Built in 1855, the all-wooden Cumberland Valley combination baggage/passenger coach on display at Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania would never withstand the strain of thousands of visitors tromping through it.

Yet visitors want to see what it looks like inside.

Now they can.

The historic rail car, once used to carry Union troops to battlefronts during the Civil War, is one of about two dozen pieces of railroad history open for computerized virtual interior tours.

The state-owned museum, located in Strasburg, has installed a Wi-Fi system that allows users to download virtual tours on their smartphones or iPads. The tours give the visitor a 360-degree look inside some of the museum's rarest, most fragile cars, as well as its hard-to-access locomotives.

"All you need do is connect to our Wi-Fi service, install a little, free QR Code reader if you don't already have one, and then as you walk through the museum you can download virtual tours to your phone or device," museum director Charlie Fox said.

At select pieces bearing a red arrow sign, a visitor can use his or her phone or iPad to scan the box-like QR Code and download the tour of that particular car. Some, including the restored Pullman Lotus car, have as many as five interior tours.

"You can go everywhere, from the lavatory through the kitchen and crew compartment, bedrooms and the lounge," Fox said.

For those without smart devices, there are eight freestanding touch-screen computer kiosks scattered around that perform the same function.

In addition to virtual tours of such pieces as the Cumberland Valley car, the Pennsylvania Railroad's air brake instruction car, a Conrail electric/diesel engine in use until a few years ago and the luxurious, circa 1914, western Maryland presidential car, one can see photos and read descriptions of every piece in the museum's vast collection.

The system, launched about a month ago, cost about $40,000 and was funded by the Friends of the Railroad Museum.

Fox hopes to eventually have virtual tours of more pieces, including many of those stored outside in the rail yard.

And it doesn't stop there. At some point, he hopes to include vintage video footage of what some pieces looked like while actually in service "so you can get an idea of the sights and sounds of what these machines were like."

Or maybe, he said, one can download video of "historic railroaders describing in their own words what it was like to work on the railroads."

"The possibilities are really endless," Fox said. "The virtual tours are really just our first step. We're just dipping our toe in the water, so to speak."

Fox said museum tour guides already use the system while making their presentations, and he added that teachers will be able to come in and download information for lessons for their students.

Fox sees the digital technology as "simply an additional tool" in the museum's mission of preserving the history of railroading in America.

"It's a supplement to good old-fashioned person-to-person conversations with our tour guides," he said. "They can take you inside some of our machines, but now they can also truly address what visitors want to know. It's an extra arrow in our quiver."
lalexander@lnpnews.com