With the return of Fourth of July fireworks to Pottstown’s Memorial Park comes a unique way to view them, from the historic Colebrookdale Railroad.
On the days surrounding Independence Day, the Colebrookdale will be hosting an old-fashioned barbecue in the Boyertown railroad yard.
On the Fourth, all trains will feature live music with an opera singer performing patriotic songs, as well as home-made old-fashioned root beer, sarsaparilla and birch beer.
The 8 p.m. train on the Fourth will travel to Pottstown for the fireworks.
Tickets for “The Star-Spangled Express” range from $45 for adults to $5 for toddlers under 2 and are already beginning to dwindle.
“We strongly recommend advance reservations,” said Nathaniel Guest, president of the Historic Colebrookdale Railroad Preservation Trust.
It will mark the railroad’s triumphant return down the full length of its track to Pottstown.
Two things have kept it away.The first was construction of new track, specifically the siding on which the Secret Valley Line excursion trains will rest when the historic station planned for Memorial Park is moved down from its current location in Birdsboro and renovated.
In September, The Commonwealth Financing Authority approved a $676,029 grant for the station project, which is expected to require nearly $1 million to complete. Guest said progress is being made toward raising the $250,000 needed to match the grant “but any help is of course always welcome.”
In the meantime, projects like building the new sidings have been undertaken.
“By the end of the year, we will have spent $1.3 million on upgrading and repairing track all along the line,” Guest said.
The second issue limiting the railroad’s access to Pottstown was a minor accident with the railroad’s bridge where it crosses Old Glasgow Road, adjacent to the old David Brothers Scrap Yard, which is now the railroad’s new repair and maintenance shop.
“It was one of our trucks, a stone truck that was bringing stone to put as ballast on the track and the driver forgot to put the bed down,” Guest explained.
“So, in an abundance of caution, we decided to make sure the bridge was inspected to make sure it was still safe,” he said.
The railroad is also trying to raise money, specifically about $16,000, to obtain and restore an historic dining car from the scrap heap.
Built in 1914, it’s called the Lion Gardiner car and was one of the prime luxury dining cars for the famed 20th Century Limited, which Guest called “one of the most famous railroads in America” that ran between New York and Chicago before people took airplanes instead.
It is that legendary train’s last surviving car.
“It doesn’t have any specific connection to our railroad except that it is in the right historic context for the restorations we are doing,” he said.
“It’s the last of its kind, it’s nationally significant and it’s on the threshold of going to the scrapper,” Guest said, due the track on which it rests being reactivated soon and the car is “in the way.”
The railroad is using an on-line “fundly” campaign to raise the cash and so far has just over $4,000 raised from 42 donors.
You can access the site at https://fundly.com/save-the-lion-gardiner-1 and make a tax-deductible donation online.
