A Visit to Steamtown National Historic Site

That’s awesome Paul, …….believe it or not, I’ve never been there, ……keep threatening to go, but never had the time …..😔

Pat

On my way to the 611 farewell I decided to stop there and stretch our feet. We grabbed lunch and sat down eating while enjoying the view of the Big Boy !!

I've been up that way twice. Steamtown is definitely hard to do in one day, and get all that there is to get in sometimes isn't open the day you go. We(my brother, oldest niece, and her family) went Labor Day weekend some time ago, got in everything including shop tours which they showed how wheels are replaced. Fantastic. The second Labor Day(year after) we went across the other side to the Trolley Museum. That is also a full day to get everything in, including a real trolley ride which takes up quite a bit of time. There is no way to do both places in a single day, even if you try and run through everything, not possible.

The best thing to do is find out when they are doing the most stuff there, book the old Lackawanna Station, which is the Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, and enjoy not only Steamtown and the Trolley Museum, but the hotel as well. I think the next time up there, I really want to see the hotel and all of it's beautiful glory.

@Apples55

Paul,

Great pictures! I especially like the video of Baldwin Locomotive Works #26 and Lackawanna caboose #889. I could watch that little train go back and forth all day. I guess that's why I don't bother with DCS or Legacy control on my layouts. I just hook-up a switcher, a boxcar and a caboose and run them slowly around the layout - watching the rods move...

I hope you, your trains and "crappy basement layout" came through your 13-month absence in good shape.

MELGAR

Paul,

Nice pics and video.  I've ridden behind the 0-6-0 when it was pulling a 3 car coach train to the Scranton Furnace.  This was back in the 1990s with my father and nephew.   I have visited Steam Town since then but it has been quite a few years.  Your post has wet my appetite for a return visit sooner than later.  Thanks for the post and hope you are running trains on your layout again.  

We were in Scranton during winter in February and not much was going on but it was definitely a great trip. Stayed at the Radisson Lackawanna Hotel and just bummed around town going to the museums and seeing the real life counter parts to The Office. It was awesome! I would love to go back at some point.

Great pics and video! I think the 0-6-0 is fast becoming one of my favorites in real life and on my layout.

I used to live about 90 minutes away from Steam Town (New Hope PA). I would go at least twice a year (sigh). Now I live in Florida.

Back in the day they would run steam excursions from Scranton to Stroudsburg every so often, or from Scranton up over the Tunkhannock Viaduct as far as Binghamton NY. Before I moved south it seemed as though nothing was left except static displays. Tours of the shops were always interesting, but that B&M 4-6-2 has been up on blocks for as long as I can remember.

Understand I am not criticizing, but the Feds seem to be cutting the budget all the time. Biden is a Train guy. Maybe he can do something??

Any news on B&M 3713?  Maybe I'll still be alive when she's finished and pulling trains.

@superwarp1 posted:

Any news on B&M 3713?  Maybe I'll still be alive when she's finished and pulling trains.

As far as I’m aware that project has stalled due to a lack of funding.

@J 611 posted:

As far as I’m aware that project has stalled due to a lack of funding.

Plus, the previous Park Superintendent was "not interested" in the whole idea. Thus, nothing has happened along with the lack of funds. Reportedly there is now a new Park Superintendent, so We will have to wait and see what, if anything, happens next.

@Hot Water posted:

Plus, the previous Park Superintendent was "not interested" in the whole idea. Thus, nothing has happened along with the lack of funds. Reportedly there is now a new Park Superintendent, so We will have to wait and see what, if anything, happens next.

Man I miss Steam Town when it was in Vermont.  Before Nelson Blunt died in a plan crash and his family wanted nothing to do with it.  Instead we have a nice museum where engines just sit, some to rot outside.  Harsh yes, but the entire idea to turn this into a national park was a bad idea.

I have wanted to stop there on the way to York, but I never seem to have the time to do it.

