The place is gritty, coarse. Steam engines stand stewing in their sweat, and industrial buildings squat, overseeing rolling stock as they have for years. Here are trains in their natural habitat, not along miles of aisles in some spiffed-up museum gallery, roped-off and protected, but accessible and outdoors in a railroad yard, as they were in their heyday.
There are tons of railroad museums in North America, but Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, Pa., is special. The National Park Service reports Steamtown to be one of the few collections of railroad engines and cars interpreted and displayed in its natural setting. In this case it’s the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railyards, a breathing relic from the days when FDR occupied the White House and the interstate highway system was as futuristic as space travel.
Steamtown is one of the National Park Service’s newest offerings; yet, is not totally new. Once a private foundation, Steamtown operated for 20 years as a tourist attraction in Bellows Falls, Vt., before leaving its longtime home for Scranton in 1983, citing low visitation.
Enticingly situated within easy access to three interstate highways, Scranton seemed to promise the hordes of visitors lacking in sparsely settled Vermont. But after four years, Steamtown ran into more financial headaches.
The massive collection of seven steam locomotives and roughly 75 cars attracted the attention of local Congressman Joseph McDade, who felt the nation’s steam railroad heritage should be preserved. His efforts paid off. The Steamtown Foundation donated the equipment to the National Park Service in 1988.
Since then, tours and excursion rides have been offered while the site has been undergoing renovation. Restoration of the 13-stall roundhouse and construction of a new turntable was completed in 1992. In July 1995, seven years of planning and work reached fruition as Steamtown celebrated its grand opening with a permanent visitor center and comprehensive museum in two buildings.
Visitors can walk through a period boxcar loaded with freight, a mannequin representing a sleeping Depression-era hobo and a video terminal labeled the Boxcar Theater; videos inside show the great world of freight.
One can also get a taste of what it was like to step up to the counter at period re-created train station ticket windows representing city, suburban, rural and commuter stations. Further exhibits examine the inner workings of steam engines and the lives of those who worked on the railroad, from the engineer to the school-age kid who peddled papers and sundries. Upstairs is an intricate scale model of the railyard, circa 1977. Don’t neglect to notice the details, such as the pigeons perched on the rooftop.
Steamtown National Historic Site hasn’t been without controversy. It has drawn the ire of critics who see it as a pork-barrel project benefiting McDade, his constituents and few others. The naysayers claim the operating cost is exorbitant and that the Scranton railyard and the collection aren’t all that historically significant.
In response, the park’s former assistant superintendent, Calvin Hite, said that the yearly operating costs of more than three dozen national park properties exceed that of Steamtown. Regarding the collection, Hite pointed to several locomotives that are one of only three or four remaining in the United States including the humongous Big Boy, once part of the Union Pacific Railroad. And he stressed the historic environment, emphasizing that the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railyards are still active. Modern freight trains pass through several times a week.
“This is not just an excursion ride or a collection of railroad cars in a modern building,” stated Hite. Indeed, many critics miss the point of this park. Steamtown National Historic Site doesn’t commemorate the site of a specific event, but an era in history.
Said Hite, “We never claimed Steamtown to be the most significant railroad yard or train collection in the country. Where you tell a story is not as important as the story you tell. We are preserving a piece of the past, the steam rail era that is so vital to the history of the United States.”
Hite continued, “We find that most of those who criticize have never been here to see what we have.”
In the 1930s-era roundhouse, interpreter Ken Ganz emphasized the park’s history. “We have three operating steam engines side by side in this roundhouse. You won’t see that anywhere else unless you have a time machine.”
And yes, visitors may enter several cars. For example, one might climb up to the cupola of a 1938 model red caboose to savor the expansive view once privy to the train crew, who cooked, rested, ate, stored equipment and kept records there. Then try to make some semblance of order out of the jumble of knobs, gears and levers inside a locomotive.
Better yet, hop on one of the gray and maroon coaches pulled by Canadian National locomotive No. 3254 or Canadian Pacific locomotive No. 2317 for an excursion ride of about 2 1/4 hours taking you across 26 miles and back 60 years. You might not find puffs of Lucky Strikes and Camels swirling through the air inside your passenger car as you would have six decades ago, but you will still see whiffs of steam emanating from the engine.
