UPDATE: Someone from the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad just informed us that they are not releasing information about the train’s travel between New Hope and North Wales. We’ll just have to put an ear on the rail to listen for it.

North Wales will celebrate its 150th anniversary on May 18, and the New Hope and Ivyland Railroad will honor the event with a steam excursion. This will probably be the first time a steam locomotive has run on those tracks in over fifty years.

To get to North Wales from New Hope, this train headed by a 1925 steam locomotive will need to run along the Warminster line to Glenside and then north along the Lansdale line.

Sadly, all the seats on this excursion are sold out, but the spectacle of a steam locomotive riding down the tracks in our town should make for some amazing photo opportunities.

The first excursion leaves North Wales at 10:30 AM and runs up to Gwynned Valley and back, so look for the train to pass through Glenside early in the morning.

The latest issue of Trains Magazine runs a story about this excursion:

According to the railroad, No. 40 has not left its Bucks County location since the summer of 1985. The No. 40 was built for South Carolina’s Lancaster & Chester Railroad and later North Carolina’s Cliffside Railroad. It has been owned by New Hope or its predecessors since 1962. The four excursions scheduled for May 18th will feature the No. 40 and passenger cars that are original to the route over which they will travel, the railroad says.

The passenger railroad’s general manager says SEPTA is able to host the steam locomotive because a freight railroad that connects with the passenger carrier has yet to fully comply with positive train control rules, setting back the final date SEPTA must comply with all PTC rules and standards.

More details to come.