IF YOU ARE A KID OR JUST WANT TO FEEL LIKE ONE, a visit to Steamtown National Historic Site is a must. As for us, we drove 125 miles each way from our campground in Denver PA to Scranton just for that feeling — and to get another stamp in Connie’s National Parks Passport.
From B-I-G locomotives to little choo-chhos
Steamtown, which sits at the site of the former Scranton yards of the DL&W (Delaware, Lackawanna and Western) Railroad, is chockablock with trains of all kinds. From giant locomotives with six drive wheels to tiny yard engines, Pullman cars (of course) to mail cars and even a smoke-belching, steam-puffing train you can ride on, there is something for everyone. While we kids were messing with our Lionel train sets, millionaire seafood processor, Nelson Blount, was collecting the real thing. His collection formed the basis for the Steamtown Foundation which began in Vermont. Beset by financial woes, it eventually moved to Scranton and became part of the National Park System in 1995.
Passengers
At your service
Keeping them Rolling
Steamtown includes a museum with everything you wanted to know about railroading, including mannequins of the train crew, passengers (paying and non-paying) and brakemen and other guys who keep the train running. And there is a great film in the theater every half-hour. By the time you leave you will be trying to remember all the words to "City of New Orleans." All Aboard!
