Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) is a railroad museum and heritage railroad located on in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). The museum is built around a working turntable and a roundhouse that are largely replications of the original DL&W facilities; the roundhouse, for example, was reconstructed from remnants of a 1932 structure. The site also features several original outbuildings dated between 1899 and 1902. All the buildings on the site are listed with the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Yard-Dickson Manufacturing Co. Site.
Most of the steam locomotives and other railroad equipment at Steamtown NHS were originally collected by F. Nelson Blount, a millionaire seafood processor from New England. In 1964, Blount established a non-profit organization, the Steamtown Foundation, to operate Steamtown, U.S.A., a steam railroad museum and excursion business in Bellows Falls, Vermont. In 1984, the foundation moved Steamtown to Scranton, conceived of as urban redevelopment and funded in part by the city. But the museum failed to attract the expected 200,000 to 400,000 annual visitors, and within two years was facing bankruptcy.Barcousky, Len. Federal Train Park Steams Both Sides. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. July 3, 1994. Pg B1. Accessed July, 18, 2010.
In 1986, the U.S. House of Representatives, at the urging of Scranton native Representative Joseph M. McDade, approved $8 million to begin turning the museum into a National Historic Site.House Approves Spending for Scranton Steamtown. The Pittsburgh Press, October 16, 1986. Accessed July 16, 2010 The idea was derided by those who called the collection second-rate, the site's historical significance questionable, and the public funding no more than pork-barrel politics.Hinds, Michael deCourcy As 'Steamtown' Grows, So Does Park Debate New York Times, November 23, 1991. Accessed July 16, 2010Kelly, Brian. A Tale of Piggery. Newsweek. April 13, 1992. Accessed July 18, 2010, But proponents said the site and the collection were ideal representations of American industrial history.At Scranton's Steamtown, At Scranton's Steamtown, Our Industrial Past Comes to Life New York Times. January 8, 1992. Accessed July 16, 2010 By 1995, the National Park Service (NPS) had acquired Steamtown, USA, and improved its facilities at a total cost of $66 million.
Steamtown National Historic Site has since sold a few pieces from the Blount collection, and added a few others deemed of greater historical significance to the region.
Museum and collection
Steamtown NHS is located within a working railroad yard and incorporates the surviving elements of the 1902 DL&W Scranton roundhouse and locomotive repair shops. The visitor center, theater, technology and history museums are built in the style of and on the site of the missing portions of the original roundhouse, giving an impression of what the original circular structure was like.
The museum has exhibits about the history and technology of steam railroads in the United States and specifically in Pennsylvania, particularly the DL&W; life on the railroad; and the business, labor, and governmental relationships between railroads. The theater shows a short film throughout the day.
Many locomotives and freight and passenger cars are on display. Some have open cabs and compartments that visitors can climb in and walk through, including a mail car, railroad executives' passenger car (with dining room and sleeping / lounge areas), a boxcar, two cabooses, and a recreated DL&W station with ticket window. A steam locomotive with cutaway sections helps visitors understand steam power. Part of one of the 1865 roundhouse inspection pits uncovered in archaeological excavations is also preserved in situ, under glass.
Some of the rolling stock is historically connected to the site, including a DL&W steam engine and diesel, caboose, boxcar, a former World War II troop sleeper that the DL&W converted to maintenance of way service, and numerous passenger cars. Former Oneida & Western/Rahway Valley Railroad 2-8-0 engine #15 was overhauled by the DL&W. Other noteworthy pieces are the popular Union Pacific Big Boy #4012, Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) #2929 (a rare Jubilee 4-4-4), Nickel Plate Road (NKP) S-2 #759, and Reading Company (RDG) T-1 #2124.
Engines NKP #759, CN #47, New Haven Trap Rock Co. #43, and Rahway Valley #15 have operated at Steamtown, but not since the move to Pennsylvania.
