Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad

Sorry, I want to support such endeavors, but the scenery is über lame. Nothing but uninteresting woods. No former mills, no former stations other than the one you board at.
The line is mostly built on or next to a former canal, but unlike the Blackstone Bikeway in RI, which is not Tourist RR but is also built on a canal towpath, there is not one interesting trace of it left.
Even the Hobo RR in NH at least has that one cool Boston an Maine Bridge, even though the rest of the ride is a snorefest through the weeds. This one doesnt even have that.

My family of four really enjoyed riding this train in the summer. However, we were disappointed with their Polar Bear Express. We had such high hopes, and it just fell short. The ride was WAY too long for young children, especially when it’s dark and there’s nothing to see. Both of my children, and us, we’re bored to tears… literally for my three year old who usually loves trains. Santa was really not friendly and didn’t even interact with the kids. We will not be riding again.

Have you ever come to a party thinking that you were invited only to be the one person that no one knew or that knew no one?
That was sort of like our experience at M&H the Sunday before Memorial Day.
We were going to be in the Hershey area so we decided to go for one on the their caboose rides which are listed under the «special events» section on their website.
I called the day before, since the website mentions that you should try and make a reservation for all special events, and the woman I spoke with was a wee bit on the curt side. When I asked her about making reservations and when I told her it was for four people she quasi-​snapped at me something to the effect of don’t worry about it or don’t bother with it just show up 20 minutes early as that was enough time before more or less hanging up on me.
We showed up about 40 minutes early and the same woman I spoke with the day prior was outside on the station platform looking for someone or something and she was clearly annoyed that I was there bothering her looking to buy tickets.
We took care of the transaction and briefly drove to a local Rite Aid for a few things like water and air conditioning while killing some time.
Upon returning we parked in the same space, I say space loosely as their are no spaces with everything being in an unmarked stone lot, and started to wonder if the ride was happening as no additional cars had come and the turnout looked sparse.
We were told to make our way down to a track running along Brown Street and that the train would meet everybody there. Well almost everybody because as the two caboose were being pushed to the meeting spot we noticed that there were people already aboard the one caboose and naturally they were sitting up in the cupola which of course meant that my kids were disappointed because they couldn’t ride up high and the people in those seats never moved.
(Apparently they were friends of the owner/​crew and no the second caboose did not have a cupola to ride in.)
As for the ride itself we started off by going East along the Swarta Creek and the scenery is pretty much non existent on this part of their line. You pass their one freight customer, some homes that were condemned after one of the creek floods, and other than that it’s just a whole bunch of trees and garbage along the track side.
We eventually got to an abandoned farm where we stopped and that’s where the crew started to want to push/​coherece everybody to ride together in the same caboose. So the six of us in the one caboose obliged and rode together with the eight or so from the other caboose.
As we started to go towards the station the one crew member kept insisting on shutting the back door because he said the horn from the engine was too loud. The problem with that of course is when it’s almost 100 degrees out that’s pretty damn stupid. Another crew member came and she reopened the door but the closing and opening routine happened two or three more times.
Eventually the «highlight» of the trip is that we passed the station where we started and then proceeded to do some street running down Brown Street where we crawled along at walking speed while a crew member was walking in front of the train stopping traffic as we crossed a few intersections.
We eventually came to a set of tracks where the M&H interchanges their freight cars with NS and we waited for an Amtrak train to go by after which we returned to the station.
Now all of that sounds great except that we were unable to see most of it.
The owner and the majority of the crew and their friends on board were standing in the aisles/​front door way so that no one towards the rear could see a thing and one of the other paying passengers was taking up the majority of the rear doorway taking pictures.
So we missed a lot because the owner and company were too busy foaming at the mouth at things they have no doubt seen a million versus the few paying customers they had who couldn’t see much because of them.
When we got back there was no thanks for riding or really any of that stuff.
The trip was just over and other than a brief speech about waiting for the train to stop and about being safe that was it.
We’ve ridden the majority of tourist railroads in the Tri-​State areas and would go back to all of them without hesitation except for M&H.
Rude and surly staff in the station, two crew members having a door war without asking the paying customers what they wanted, the owner and crew obliviously blocking the aisles so that the paying customers can’t see and they couldn’t be bothered to move because they were too busy playing trains apparently.
That kind of crap doesn’t fly at Strasburg, Kempton, or even at Steamtown.
Forever is really long time but I can’t imagine a scenario in which we would return to the M&H. Maybe their Santa Trains or their regular excursions are better but I don’t think we’ll be around to find out.

Took the family for a Santa train ride. 1 ½ hours long ride (one of the longer ones in the area)! Live Christmas music! Christmas stories. Nice visit from Santa with a gift for each child plus pictures. Bring your camera, they do not take the photos.
The trains are old and run down a little, but clean! The service staff at the front desk was not very polite and seamed to have a edgy attitude toward everyone, not just me. The staff on the train was much better, all smiles and and full of railroad history.
They have rides year round at different times and for special events. It is well worth the time and money to take a ride if you like trains or your kids do. Don’t forget to give a little extra donation to help them fix the trains up some.