Can you escape the tracks on the Strasburg Railroad?

• Asia Tabb
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  Asia Tabb is the Host and Producer for WITF’s The Spark.
  
  She began her start in radio when she joined legendary radio/ host producer, Doc Christian. She worked closely with Doc for her role on “The Gospel Express, on WHOV 88.1 FM and was a host for “Unrestricted Praise” at Praise FM.
  
  Previously she was an anchor in Shreveport, Louisiana at KTAL/KMSS. Asia also worked as a Multi-Media Journalist at WHP-TV here in Harrisburg, PA.
  
  Asia got her break into news at KTVO in Ottumwa, Ia. While the 2020 caucuses were gearing up. Asia followed many candidates through their campaign trail from Senator Cory Booker, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, and 46th President of the United States Joe Biden.
  
  Asia was born and raised in Norfolk, Va. She graduated from Old Dominion University in 2018 with a major in Communications.
  
  Asia is extremely friendly so don’t be afraid to say hi if you see her out and about.

photo courtesy of Asia Tabb

Aired; March 13th, 2025.

The historic Strasburg Railroad is hosting a one-of-a-kind experience. You can now solve a mystery on a train. Avery Klees and Terron Quailes, Director of Entertainment, shared more information about the experience.

Asia: Okay, so let’s start from the beginning. Tell us where the inspiration came from to create an escape room on a train at such a historic place.

Terron: So, the entertainment department started at Strasburg Railroad in 2020. That was when we established the in-house team. I wasn’t there at that time, but since then, the team has grown. It initially started with the escape room process in 2021, which happened on a moving train and that was Houdini’s Great Escape. And then in 2022, there was Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes themed escape room that took place on one of our historic president’s cars. and then in twenty-three we moved to the stationary car curse the bobber was twenty-three and twenty-four and then now we’re back with two brand new ones disco down the tracks and crack the case.

Asia: What made you all decide to go from starting on a moving train to now a stationary experience?

Terron: So, I think part of that was just the logistics behind it. Again, if you’re on a moving train, things are also more complicated that way. With limited amount of time, the train ride itself was a 45 -minute train ride, so that shortens the amount of time that you could even have in the escape room, where most escape rooms last about at least 60 minutes to try to get out of it. And so then being able to put it in the Bobber, which was one of our stationary cars, was super helpful, and then this year we have it. The second car is coach 20, which is one of the oldest cars that we have thre as well. So yeah, it was it was super fun to be able to have two different experiences happening at the same time.

Avery: Definitely, like, it’s such a historic area, but even just in the complexity of designing something like that and the nature of a moving train, like if anyone’s ever ridden a train before, it’s very bumpy, you could have unexpected things. If we need to stop at a certain point, then all of a sudden, your timing is affected. There’s a lot of external factors that go into just operating a train that then when you have the Complexity of then doing an escape room at the same time it They overlap in a very weird spot that you don’t necessarily want when you’re trying to create this experience for people.

Listen to the podcast to hear the entire conversation.