Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 10/23/2019
CHESTER – For the 10th straight year, the Chester Railway Station will be celebrating the fall season with its annual Hobo Harvest Festival Dinner.
Walking up to the station tourists are greeted by several train cars before heading into the main building, which is already set up with tables for the Festival Dinner.
Dave Pierce, one of the volunteers at the station, said the event started because the station was looking for a fun event for the fall.
“We figured it was a good time for a fundraiser, all of the proceeds go to the station which we’ve been maintaining and upgrading since we moved it across the tracks,” he said.
He explained the name combines Chester’s history with the railway and hobos and harvest for the fall season.
“There was quite a few hobos in Chester back in the day. Every train had to stop here and get pushed up the mountain so while the train was stopped hobos got on and off the train there,” he said. He added there is a famous ledge known as Tramp Rock and the hobos would hang out there waiting to hop on the trains.
He said they will be making homemade beef stew, blueberry pie, pumpkin pie, blueberry whoopie pies, apple crisp and they are offering tea, coffee and apple cider for drinks. “Everything’s made by our members, we actually have a full kitchen out in our blue caboose,” Pierce said.
Pierce said the station is mixing things up this year by having hobo reenactors from Storrowton Village come to the station starting at noon. “They’ll be singing songs and answering questions about life on the road so that’ll lead into the event,” he said.
Pierce said the railroad station offers plenty of activities throughout the year and people are more than welcome to book the station for weddings and other parties. He added people can also rent and camp out in the wooden caboose next to the station, which is part of the worldwide glamping website Glamping Hub.
“We get people from all over the world coming here to camp but we did it 20 years before glamping started,” he said.
In addition to booking events, Pierce said the Chester Railway Station will also be taking part in the town’s Rag Shag parade beforethe annual Christmas Party on Dec. 8.
He said the museum is open by appointment throughout the year and he is usually around to take people on a tour.
“I live across the street so really whenever I see anybody I come over. I can spend about an hour about how they built this place by hand,” he explained.
Pierce added the railway station’s goal is to help Chester.
“Ultimately it’s all about helping Chester out too with tourism. We’re generating a lot of that,” he said.