Many who know 85-year-old George Hart think of him as Pennsylvania’s Mr. Railroad. His photographs of the last days of railroading’s steam era, encyclopedic knowledge of Pennsylvania’s train history, tenure as the founding Director of the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum, and founder and President of Rail Tours, Inc. – the excursion railroad that began a rebirth of Jim Thorpe’s tourism industry - brought him recognition as a railroading giant and the affectionate nickname of “Casey.”

 Hart never was a train engineer, He never worked for a railroad, But from childhood, he loved trains, especially historic railroads and steam engines. Hart may be the original railfan—a name given to people passionate about railroading.

 Becoming a Railfan

Just a short walk from Hart’s boyhood Doylestown home was a turntable belonging to the Doylestown Branch of the Reading Railroad. The turntable was replaced by a wye when he was four, so his memories of the turntable must have been when he was three or four years old.

 “I enjoyed watching the operation of the turntable,” said Hart. “It was eighty feet long and I remember there was a locomotive on it. Three men pushed against a breast-high handle and I was impressed when they started that thing moving.”

 Hart was born on Feb. 12, 1919 to George – a Civil Engineer, and Kathryn Hart. In 1928, at the age of nine, his father took young George to ride the Switchback. It was the only time he rode this iconic line that ceased operations five years later on Oct. 31, 1933.

 Hart remembers starting the ride at the Switchback Depot on Packer Hill. “The conductor put his left foot on the car’s step and with his right foot on the platform gave a little push to start the car,” said Hart. “Gravity took it to the bottom of the Mt. Pisgah Plane.”

 He remembers the clickety-clack sound of the safety pawl ratcheting up the plane and later, the hairpin bend of the track at the Summit Hill Depot.

 “Most particularly, I remember out by the Jim Thorpe Water Plant on Lentz Trail, the Switchback car was stopped and there was a trolley car waiting. Anyone who wanted could get off and take the trolley to Flagstaff. No one made the trip. I felt so sorry for the conductor and the brakeman who had to make the trip up to Flagstaff without passengers.”

 In 1930, at the age of eleven, the Reading Railroad began electrifying its system. Hart borrowed his father’s Kodak 3A camera and began taking pictures of train engines. “I wanted to photograph the steam engines while they still ran before electrification was completed,” he said.

 George at George

Hart completed his education at George School, a secondary boarding school near Newtown, Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1937, George School offered him a temporary job cataloging the history of the school for its fiftieth anniversary. After he completed the project, he was hired as the Assistant Business Manger in 1941. He served in that capacity for 23 years, until 1964.

 During this period, Hart frequently rode trains, walked rights-of-way, and traveled to photograph the remaining steam railroads. Along the way, he befriended many railroad engineers and operations personnel and developed an “encyclopedic repertoire” of all things railroad.

 When the George School planned an excursion to see a production of Hamlet in Philadelphia, Hart suggested chartering a special train from the Reading Railroad instead of hiring six buses.

 Through contacts he made at the Reading, Hart volunteered to help the Public Relations Department produce historic speeches of their system. This led, in 1946, to the Reading Railroad granting Hart limited access to taking photographs of their steam engines.

 Iron Horse Rambles

George Hart was helping in the Reading’s Public Relations Department when they decided to offer occasional stream passenger excursions. These, they called the Iron Horse Rambles.

 When the Reading introduced the Rambles in 1959, they were the first in the nation to offer steam engine excursions. They put two steam locomotives in service. George Hare was asked to help plan the routes and write the “whistle stop scripts.” There were 61 Rambles run between 1959 and 1964.

 Disappointed when the Rambles ended, Hart began purchasing equipment to begin a railroad operation similar to the Iron Horse Steam Rambles. He called his tourist railroad, Rail Tours, Inc. and assembled his locomotives and passenger cars in York, Pennsylvania.

 RR Museum of PA

Over the years, Hart had published several articles on railroad history as well as compiled a collection of hundreds of photographs of the Reading and other railroads.

 In 1969, when the first state operated railroad museum in the United States, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, opened in Strasburg, Hart was appointed as the first director.

 Hart advised the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission on the site selection. He selected the engines and rolling stock and assembled materials and photographs, including his own collection. He retired as director in 1983.

 Rail Tours Inc.

Even as he was directing the Railroad Museum in Strasburg, Hart was building his own excursion railroad in York and running rail excursions in Maryland and York.

 After searching for a site suitable for his excursion railroad, Hart settled on Jim Thorpe. When he arrived on Labor Day of 1971, the town of Jim Thorpe was run down. Many downtown storefronts were vacant. “Only five people greeted us when we pulled into the Jim Thorpe station with our train,” said Hart, “We were here a week until the newspaper identified who owned the engine.”

 Although it was late in the year and Rail Tours had issued no publicity, they ran three excursions. “We had so many people that they were willing to stand,” Hart said. With cars filled to an estimated 700 people, Rail Tours ran a 32-mile round trip that included the 160-foot high trestle bridge between Hauto and Haucks.

 The interest in Rail Tours helped bring tourism to Jim Thorpe. From 1971 until 2004, Rail Tours has been one of the highlights of a visit to Jim Thorpe.

 At the end of 2004, Rail Tour’s lease with Carbon County expired and the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad indicted that they had plans to take over the Jim Thorpe excursion railroad business.

 “We are as interested as ever to continue,” said Hart. He continues to explore avenues to maintain the operation of his railroad in Jim Thorpe. If not, he will reluctantly seek another location for Rail Tours. After all, he is Mr. Pennsylvania Railroad.