When I see Steamtown it hurts me! I used to go to the Vermont location when I was little and it was great. Some PA Senator or Congressman got it moved there to drum up tourism. But it was handed over to the US Gov't and there goes the ballgame..That being said, what they should do is partner up with the Reading and Northern and the Delaware-Lackawanna. They could do great excursions with the PA when its done and any of the Reading Northern passenger fleet. But iits just a thought..

I hear ya, but ...

Here we go again.  Do we not remember that the easiest way to get a thread deleted is to introduce politics?  Forum rules here are very clear about keeping the political stuff out.

     Please do not bellyache about the government, even if it's relevant.

It happens quite often with Amtrak-related threads, and it's happening here too.

As a consequence many of us are getting tired of threads being deleted.   (Too much good, intelligent, and relevant rail-specific conversation is lost in the process.)

Thanks in advance for your restraint.

Mike

I just want to say many parts of the country don't have anything even remotely similar to Steamtown. Maybe it isn't perfect but it's better than nothing. I hear you can volunteer at the park and purchases directly support the park. Purchases can be made online too.

Been there twice and hope to go again......I'm a member of the NYO&W railroad historical society and we have one of O&W's original GE 44 tonners that is undergoing a refit/refurbish there.

Peter

@BillYo414 posted:

I just want to say many parts of the country don't have anything even remotely similar to Steamtown.

May I suggest the Pennsylvania RR Museum at Strasburg, and the California State RR Museum at Sacramento.

Maybe it isn't perfect but it's better than nothing. I hear you can volunteer at the park and purchases directly support the park. Purchases can be made online too.

@Hot Water I have been to Strasburg...outstanding!! I loved it!

I'm just trying to say that while Steamtown could be more, it's a lot more than some places have.

Another great historic train site to visit is the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC.  The museum site is the old Southern Railroad Spence Shops, still in limited use repairing some of their collection.

They have a great collection of all kinds of train cars and engines and a restored 1924 round house and engine shops.  One can just wander around all day and enjoy it all.  They also have old automobiles, street cars, airplanes, you name it.  Well worth a trip.  Pictures from our 2017 trip.

Charlie

PAul thanks for sharing you photos.  It looks like a good time was had by all (and by that I mean you).  I hope your brother has recovered and you can now get back to opening packages more often than weekend visits home.

@harmonyards posted:

That’s awesome Paul, …….believe it or not, I’ve never been there, ……keep threatening to go, but never had the time …..😔

Pat

You’d probably be disappointed, Pat… not a Hudson to be seen

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

I hear ya, but ...

Here we go again.  Do we not remember that the easiest way to get a thread deleted is to introduce politics?  Forum rules here are very clear about keeping the political stuff out.

     Please do not bellyache about the government, even if it's relevant.

Mike

Thank you, Mike 👍👍👍

@Putnam Division posted:

Been there twice and hope to go again......I'm a member of the NYO&W railroad historical society and we have one of O&W's original GE 44 tonners that is undergoing a refit/refurbish there.

Peter

I wish that they had more frequent shop tours - would love to see the current state of the 3713 and the 44 Tonner. I may just have to give in and go on one of there special weekends in spite of my dislike of crowds!!!

Worth a visit. I saw a CP steamer rusting away on a far off track. Hope they save it.

@MELGAR posted:

@Apples55

Paul,

Great pictures! I especially like the video of Baldwin Locomotive Works #26 and Lackawanna caboose #889. I could watch that little train go back and forth all day. I guess that's why I don't bother with DCS or Legacy control on my layouts. I just hook-up a switcher, a boxcar and a caboose and run them slowly around the layout - watching the rods move...

I hope you, your trains and "crappy basement layout" came through your 13-month absence in good shape.

MELGAR

Thanks, Mel. I’ve got to get down there tomorrow and start cleaning the tracks (the 7 yo grandson of some friends desperately wants to visit again - he picked up the use of the Cab2 like a natural!!!).

