Another 77 acres of farmland will be preserved thanks to a $25,000 gift from Strasburg Rail Road to Lancaster Farmland Trust.

The Amish dairy farm in Paradise Township is the second farm the railroad has helped preserve according to Karen Martynick, Farmland Trust executive director. The first was in 2005, she said.

"This is a model partnership," she said. "It benefits both organizations and Strasburg Rail Road has been very concerned about preservation in the area, and they put their money where their mouth is."

"It's right along our line on the north side," Linn Moedinger, Strasburg Rail Road president, said. "We have sort of a gentleman's agreement with the Farmland Trust that we will support preservation in any form in the view scape of the railroad."

For preservation, educational and historical reasons, "It's the right thing to do," he said. "And obviously, from a business standpoint, no one wants to ride a train through suburbia."

"It's also important to Lancaster Farmland Trust because we have an area which we have determined a strategic priority … and this farm falls within that area," Martynick said.

Established in 1832, Strasburg Rail Road is the nation's oldest short line railroad and an anchor tourist attraction for the county. Some 350,000 people ride its rails annually, Moedinger said.