HAMBURG, N.Y. — After 100 years of service, the Strates Shows Erie County Fair train has completed its final journey, delivering the carnival rides to the historic Erie Depot on Thursday.
People were given the opportunity to ride on the fair train, sharing their own personal stories as to why they wanted a spot on its historic last ride.
Patty Abbott was one of the lucky few who were chosen for the ride. She shared her memories from the fair when she was a little girl.
"This is a decades worth of memories for me. My mother had a hat stand at the top of the midway where she would sew everyone's name on their hats," Abbott said.
She remembers when she was 5, sleeping on a rug underneath her mother's sewing machine.
When the time came to board the train in Blasdell, crowds waited in anticipation, hoping for a chance to spot the brightly colored wagons carrying the carnival rides. We boarded the train and began the short ride into Hamburg where there was a celebration waiting.
As the train moved down the tracks, people came out of their homes and cars, waving at the train and taking pictures and videos.
Jim Millspaugh said he used to come out all the time when he was younger to see the train go by. He never could have imagined that he would be a passenger on it.
Millspaugh said he has been going to the fair for as long as he could remember, participating in 4H.
"I've been going there since the early 70s. It's a passion of mine to help people with animals, help kids with the projects," Millspaugh said. "The fair is very important to me."
Among many who have decades worth of fair memories were Kate Biniasz, 12 and Teddy Biniasz, 9. They were both on their first, and last, trip on the fair train. They said, "It's a lot of fun to be on the fair train."
When the train arrived to the Erie Depot, there were fireworks and the fair band was performing. People were cheering and the excitement was thicker than the muggy August air.
The Fair Train will be "chugging" into retirement, the rides with now make their way to the Erie County Fair each year by truck instead.