Choo Choo Barn — Attraction in Strasburg Township

Saw the Ad for the Choo Choo Barn on FB the day before and decided to check it out. It’s a good 1hr and some change for us, but it was a beautiful day today so why not? When we got there it wasn’t crowded at all. Not surprising we saw more Adults than kids, but then again it was during school hours ! The front shop is filled with all kinds of toys, train items, kids books, kids conductor train hats, train whistles, etc. We bought the tickets online before going, the prices are so affordable. It’s too detailed to explain in great length but it’s MIND BLOWING!!! The overall display is HUGE - and they have multiple trains running . It’s modeled after Lancaster County which is super cool. Bless the people who took the time to animate, and the details they did were just out of this world. Every little detail was taken into consideration and they even give you a piece of paper that they ‘hide’ items within the display for you to find. You walk around the display and can find buttons to push to animate specific things that you have to look for. They even mock ‘night’ with dimming the lights and all the cars, trains, and towns are lit up. They also have a real house that catches ‘fire’ with a fire truck etc that comes to the rescue. For all those who need to check back in with their inner child, you’ll find them with their nose smushed to the glass watching with delight!! (And yes that’s my 40 yr old wife sitting in the kids train making me take a picture of her 😂)

They also have a fantastic Train Hobby Store, as well as an Ice Cream shop and Brewery on the grounds. Parking was easy and free . Definitely recommend to anyone with or...

If you love Lancaster and trains, you need to visit the Choo Choo Barn. It is absolutely magical.

If you haven’t been here, it's a giant recreation of Lancaster County with a ton of trains and moving parts. It has a circus, fairgrounds, cities, live fish, and even a miniature house on fire that firemen put out. It also has real places in Lancaster like Dutch Wonderland with a working monorail and the previous owner’s actual house. All of this is scaled down to fit on 1800 square feet.

I’ve been here at least 50 times, and everytime I’ve seen something new. Everything was built by hand by Tom Groff, who spent countless hours working on it. Outside, there is a sign that shows how it got started. It also has a gift shop, where they sell merchandise, toys, and an assortment of train things. They have a giant wooden train outside in the front, and a giant train on the sign.

It is also very reasonably priced, with the tickets being $12 for 12 and up and $8 for 11 to 3. Three and under goes free. It is in a very good location, with it neighboring a candy shop with amazing fudge and ice cream, a train shop where you can get materials to make your own miniature train layout, and a brewery called Bespoke Brewing. Behind the Choo Choo Barn are real life sized trains that no longer work but are very cool to go and look at.

Overall, this place gets 5 stars for the amount of work put into the layout, the nice workers, and the good location. I highly recommend coming here if you are in lancaster. If you do, you will leave...

Choo Choo Barn was a truly amazing experience that we had no idea existed right within the area of the Railroad Museum in Strasburg. We came in just an hour before closing in mid-April, so we fortuitously got to see the whole thing by ourselves with no other visitors, letting us stop and oogle at and take all the time we wanted looking at everything in the amazing layout.

Everyone we've talked to about the Choo Choo barn has been completely enamored by it, never knew it even existed, despite some living nearby or having visited the railroad museum just down the road!

You will surely have a wonderful time visiting the Choo Choo barn. Make sure to buy their DVD if you want to see close-up scenes and behind-the-scenes of how some things are made.

We will definitely want to come again in the future, and get to see what new things will have changed! With how much animated work goes into the scenes, it would not surprise me if an operable roller-coaster eventually...