It is warming up and time to plan a trip to Steamtown. I went there 12-27-2007 but only had three hours. Try to get there as soon as they open.
This is a very small part of what is there.
Rich
Rich,
I absolutely agree. We were only there 1/2 a day. A full day is an absolute minimum because there’s so much to soak in. I also enjoyed talking to the engineer of the CP #2317 steamer at the end of the day. Sadly, my dear wife was asking better questions than I was. [:I]
I’ve also heard that the anthracite museum and coal mine tour nearby is a fascinating one, too.
Tom
I’ve been there several times - alone and with tthe grandson. Alone I got there at 9am (I live 1 1/2 hr away in northern NJ) and stayed almost 'till closing! Adjacent to Steamtown is also a trolly museum, I have yet to get in there! Maybe the next time I’ll stay at the Hotel next to Steamtown, I cant recall the name, but I’m sure the Scranton C of C will have the info. It’s a great place to visit - perhaps second only to Strasburg in the northeast![:)]
One thing to remember about the coal mine tour: it gets a bit chilly when you go down into the mine itself. Not much, but it’s pleasant on a hot day outside. At least it was that way years ago when my wife and I did the mine tour.
As to Steamtown, it’s okay, but the weather does take a toll on the pieces that are outside, and they don’t seem to do any periodic maintenance work on them. Aren’t they supposed to do a stuff-and-mount for one of the excursion steamers? I don’t remember which one, but the way I understand it, one of them is due for it’s 5 year overhaul and at least as of the end of last excursion season it was thought that a rebuild would be too expensive. Hopefully they won’t cut it open for a show and tell like they did for that one small steamer that is an inside display. That was sad.
Yes, the weather does take it’s toll on the equipment that must be stored outdoors. Unfortunately, the Park Service is at the low end of the priority list when it comes to funding, and to do just cosmetic repairs and maintenance to these items would be big bucks.
There is no “5 year overhaul” anymore. After the Gettysburg incident, the boiler regulations were rewritten, and took into consideration that 1) Steam locomotives aren’t run as much as they were in the first half of the 20th century and 2) non destructive testing technology has advanced since the 30’s, when the boiler regs were last rewritten. Both the Pacific and Mikado were qualified under the new regulations, and the longest they can go is 15 years between overhauls. The new formula is more complicated, taking into consideration such things as number of heat and cool cycles, number of days under steam, etc.
Although I haven’t been up to Steamtown since last fall (I used to be involved with the defunct K-4 project, which ran all winter on weekends), I don’t think you’ll see one of the active engines “stuffed and mounted” any time soon. The demise of the K-4 project has started a lot of unfounded rumors, and I’m not sure how close the 3713 is to completion. You won’t see one of them cut open like the 0-6-0 on display. This is a teaching tool and was in
I don’t know if the outdoor parking has been rearranged since I was there, but that miniature 0-4-0T (alleged to be the smallest standard gauge locomotive ever built to modern design in the U.S.) used to be parked right in line with a Big Boy.
One touch I liked was the LONG sloped-bridge walkway to the mall across the tracks. It’s built on the site and profile of the trestle type coaling station that used to be there.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My last day trip to Steamtown we took in the trolley excursion - if I recall it was about 1 1/2 hours round trip. Stopped at an old iron furnace along the way and got to stretch our legs walking to the furnace. The hotel I believe is the Radisson Lackawanna Terminal Hotel - beautiful and just a short walk to the Steamtown complex.
If you’re adventurous, a drive down to Ashland for the Pioneer Coal Mine tour is worth considering too. And if you’re heading that far south, a tour of the Yuengling Brewery in Pottsville is really cool - no trains there but the beer is excellent and you get to go down into the caves 50 ft below the brewery.
One loco was being restored in the roundhouse. I posted the photo. I saw what looked like a being restored or completely restored boiler stored in the back of one section of the roundhouse but I could not get close enough for a photo. Might be the below one.
http://www.laurellines.org/3713.htm
http://restore3713.railfan.net/
http://www.railcamp.com/basic_railcamp_agenda.htm
http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=1005
http://www.scrantontrains.com/2006news.html
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/steamtown1.html
Rich
Be sure to sign up for the Back Shop Tour. It’s run once a day at noon with a limited number of people while the workers are having lunch. If you want to see locomotives being restored and the equipment thay use to do it, it is a not to miss part of the exhibit.
[dinner] [:P][:P][:P][:P]
Geez, I haven’t been back there since opening day in '95. I was hanging off of the saddle tanker pictured above with a camcorder taping the parade of steam. It was the largest group of steamers I’ve ever seen running at one time: their two Canadian engines, their 0-6-0, NYS&W 142, Blue Mountain & Reading’s purty little Pacific, and Milwaukee Road’s 261. What a great day.
I’d post the footage on YouTube, but I need a video input card. [sigh]
The only locomotive currently under restoration at Steamtown is the B&M Pacific #3713, and that’s in the backshop (your first two links). There were probably two boilers in the backshop you may have seen at the time, the one from BLW 0-6-0 #26 was right outside the welding shop and is completely dismounted from the frame. The other may have been the PRR K-4, which was a boiler on a frame and shop trucks, right next to the #3713. The K-4 has been moved to make room in the shops since the project is on hold and is planned to be moved back to Altoona as soon as the facility is ready out there.
When I was there a couple of years ago, they had 2 Pacifics in the backshop and were rebuilding the tender to one of them.
I think they were just starting the rebuild on the B&M. It had sat outside for decades with no cover on the stack; consequently, the smokebox filled with rain water up to the bottom of the tube sheet. The result was serious corrosion on the smokebox and tube sheet. There was also some bad corrosion cracking around the steam dome. That has to be cut out and replaced - serious damage to a boiler pressure part.
I will dig around and see if I can find my photos.