Take a step back in time to America’s Industrial Revolution at the Steamtown National Historic Site. Watch audio-video presentations, browse photography displays and look inside locomotives while learning about the legacy of steam railroading and the workers associated with it. Visit train repair shops and take a historic train ride. Steamtown National Historic Site sits in the former yard of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.
Start at the Visitor Center, where you can find out about the site’s orientation, its attractions and daily activities. Go to the 250-seat surround sound theater and watch the short movie called Steam and Steel. It recounts the career of a railroad worker and the dramatic changes to U.S. railroads at the start of the 20th century.
Follow a through-the-ages timeline of railroading from its early beginnings up until the 1980s in the History Museum. Appreciate the significance of the workers that kept the rail system running smoothly at the Life on the Railroad exhibit. Get up close with restored trains and train artifacts in the Technology Museum. Among the displays are a boxcar, caboose, passenger car and steam locomotive.
Observe from a raised walkway as skilled mechanics carry out maintenance on antique locomotives in the workshops of the Roundhouse Museum. See as trains are turned and faced toward the workshops via a 90-foot (27-meter) long turntable.
Take a 30-minute ride around the railroad yard aboard the steam-powered Scranton Limited and Nay Aug Gorge Limited trains. You can also enjoy a 2-hour journey through stunning Pennsylvania countryside on a diesel-powered locomotive.
The attraction is just a short walk from the center of downtown Scranton and there’s free on-site parking. It’s less than a 3-hour drive from both New York City and Philadelphia.
Steamtown National Historic Site is open daily and there’s an admission fee. Additional fees apply for the train rides. Visits involve a lot of walking, some of it on uneven surfaces, so it’s advisable to wear comfortable shoes. Find more information on the attraction’s official website.
