Dave Lewis hails from Hazleton, which is in the heart of coal country.

Both of his grandfathers worked in the coal industry.

He noted that it's natural that he became fascinated by trains.

"Where you have coal, you have trains," Lewis said. "It didn't take much for me to want to watch trains."

Decades later, he moved to Willow Street following retirement, and four years ago, he began volunteering at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg. Now he's being feted for his community service.

Lewis will be honored as the museum's Volunteer of the Year by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission this spring and also on Saturday, Sept. 26, at the museum's Members Day banquet.

"I was surprised and pleased," Lewis said. "There are a lot of volunteers here that help make this place work."

"Dave is a quiet, dedicated presence whose commitment to the museum is evident in everything he does," museum director Patrick C. Morrison said. "He brings a remarkable work ethic and is exceptionally reliable, consistently arriving early and staying throughout the entire day. Dave has willingly taken on some of our most extensive and time-consuming scanning projects in the library and archives, approaching each task with care and precision. He is the kind of person everyone looks forward to seeing - warm, gracious, and genuinely engaging. Both staff and volunteers hold Dave in high regard."

Lewis worked as an engineer at Mobil Oil for 30 years, designing equipment and helping it get installed. He had visited Lancaster before and decided to move to the area upon retirement.

Steve Ferrell, a friend of Lewis' who organizes trips, had a suggestion. "Steve said, 'Well, when you move, you're going to become a volunteer at the museum, right?'" Lewis recalled. The answer was an easy yes. He works mostly behind the scenes.

"I'm upstairs in the archives, scanning slides and prints and negatives," Lewis said. "I like being around the trains, being upstairs in the archives. It's interesting seeing all the photographs. It's something different every time you turn a page and have a different photograph. It's been very pleasant."

"Dave quickly became a constant and reliable presence in the library and archives," said Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania volunteer/program coordinator Elizabeth Myers. "His diligence has particularly shown through his assistance with scanning in the past year. He has worked on digitizing images in eight different collections, producing quality scans for the museum's online research database. Currently, Dave is part of a duo tackling the James P. Shuman slide collection, which contains over 6,000 images to digitize."

Occasionally, Lewis sees something that reminds him of home. "It's been a real good experience," he said. "Every once in a while, I'll take a little time and wander through the exhibits. There's a Lehigh Valley boxcar. The Lehigh Valley is my home, so that's one of my favorite pieces of equipment."

When he's not volunteering at the museum, Lewis likes attending automobile races with friends. "My wife (Barbara) says I'm a transportation buff," he said.

People who would like to volunteer at the museum can email Myers at programs@rrmuseumpa.org.