Equipment Locomotives +Locomotive detailsNumberImageTypeBuiltBuilderStatusNotes11914Baldwin Locomotive WorksDisplay1Class B Shay1910Lima Locomotive WorksUnder restorationDamaged by building collapse in 1983.21937H.K. Porter, Inc.Display, cosmetically restoredSmallest locomotive in the collection.31927American Locomotive CompanyDisplay71911Vulcan Iron WorksDisplay81923Baldwin Locomotive WorksDisplayFormerly operated on the Penn View Mountain Tourist Railroad from 1964 to 1966.151916Baldwin Locomotive WorksDisplayOriginally built for the Oneida and Western Railroad as 20, operated in Vermont.261929Baldwin Locomotive WorksOperationalOperated in excursion service from 1990 to 1999, returned to steam in December 2015, runs excursion trains on the Scranton Limited.431919Vulcan Iron WorksDisplay441905Brooks Locomotive WorksDisplay, awaiting possible cosmetic restorationOldest surviving Nickel Plate Road locomotive.471914Montreal Locomotive WorksDisplay, awaiting possible cosmetic restorationThe first steam locomotive to pull excursion runs at Steamtown, prior to the move from Vermont.132SW-81953Wabash RailroadDisplayPainted as Lackawanna No. 500.504/506F31948Electro-Motive DivisionOperationalRepainted as Lackawanna 663 and 664. Operates excursion trains from Scranton.514GP91958Electro-Motive DivisionOperationalOperates excursion trains from Scranton.5191913American Locomotive CompanyDisplay, awaiting possible cosmetic restoration5651908American Locomotive CompanyDisplayOnly DL&W locomotive in the collection.7591944Lima Locomotive WorksDisplayOperated in excursion service between 1968 and 1973.7901903American Locomotive CompanyDisplayOldest locomotive in the collection.Edson, p. 381901SW11939Electro-Motive DivisionUndergoing overhaul19231920American Locomotive CompanyDisplayBuilt for Compañía Azucarera Central Reforma of Cuba as No. 8 but never delivered.21241947Reading ShopsDisplayBuilt from Reading I-10sa class 2-8-0 204423171923Montreal Locomotive WorksDisplaySold to Nelson Blount for Steamtown U.S.A. in November 1965. Operated in excursion service from 1978 to 2010. Stored inside the shops on display.2505DL&W MU1930Pullman CompanyDisplayOnly piece of electric equipment in the collection.29291936Canadian Locomotive CompanyDisplay, awaiting possible cosmetic restorationOnly streamlined steam locomotive in the collection.32541917Canadian Locomotive CompanyDisplayOperated in excursion service from 1987 to 2012. On static display.33771919Canadian Locomotive CompanyDisplay, awaiting possible restorationPreviously used as a spare parts provider for No. 3254. Currently on static display, awaiting for a possible restoration.37131934Lima Locomotive WorksUnder slow restorationNamed the "Constitution".40121941American Locomotive CompanyDisplayLargest locomotive in the collection.60391925Baldwin Locomotive WorksDisplayOnly 4-8-2 "Mountain" type in the collection.68161923H.K. Porter Inc.DisplayOnly fireless locomotive in the collection.
Former units +Locomotive detailsNumberImageHeritage TypeBuilderNotes210Northwood and St. Lawrence RailroadAmerican Locomotive CompanyAcquired by the St. Lawrence Power and Equipment Museum in Madrid, New York in 2026.926Southern Railway (UK)SR Eastleigh WorksSold in 1989. Currently operational at North Yorkshire Moors Railway2816Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Locomotive CompanySold to CP Rail where it operated in excursion service until 2012. Returned to operation under CPKC in 2023.1293Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Locomotive CompanySold to Jerry Joe Jacobson to operate on the Ohio Central Railroad. Now on static display at the Age of Steam Roundhouse, awaiting its 1,472-day inspection and rebuild.1278 Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Locomotive CompanyHad been favorited by Blount. Traded to Gettysburg Railroad for Canadian National 3254, where it operated until a 1995 boiler explosion. Now on static display at the Age of Steam Roundhouse.1246Canadian Pacific RailwayMontreal Locomotive WorksThe only G5 locomotive to operate in Scranton, it was sold at an auction in 1988 to the Valley Railroad in Connecticut. Now on display at the Railroad Museum of New England.1098Canadian Pacific RailwayCanadian Locomotive CompanyIt was sold in 1987 to George Hart to operate for his Rail Tours Inc.. It is on static display at the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad as 225.1218Norfolk and Western RailwayNorfolk and Western’s Roanoke ShopsTraded to the Norfolk Southern Railway in exchange for NKP 514 and Wabash 132 to operate in mainline excursion service from 1987 to 1991. Now on static display at the Virginia Museum of Transportation in Roanoke, Virginia.1395Canadian National RailwayMontreal Locomotive WorksIt was sold at an auction in 1988 to the Coopersville and Marne Railway in Coopersville, Michigan. It is currently on display under a canopy, received a cosmetic restoration in August 2024.1551Canadian National RailwayMontreal Locomotive WorksIt was traded to Jerry Joe Jacobson in exchange for Baldwin Locomotive Works 26, and it became the very first steam locomotive to pull trains on the Ohio Central Railroad System. It now resides at the Age of Steam Roundhouse.5288Canadian National RailwayMontreal Locomotive WorksIt was purchased by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2001. In 2023, ownership of the engine was transferred to the Colebrookdale Railroad.1361Pennsylvania RailroadPRR Juniata ShopsMoved to Scranton in 1996 for a complete restoration in partnership with University of Scranton, and the Railroaders Memorial Museum. However after several years of work, the plan was cancelled in April 2010 and the engine was moved back to Altoona in 2013. Currently undergoing third restoration attempt. Several engines not part of the collection have visited the Scranton site: NYS&W #142, BM&R #425 (now Reading Blue Mountain and Northern 425), Lowville & Beaver River Shay #8, former RDG T-1 #2102 (restored and operable by Reading Blue Mountain and Northern), Milwaukee Road 261, PRR 1361, NKP 765, and Union Pacific Big Boy 4014. "Peppersass" No. 1 from Mount Washington Cog Railway visited the Steamtown Scranton site during Railfest 2016, and revisited again during March 11 to 13, 2019.
Demonstrations, tours, and excursions
Steamtown NHS offers a variety of demonstrations, tours, and excursions that demonstrate how railroads functioned in the age of steam. Park rangers give guided tours of the locomotive shop, where one can see work being done on the steam engines in the original roundhouse area; the Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive on display; and demonstrations of the turntable on a regular basis. They also give talks on the history of Steamtown. The Scranton yard occupies about .