exterior of this well-traveled railcar. This essential work will protect the coach from corrosion, preserve its historic character, and keep it in active service for passengers to enjoy during our excursion trains.

Coach 1341 is an important part of the Stewartstown Railroad experience, helping us share York County’s rich railroading heritage with families, visitors, and rail enthusiasts alike. Your support ensures this history continues to roll down the tracks for years to come.

Help Us Reach Our Goal

Every donation makes a difference in preserving this living piece of history.

Click Here to Donate to the 2026 Give Local York Fundraiser

Thank you for supporting historic preservation, education, and community heritage through the Stewartstown Railroad.

To All:

The Stewartstown Railroad Track Crew finished up its scheduled work for the year this past weekend! Frozen ground precluded tie work.

The track crew traveled to Hungerford Station and removed the switch points, frog and associated hardware remains from the switch that went into the old Chase Wire Cloth building, loaded them up and brought them back to town for reuse.

The crew cut two rails to length to fill in the holes created by the removed switch components, bolted them together and set a few spikes to hold the gauge, keeping the main track complete and usable for motorcar runs, inspections and track maintenance equipment.

This was a job that needed doing for some time!! Tie conditions there are poor, we will schedule a day for next year to put some ties in, from the station East.

The crew then returned to Stewartstown and replaced some loose and worn frog bolts in the frog of the lower wye switch in front of the enginehouse.

We also installed the rebuilt arm extension cylinder on the tie crane and removed a bad starter from the Plasser Tamper as well as doing a thorough Friday afternoon track inspection.

We will take a break over the holidays and start the new year with our first January work weekend on January 16, 17 and 18. What we do depends on the ground conditions and weather in the winter months. We will have inside and outside work planned so be ready to come out and help get us started in 2026!

Thanks to everyone who came out this year and helped maintain and improve our railroad! Our best wishes to everyone for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Regards,

Dave Williamson

To all From Dave Williamson, STRT President:

Happy Thanksgiving to all our volunteers and supporters! Thank you for your dedication and hard work on our historic railroad this year!  With 2026 ending, we will be holding the December Work Weekend, Friday through Sunday, December 5, 6, and 7.

On Friday, we will be working on the class I track, most likely installing more ties down by the coal bin. As always, this time of year, it depends on the weather!

On Saturday, we will be working on ties west of the Red Board, since the train will be running that day. There are 16 ties to install between the auto shop private crossing and the township building crossing. We are working to extend the big train run to the township building crossing, next. Extensive ditching, culvert installation and some tie work has already been done on this stretch.

On Sunday we will be working on the Plasser tamper in the enginehouse, there are damaged steel members underneath that need to be removed and replaced. We have the new steel beams and channels in stock. We will probably continue with other equipment work and maybe some inside repairs to the enginehouse itself! If we have a big crew, we can also go out and continue with more trackwork.

The track crew installed 50 ties in November; we are at about 300 for the year. Plus, the track crew raised and tamped a big low spot and gauged and spiked 20 previously installed ties. Every tie installed supports or rails, holds the gauge and gives our passengers a safe, smooth and fun ride!! We need to keep up this good work!!!

We are looking and hoping for good weather in the coming year, 2026 and plan on getting a good start to track work in the new year.

We have much planned to do, 250 maintenance and improvement ties in the class I track, extending the class I track up to Bridge 5, new ties on Bridge 2, improved track bed and new ties just before Mann & Parker Lumber Company, and spot work as needed, and resources allow on the west end!!

The tie crane is working much better, and we are having the articulated arm cylinder rebuilt. Next, we will remove the main hydraulic pump and get it resealed, it is leaking badly. The hi- rail dump truck is repaired and in service.

We will be working on and with the Nordberg Spiker and the Kershaw Ballast Regulator more next year.  They will help get more trackwork done, faster!!! All we need is you!! To come out and help push our progress!!!

The November 2025 work weekend is almost here, we will be working November 7, 8 and 9. On Friday we will be working on the class I track, we have some gauging and spiking to do and also fill the ballast car and load ties for Saturday.

On Saturday, we will go west to the Elm Street crossing, about MP 2 3/4, and we will install ties between the crossing and the I83 bridge. This area has seen no work since the late 1990’s and about 32 ties are needed to keep the line open for the motorcar excursions and maintenance vehicle traffic over the line.

Sunday will see more work out past Elm Street as needed or we will work to the west of the red board between the auto body shop and the township building.
Bring your lunch as we will be out on the line! The company will provide water and drinks!

It will be a beautiful fall day with cool weather to work in and a great opportunity to ride over most of the railroad and enjoy the scenery !!

The second work weekend will be November 22 and 23, expect more of the same depending on progress made this weekend.

We are trying hard to get as many ties in track as we can and also to get the big train out a little farther to the township building crossing, to finish out the year which is getting close!!

We will work on the class I track on available days when the big train is not running, there is much to do there as well!!!

Be ready for an early/ on time departure as the work train must clear the yard and be out well ahead of the excursion train for the day!!

All are encouraged to come out and help, more hands make the work easier and go quicker!!