On board, park rangers discuss life during the 1920s and 1930s, a time when travelers not adventurous enough to drive their Nashes or Hudsons on long journeys ventured by rail. Life magazine’s debut issue in 1936 carried ads from major railroad lines like the Chesapeake and Ohio and the Panama Pacific, but anyone who journeyed between Hoboken, N.J., and Buffalo knew the L&W was the ticket to catch.
One ranger told us about strikes, accidents and the life of a signalman in the dead of winter. “The cold was so biting that a signalman recalled that he couldn’t bend his legs or straighten them out, although the worst part of winter work was keeping his feet and fingers warm.
He also described the agony of a railroad fireman in summer. “Just imagine opening the fire door on a July day and the hot blast of air you’d feel.” Ganz noted that children usually don’t mind the tunnel the excursion train rolls through, but some get rattled by the steam whistle, something many have never heard before. Indeed, many adults have never had their ears tickled by the once common shrill whistle of the steam engine, nor have they witnessed other hallmarks of rail life.
Visitors will learn about old rail-world characters like fictional Phoebe Snow and real-life anonymous hobos, part of a subculture that for decades centered on this country’s railyards. Phoebe Snow, though today the name of a pop singer, was recognized around the turn of the century as the spokeswoman for the DL&W Railroad. Phoebe predated the Gibson Girl as the first imaginary advertising spokesperson. Her likeness is seen in museum displays. Look for a brunet ingenue donning a wide-brimmed hat, head jauntily cocked to one side, accompanied with a rhyme like this:
“Says Phoebe Snow
About to go
Upon the trip to Buffalo
My gown stays white
From morn til night
Upon the road made of anthracite.”
The DL&W burned hard anthracite, as opposed to softer bituminous coal and was therefore cleaner and less likely to leave a coating of coal dust on one’s white clothes, as Phoebe proclaimed in DL&W advertisements.
On the the other hand, there were some genuine people riding trains earlier this century who are also celebrated at Steamtown. The first hobos were Civil War veterans who took to the road following the war, hitching free rides on trains while avoiding authorities. During the hard times of the 1930s, hobos were a frequent sight around the whistle stops of America.
Hobos communicated with each other in their own language, drawing chalk figures on fence posts and sidewalks where they ate and slept. A simple cross said “religious talk, get free meal” and two adjoining circles, representing handcuffs, signified the presence of the police. A sketch of a cat indicated the residence of a “kind lady” while a circle with two parallel arrows meaning “hit the road quick.”
Ken Ganz said the park service hopes Steamtown National Historic Site will emerge as “the country’s railroad museum.”
Or as Phoebe Snow might have said:
“From hill and dale
The hearty and hale
Come to ride the rail
Without fail
To Pennsylvania they go
Cameras in tow
To tour Steamtown
With Phoebe Snow.”
DETAILS ON STEAMTOWN ATTRACTIONS, LODGING, RESTAURANTS
Admission: Free to the visitor center and to walk through the railyard. Admission for tours and/or the museum: $6 adults, $5 ages 62 and older, $5 ages 5-15.
Excursions: $10 adults, $8 ages 6 and older, and $5 ages 15 and under. Discount combination tickets are available. Rides are scheduled May 23 through Nov. 2 on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Reservations are strongly recommended.
Information and reservations: Steamtown National Historic Site, 150 S. Washington Ave., Scranton, Pa. 18503; 717-340-5200.
Lodging: Radisson Lackawanna Station Hotel, (renovated train station), 700 Lackawanna Ave., Scranton; 717-342-8300. Doubles $119. EconoLodge, 107 O’Neill Hwy., Dunmore; 717-346-8782. Doubles $42-$55. Days Inn, 1226 O Neill Hwy., Dunmore; 717-348-6101. Doubles $65; Days Inn, Routes 6 and 11, Clarks Summit; 717-586-9100. Doubles $56-$63.
Dining: Carmen’s in the Lackawanna Station Hotel (see above), Northern Italian cuisine, entrees $11-$25; Preno’s, 601 Lackawanna Ave.; 717-346-2091. Italian American cuisine, entrees $6-$18. Cooper’s Seafood House, 701 N. Washington Ave.; 717-346-6883. Entrees $9.95-$28.99. Farley’s, 300 Adams Ave.; 717-346-3000. Entrees $9.95-$21.95 include beef, ribs, seafood, pasta, also sandwiches and salads.
