Location / Name:
Scranton PA, Lackawanna County, County Seat
What's Here:
Large collection of historic/vintage railroad artifacts, mostly Steam Engines
Historic Yards of the DL&W RR
Nicely rebuilt Roundhouse
UP Big Boy #4012, NKP 759, RDG 2124 among many others
Co-located is the Electric Light Trolley Museum
Data:
GPS Coordinates: 41.410730, -75.671329
350 Cliff Street
ZIP Code: 18503
Scanner Frequencies:
See below
Access by train/transit:
None other than bus
Geography:
Mountainous
The Scoop:
Steamtown is part of the National Park System (since 1995), and sits on 62 acres of the former Delaware, Lackawanna and
Western railroad yard in downtown Scranton.
It not only contains quite a few steam engines from days of yore - but through
many, many interactive exhibits and historical displays, shows you about railroad signals, how they worked on and
repaired steam engines, and equipment used to repair the engines. They
have a working turntable which spins inside a fully functioning roundhouse - one
of the best examples surviving from the heyday of the steam era!
Some of the steam engines in their collection are:
-- Union Pacific (UP) Big Boy #4012, a 4-8-8-4, too big to put inside the roundhouse, so it sits along the access road
-- Nickel Plate Road (NKP) 2-8-4 Berkshire #759, my personal favorite that I chased many many times in the 1970's
-- Canadian National (CNR) #3254, a 2-8-2 Mikado
-- Boston and Maine (B&M) #3713, a 4-6-2 Pacific
-- Baldwin Locomotive Works #26, a 0-6-0 switcher used at Baldwin's plant in Eddystone PA
-- Canadian National (CNR) #47, a 4-6-4T switcher
-- Delaware, Lackawanna and Western (DL&W) #565, a 2-6-0 Mogul
If you are ANY sort of a railfan, and get anywhere near close to Scranton,
visiting Steamtown IS A MUST! It is well worth the drive.
The majority of pictures below come from a visit I made to Scranton in 2011.
Here are a couple of screen grabs from their website.....
Steamtown's Big 2026 Event:
A once in a lifetime event!
History:
Steamtown assembled what was left of a superb collection assembled by F. Nelson
Blount in the 50's and 60's. The Steamtown
Foundation was formed by him in 1964. In 1984, he moved the collection to
Scranton with help from the town in return what was expected to be a huge draw
for the area that never materialized. After two years, he was facing bankruptcy.
In 1986, the Congress appropriated $8 million dollars of
pork barrel money to develop the attraction, and formerly took over the
operations in 1995. They then dumped another $66 million into the project,
which many railfans are critical of the U.S. Governments handling and operation
of the museum (at one time, they would not allow the trolley museum to run
trolleys over several hundred feet of Steamtown's track because the management
are, well, you know what I'm going to say, and it isn't nice (can't we all get
along for the betterment of US?).
They do have nice displays, which one would expect after
spending millions. Most of the roundhouse has been rebuilt, so it is not
original, although sections from 1902 and 1937 do remain.
Blount had sold off a good portion of his collection to pay
off debtors. So the government got what was (mostly) leftover and not as
good as what was sold off. How they wound up with NKP 759 is a mystery,
but I'm glad they have it, for it is one of my favorites having photographed it
many, many times when it ran around the Baltimore and Harrisburg area in the 70's.
Since taking over the collection, they have sold off
additional Blount pieces in trade for acquiring engines more representative of
the area, except for UP's Big Boy #4012..... Hope they keep that one, for it is
truly one amazing engine!
Low visitor attendance and the costly removal of asbestos
(gee, no surprise there) has spurred talk about privatizing Steamtown.... anyone
have a few spare dollars they want to contribute so I can buy the thing? :-)
From Philadelphia:
Proceed north on I-476 (PA Turnpike, Northeast Extension) to exit 115. Take
I-81 north to exit 185. At first traffic light turn left on Lackawanna
Avenue. Continue on Lackawanna Avenue past the mall and turn left on Cliff Street.
From Baltimore:
Proceed north to Harrisburg and onto I-81. Take I-81 north to exit 185. At
first traffic light turn left on Lackawanna Avenue. Continue on Lackawanna
Avenue past the mall and turn left on Cliff Street.
From Pittsburgh and points west:
Proceed east on I-80 to I-81, take I-81 north to exit 185. At the first traffic light
turn left on Lackawanna Avenue. Continue on Lackawanna Avenue past the mall
and turn left on Cliff Street.
From NYC, NJ, Pocono Mountains and points east:
Proceed west on either I-80 or I-84. At intersection with I-380, proceed
north. At intersection with I-81, proceed south to exit 185. At the first
traffic light turn left on Lackawanna Avenue. Continue on Lackawanna Avenue
past the mall and turn left on Cliff Street.
From Binghamton, NY and north:
Proceed south on I-81 to exit 185. At the first traffic light turn left on
Lackawanna Avenue. Continue on Lackawanna Avenue past the mall and turn left
on Cliff Street.
A once in a lifetime event!
