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Steamtown is a national park, and sits on 62 acres of the
former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad yard in downtown Scranton.
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?
:-)
More info can be found on Wikipedia's page for the museum.
UP Big Boy #4012
Info booth by the parking lot
First impressions inside the main entrance
Sitting "way" outside
At the roundhouse
In the roundhouse
General inside shots
My favorite Steam Engine, NKP #759
Signal stuff
The (Radisson) Lackawanna Station (Hotel)
OK, so it's not a railroad attraction, but if your wife or girlfriend is looking for something to do while you're checking things out and taking pictures, here is something she might find to do as an alternative if she isn't into trains :-) Notice they conveniently put in an overpass to Steamtown (read: good spot for taking pictures). if you're hungry, there are a number of places to eat inside the mall.
I don't know if there are any other tunnels on streetcar rides in the United States, but this one is pretty darn cool!
Railroad Bridges and Overpasses
Disclaimers:
I love trains, and I love signals. I am not an expert. I do these pages because I love spending my time doing them - although I do a reasonable amount of research to make sure the information presented is accurate! :-) :-)
Please Note: Since the main focus of my two websites is railroad signals, the railfan guides are oriented towards the signal fan being able to locate them. For those of you into the modeling aspect of our hobby, my indexa page has a list of almost everything railroad oriented I can think of to provide you with at least a few pictures to help you detail your pike.
If this is a railfan page, every effort has been made to make sure that the information contained on this map and in this railfan guide is correct. Once in a while, an error may creep in, oooooooops, oh well! :-)
My philosophy: Pictures and maps are worth a
thousand words, especially for railfanning. Text descriptions only
get you so far, especially if you get lost or disoriented. Take
along good maps.... a GPS is OK to get somewhere, but maps are still
better if you get lost! I belong to AAA, which allows you to get
local maps for free when you visit the local branches. ADC puts
out a nice series of county maps for the Washington DC area, but their
state maps do not have the railroads on them. If you can find em,
I like the National Geographic map book of the U.S..... good, clear, and
concise graphics, and they do a really good job of showing you where
tourist type attractions are, although they too lack the railroads.
Other notes about specific areas will show up on that page if known.
BTW, floobydust is
a term I picked up 30-40 years ago from a National Semiconductor data
book, and means miscellaneous and/or other stuff.
Pictures and additional information is always needed if anyone feels
inclined to take 'em, send 'em, and share 'em, or if you have
something to add or correct.... credit is always given! BE NICE!!! Contact info
is here
Beware: If used as a source, ANYTHING from Wikipedia must be treated as
being possibly being inaccurate, wrong, or not true.
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