The Choo Choo Barn - Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Lancaster County In Miniature!

Barn raising

Memorial Day Parade...

Talkin' baseball..

Whether you're a resident or a visitor to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, you will not want to miss a visit to the Choo Choo Barn and the other stores at the Shops Of Traintown. Children of all ages will enjoy watching the trains operating, the animated scenes, and seeing all the heritage of the area in miniature.

When you stop at the Choo Choo Barn, you will be absolutely amazed at over 1,700 square feet of Amish Country, right there in miniature. There are 22 operating trains and more than 150 animated figures and vehicles depicting the Amish Country's beautiful countryside. It's like seeing Lancaster County in miniature!

In The Beginning.... When George Groff, of Strasburg, Pennsylvania, returned home from World War II, he and his wife Florence bought their first train set for $12.50, to delight their two year old son Gary at Christmas. Like most model train layouts, the Groff's collection of trains and scenic items grew along with their family. During the 1950's, the Groff family has a very elaborate home train layout in their spacious basement, opening it up for the townspeople and the local elementary school during the Christmas holidays.

In 1961, George and Florence needed the extra funds college expenses would add to their family budget. The trains, scenery, buildings and animated figures that George had built became the basis for a part-time business to help defray the added financial burden...and thus, the Choo Choo Barn was born on Thanksgiving Day, 1961!

Since that time, visitors have been treated to an elaborately detailed display that takes you skiing down mountain slopes, under the big top of a fully animated three-ring circus, to an authentic Amish barn raising, down Main Street to view the Strasburg Memorial Day parade, and to a blazing house fire, complete with a fire truck responding to the call with siren blaring, and ensuing firemen squirting real water on the burning house!

The Next Generation....

When the elder Groffs retired in 1979, their youngest son Thomas, and his wife Linda, became the new owners, builders, and operators of the Choo Choo Barn. In 1983, the second generation business owners opened the Strasburg Train Shop, a model train hobby shop catering to the "layout builder". Tom says that "detail and originality are what has contributed to the Choo Choo Barn's success and popularity, and other modelers should be able to purchase the same items that are used in the layout." Due to this credo, their train shop has become known far and wide as the place to locate "oddball" things such as garbage cans and the like.

In 1989, Tom & Linda expanded the Choo Choo Barn into a complex of specialty shops, known as the Shops of Traintown, designed to appeal to all. The Groffs opened Railroad Books And Videos, which carries over 600 different books and video tapes devoted to both model railroading and to real trains, along with novelty items, t-shirts, glasses, signs, posters and many other items, all with a train motif. There's also a one-of-a-kind store devoted to Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends^TM merchandise, called Thomas' Trackside Station.

The Choo Choo Barn is open daily, April through December, and the Shops Of Traintown are open all year round.

The Choo Choo Barn
Route 741 East, Box 130
Strasburg, PA 17579
(717) 687-7911
Fax: (717) 687-6529
Email: info@choochoobarn.com