If you didn’t see it, I also posted 2 short videos over on the Rail-fanning on The OGR Forum thread. You can see the 26 going the opposite direction.

https://ogrforum.com/...1#176694689225505491

Here's another view of the 759 at Steamtown, posing with a close relative.

Photo by Norfolk Southern Corporate Photographer Casey Thomason. Used with permission.

@Rich Melvin posted:

Here's another view of the 759 at Steamtown, posing with a close relative.

Photo by Norfolk Southern Corporate Photographer Casey Thomason. Used with permission.

Fabulous shot, Rich… thanks for sharing it. I doubt that the 759 will ever run again, but I hope they can give her a good cosmetic restoration.

While there guys, don't forget to visit the adjacent Electric City Trolley Museum

@Lionelski posted:

While there guys, don't forget to visit the adjacent Electric City Trolley Museum

This one took me by surprise. We went and it was super cool! Definitely worth a visit.

The Anthracite Museum was good (though off topic, I thought it was worth the share).

It sucks though that they currently have no mainline steam locomotives operational. Maybe politics are a part of that. And then they will use the excuse that diesels are easier to operate and maintain. Reading and Northern which is privately held, is committed to keeping steam alive, owner Andy Muller loves steam. Go for a ride behind recently restored 2102 sometime, the 2124 at Steamtown hasn't run in decades, since the Reading Rambles.

September 2017

We're going that way this weekend. I am anxious to see the new Big boy paint job. Coming soon to the Scranton area, Stegmier beer and Amtrak to New York City.

@POTRZBE posted:

We're going that way this weekend. I am anxious to see the new Big boy paint job. Coming soon to the Scranton area, Stegmier beer and Amtrak to New York City.

I'm curious on the progress on Boston and Maine #3713, if I am correct that it was the project they had undertaken before 2017. I can't remember exactly how much progress had been done, only that they had been working on it since my visit in 2018.

@Robert K posted:

It sucks though that they currently have no mainline steam locomotives operational. Maybe politics are a part of that. And then they will use the excuse that diesels are easier to operate and maintain. Reading and Northern which is privately held, is committed to keeping steam alive, owner Andy Muller loves steam. Go for a ride behind recently restored 2102 sometime, the 2124 at Steamtown hasn't run in decades, since the Reading Rambles.

I live in New York State.

Right now there is not a single steam train ride left running in the entire state to my knowledge.

The most recent were The Arcade and Attica Railroad which is currently fundraising to bring back the steam engine and the Delaware and Ulster Railroad which shut down during the pandemic and hasn't opened since.

John

@Dave NYC Hudson PRR K4 posted:

I'm curious on the progress on Boston and Maine #3713, if I am correct that it was the project they had undertaken before 2017. I can't remember exactly how much progress had been done, only that they had been working on it since my visit in 2018.

They have been working on 3713 off and on for over twenty years and they are no where close to being done.

Dieseltown National Historic Site? 

But to be fair, Pennsylvania has more steam trains running than most other states.

John

@superwarp1 posted:

They have been working on 3713 off and on for over twenty years and they are no where close to being done.

That has been primarily do to lack of funding, plus lack of "support" from the Park Superintendent. Reportedly, there is now a new Superintendent, so eventually something just might change.

Thanks Gary @superwarp1. I looked it up after I posted, wrong way to do it. I do remember that upstairs looking out towards the turntable, they had a model of it and I believe a donation box. I put some money in that box for sure.

@Hot Water, could the lack of steam running there besides Baldwin 26 be more than just the superintendent? Sure there are a ton of steam locomotives there. Is there anything that is in close to working order? I know BB 4012 will never run again as that is what one of the volunteers said in 2018 when we were there. To your knowledge, is anything in shape to be in working order with the least amount of work? What percentage of work would remain is what I mean to get any locomotive in working order besides the Big Boy?

On a visit there back in 2005, the big and the small:

The real reason was to visit the trolley museum, we boarded at the other end of the line:

And this ALCo C-6?? was parked at the museum:

This one looked a bit out-of-place:

I took these photos on 08may2005 so it has been quite a while since I have been there.