Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum

10/14/2024

Thank you to everyone who came out to our annual CREEPY CABOOSE on Saturday, October 5! 👻🚂 We appreciate the community support of the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum and we hope you all had a spooky and fun time! 🎃🦇💀

🤗 Thank you to all the talented students from Valley School of Ligonier and Ligonier Valley High School for providing face painting, to esteemed blacksmiths Ed and Lance Appleby, to Ed Kelemen for sharing scary campfire stories, to our food truck vendors for the delectables, and to all our volunteers who made the event possible!

🍁We hope to make this fall event bigger and better each year! Please let us know any suggestions on what we could add for next year’s festivities!

🗓️ Save the date for the 7th Annual CREEPY CABOOSE: Saturday, October 4, 2025!

10/03/2024

The CREEPY CABOOSE will be pulling into the Darlington Station in only a couple of days! 🚂👻🎃💀🦇 It looks to be a beautiful weekend in the Ligonier Valley, so don't forget to visit the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum on Saturday, October 5 for this FREE family-friendly event featuring food trucks, a spooky storyteller, blacksmith demonstrations and MORE! Details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/545519991381793

11/06/2023

Thank you to Shirley McMarlin for including Denny Piper's conductor's cap as one of the 10 must-see items part of the "Westmoreland 250! Telling Our Story with 25 Objects" exhibit at Historic Hanna's Town & Westmoreland History! Check out the recent Tribune-Review story on this fascinating collection of artifacts, images and ephemera and plan a visit today! https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/10-must-see-items-in-hannas-towns-westmoreland-250-exhibit/

10/23/2023

HELP US REPAIR OUR ROOF! The Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association acquired the original Darlington station from Idlewild and Soak Zone in 2006 and restored it to as close to its original design, construction, and appearance as possible, opening to the public as the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum in 2010. Since then, one of the principal goals of our organization has been to maintain this historic building. We have not been able to do this without the invaluable Friends of the Ligonier Valley Rail Road.

Over the last year or so, rot has become clearly visible along the bottom of a portion of the perimeter of the porch roof. We need to repair the roof in the very near future to prevent further damage. We will need to balance maintaining the original, historic gutter design (in appearance) with an effective, cost-conscious repair.

We expect this project to be expensive, perhaps in the range of $25,000. We need help to make this happen. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation toward this necessary fix to our museum. We will recognize all contributions, and especially those that significantly help us make these repairs. Donations can be made online at www.lvrra.org/donate.php or checks can be addressed and mailed to the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association at P.O. Box 21, Ligonier, PA 15658.

10/19/2023

🗣UPCOMING PROGRAM ALERT! Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association board director Tom Irwin will be sharing the fascinating history of the Ligonier Lumber Company at the Ligonier Valley Library next Tuesday, October 24 at 6:00PM!

Join us next Tuesday (10/24) at 6pm for a presentation by Tom Irwin on the history of the Ligonier Lumber Company. Tom will discuss the railroad line that served the Ligonier Lumber Company from the mountains above Waterford to the mill on the Camp & Conference Center property. From the mill, lumber and other products were shipped on the LVRR to Ligonier and then out of the Valley.

10/18/2023

Did you have a spooky time at this year’s CREEPY CABOOSE? We sure did! 🚂🎃👻💀🦇

🧙‍♀️Thank you to our bewitching caboose hosts Pat and Gary Garrison and Beth Byers, blacksmiths Ed and Lance Appleby, storyteller Ed Kelemen, our talented student face painters, and our food truck vendors for entertaining guests and providing refreshments during our October 7th event!

🍁We appreciated the wonderful turnout from the community once again on a beautiful fall day at the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum. Thank you for joining us!

🗓️Save the date for the 6th Annual CREEPY CABOOSE: Saturday, October 5, 2024!

📷 by Adam Storey and David Byers

08/23/2023

Friends of the Ligonier Valley Rail Road are invited to join us at Giannilli's II in Greensburg on Saturday, September 16, 2023 for the first Annual Dinner since 2019! Social Hour begins at 5:30p.m. (cash bar), with dinner to follow at 6:15p.m. Our guest speaker will be author, journalist, historian, and LVRRA Board Secretary Jennifer Sopko. Tickets are $50 each and there will be a 50/50 drawing with proceeds benefiting the LVRRA Capital Fund. Checks can be made payable to "LVRRA" and mailed to LVRRA, P.O. Box 21, Ligonier, PA. 15658. RSVP by Monday, September 11, 2023. If you aren't a current Friend, and would like to attend, it's not too late to become a member: https://lvrra.org/memberships.php

07/24/2023

The July 5, 1912 wreck on the Ligonier Valley Rail Road was one of the worst accidents in Ligonier Valley history. However, out of that disaster also comes the fascinating story of 16-year old Besse Hoon, who miraculously survived the deadly collision between a passenger train and a freight train.

Learn more about Besse Hoon (yes, it's Besse, not Bessie), the 1912 wreck and what visitors can see and experience at the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum in the most recent episode of the "Highland Histories and Mysteries" podcast: https://www.golaurelhighlands.com/plan/podcast/histories-and-mysteries/

Thank you to Discover Westmoreland and GO Laurel Highlands for hosting Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association co-founder Bob Stutzman and board secretary Jennifer Sopko!

Image of Besse Hoon from the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum Archives. Image of 1912 LVRR Train Wreck, courtesy of the Pennsylvania Room, Ligonier Valley Library.

06/12/2023

Thank you to everyone who joined us Saturday night for “Railroad Rendezvous: An Evening of Music and History at the Darlington Station! It was a beautiful night and we enjoyed hearing American Songline - Cecelia "Cece" Otto perform an entertaining selection of songs that told the fascinating history of Prohibition. Thanks to accompanist Jennifer Kist for supporting Cece on keyboard. We hope you enjoyed their talents too! 😊🎶

Thank you to Myriam's Table Catering for providing the delicious appetizers, our craft vendors Laurel Highlands Meadery, Rusty Musket Distilling Co., Quinn Brewing Company and Glades Pike Winery for the adult beverages, and GO Laurel Highlands for financial support as part of Westmoreland 250. We also thank our board members and volunteers for organizing and launching this inaugural event. 🍻

Stay tuned for future events at the Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum! Please consider supporting our mission to share the history of railroading in the Ligonier Valley with an annual membership: https://www.lvrra.org/memberships.php. All funds benefit our museum operations, capital projects including an upcoming museum roof repair, plus education and preservation efforts. 🚂

06/09/2023

We are looking forward to seeing everyone TOMORROW NIGHT for "Rendezvous: An Evening of Music and History at the Darlington Station!" Advance admissions are still available at railroadrendezvous.eventbrite.com AND we are accepting WALK-IN admissions (cash, check or credit card accepted)! See you there! 😄🚂🎶🍻

📅 Saturday, June 10, 2023
⌚️ 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
📍 Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum