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  • A Recent Visit to Steamtown

  • General discussion related to all railroad clubs, museums, tourist and scenic lines. Generally this covers museums with static displays, museums that operate excursions, scenic lines that have museums, and so on. Check out the Tourist Railway Association (TRAIN) for more information.
General discussion related to all railroad clubs, museums, tourist and scenic lines. Generally this covers museums with static displays, museums that operate excursions, scenic lines that have museums, and so on. Check out the Tourist Railway Association (TRAIN) for more information.

Moderators: rob216, Miketherailfan

 #200081  by PCook
 
I recently dropped by the Steamtown National Historic Site, the first time I have been back to the former DL&W shop since the mid-1970s. I was very pleased to see what they have done with the shop, the new buildings fit in nicely, the exhibits were very well done, and the cutaway 0-6-0 is worth a trip to see all by itself. The ranger who guided the shop tour provided a very excellent and well balanced lecture. It is unfortunate they do not have more indoor display space available, but that is a problem all organizations with large equipment collections face. It was something of a time warp to walk through the place, a different world from what I remembered until I got to the end of the shop tour and walked by the area that was the diesel shop office in EL days. It was a very pleasant return visit to a place I had not seen in many years.

I think that Scranton needs to improve the direction signs at the end of the Central Expressway and along Lackawanna Avenue to all the historic attractions including Steamtown. The present signs which are stacks of text with small arrows are very hard to read on a rainy winter day while you are trying to watch traffic signals and dodge pedestrians and traffic. I was on autopilot having been to the shop a few hundred times several decades ago, but I can see where someone not familiar with that area could have some difficulty finding the site.