Steamtown National Historic Site - Wikipedia Entries on Waymarking.com

The museum is built around and incorporates a working replica turntable and roundhouse, which includes two original roundhouse sections built in 1902 and 1937.
Established by an act of the United States Congress on October 30, 1986, Steamtown officially opened to the public in the summer of 1995, and celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2005. Congress established Steamtown to interpret the story of main line steam railroading between 1850 and 1950.

Much of the collection of steam (and a few diesel) locomotives and freight and passenger cars was originally part of Steamtown USA. That collection was originally assembled by the late F. Nelson Blount and was located in several places in the northeast United States before moving from Bellows Falls, Vermont, to Scranton in 1984. Blount's death in an airplane accident in 1967 had cut off the main financial support for Steamtown USA, but much of his original dream to have a museum in a working railroad yard with excursions on steam trains and a functional locomotive shop has been realized at Steamtown NHS.

Steamtown NHS is located within a working railroad yard and incorporates the surviving elements of the DL&W Scranton roundhouse and locomotive repair shops. The new 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 the impression of what the complete structure was like. (The 1902 roundhouse was originally a complete circle).

Visitors can see museum exhibits about the history and technology of steam railroads in the United States and Pennsylvania, as well as see many locomotives and freight and passenger cars on display. Some locomotives on display are open so that visitors can climb in and see the controls. 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 are also open to walk through. A steam locomotive with cutaway sections helps visitors understand the operation of steam engines better. Part of one of the 1865 roundhouse inspection pits uncovered in archaeological excavations is also preserved in situ, under glass.

The museum has a very interesting mix of rolling stock, with only a few pieces that are historically significant to the site. Some of those are a DL&W steam engine, caboose, boxcar, a former WWII troop sleeper that the DL&W converted to maintenance of way service, and numerous passenger cars. Former Oneida & Western/Rahway Valley 2-8-0 engine #15 was overhauled by the DL&W during the steam era. Other noteworthy pieces are the popular Union Pacific Big Boy #4012, CPR #2929 (a rare Jubilee 4-4-4) and Reading Company T-1 #2124. Other engines were owned by Steamtown NHS/Steamtown USA Foundation but have been traded or sold over the years. One of these includes Canadian Pacific 2816 the last remaining non-streamlined Canadian Pacific 4-6-4 Hudson. The engine has been restored to working order and hauls trips for its original owner, Canadian Pacific Railway.

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