As a lover of the old parts of America, this trip out east took us past farms, and country towns. Through old factory districts and past the ruins of the railroads glory days of steam. It was an amazing way to peak into the past and see the parts of towns hidden from the view of everyday life. These tracks took you into the past, because unlike the parts of most towns frequented by cars & trucks, no local authorities are demanding these areas be cleaned up and modernized. There’s no new strip malls to entice the train passengers to get off at the next stop. It’s gritty limestone retention walls, old wooden train depots now used as storage sheds for landscaping companies. Along with big brick warehouses with rotted-out wooden platforms next to a track that doesn’t connect to the main line. You can almost see the workers packing old box cars, but you don’t see that from the street.

One of the benefits of traveling by train is, unless you’re really in a hurry, being delayed isn’t that big of a deal, because well, you’re on a train. During one of the delays we had on the trip to D.C. we were practically stopped next to these hulking ruins of a factory of some sort in rural Pennsylvania. While we didn’t slow down long enough for me to get my camera, I made a note of where this place was and on my next journey out east I took a detour from Northern New York to go see it. Turns out that factory was the A. Overholt Distillery in Broad Ford, Pennsylvania.