Tom Ohlhaber could have moved anywhere after he retired.

He was so intent on volunteering at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania that he chose to live someplace within driving distance of Strasburg.

In honor of his dedication and know-how, Ohlhaber, who resides in Wrightsville, was named the museum's Volunteer of the Year for 2025 by the Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's board of directors.

He will be formally recognized by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission at a ceremony at Landis Valley Museum on Saturday, April 26, and during the annual Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania's Members Day banquet on Saturday, Sept. 27.

Ohlhaber was caught off-guard by the news that he won the award. He had been nominated before, but he said it was an unwritten rule that members of the board were not selected. "Then people forget that you're even there anymore," he joked. "So it was a surprise to me."

Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania director Patrick C. Morrison said, "Tom is a team player who is eager to learn and to impart his knowledge to others. I have always been impressed by Tom's amazing generosity and resourcefulness, especially when it comes to serving our visitors and advocating for our museum. He is a singular wit and a studious interpreter who is willing to lend a hand whenever and wherever his services are needed."

Ohlhaber's infatuation with railroads began when he was a child in Chicago and lived three blocks away from the North Western Railway and the Chicago Elevated, known as the "L." His uncle lived near a major railroad yard.

"Chicago is the railroad capital of the country," Ohlhaber said. "Everything goes through there, all the major railroads."

His family owned a car, but it was only used by his father to travel to his job in the suburbs. Otherwise, the family took rapid transit. Ohlhaber discovered if he hurried aboard, he could ride in the special seat in the front, next to the motorman, where he would be able to peer out of the front of the train.

His love of trains took a seat in the caboose during his distinguished career as a physicist.

After earning a master's degree in physics from Northern Illinois University, Ohlhaber taught math and physics at a Detroit high school and then became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, a uniformed service with a similar rank system as the military.

Following a 20-year career working in Maryland, Ohlhaber retired from the U.S. Public Health Service and returned to the Chicago area to take a job in private industry for 14 years. He returned to the D.C. area and worked another eight years in the D.C. suburbs before retiring in 2011.

Ohlhaber desired to leave the D.C. area and was determined to stay busy during retirement. "I knew I needed to have something dramatic to do that would keep me busy, something different than physics. I enjoyed my career immensely, did some wonderful things, but I didn't want to do that as a consultant for the rest of my life."

He researched railroad museums before deciding on the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania because he liked the laid-back atmosphere and freedom given to volunteers.

One of his jobs at the museum is allowing visitors to sit in the engineer's seat and showing them how to operate the engine. "Most of the stuff we have at the museum I'm pretty knowledgeable about after all these years," said Ohlhaber. "I can open virtually any of those pieces and take people up there and keep them entertained. ... We get a lot of people who don't know anything about railroads for the most part. By the time they leave, I have given them (knowledge) they can take home with them. That's very important to me."

He also helps with merit badge workshops, maintains some of the equipment, and leads tours of the restoration shop on Sundays. His physics background gives him a greater appreciation of the technology used by railroads. "I'm a scientist. I have curiosity about things," said Ohlhaber, who with his wife, Karen, has two grown daughters and two granddaughters. "We have all these huge pieces of equipment that have technology in them. Railroads were technology leaders. The signal systems they used. The way they communicated. All these things were state-of-the-art when they were done."

Railroad Museum volunteer coordinator Elizabeth Myers said, "Tom has the ability to take very high concepts and topics that would maybe be intimidating to the layperson and really break it down in an easily digestible way. Tom works so well with kids, with young people, with older and retired people. We get the whole gamut of ages at the museum, and to be able to talk about the technology and history in a way that's easily translatable to all those demographics is actually very difficult, but Tom makes it look easy. He has a wonderful, easygoing spirit, which makes him an integral part of everything we do."