{"id":137,"date":"2016-05-05T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2016-05-05T04:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/?p=137"},"modified":"2016-06-22T11:09:43","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T15:09:43","slug":"steamtown-national-historic-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/usparks\/steamtown-national-historic-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Steamtown National Historic Site: A museum on track"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCRANTON, Pa.<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he new park superintendent was forewarned: with steam engines comes soot on your car every evening, grit in your office and cinder marks on the brim of your ranger hat.<\/p>\n

Until April, Debbie Conway\u2019s two-year-long tenure leading the Steamtown National Historic Site had overlapped with a three-year steam drought at the park, during which its namesake steam locomotives were in the shop for renovations.<\/p>\n

\"Source:<\/a>
Source: Esri (James Hilston\/Post-Gazette)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of the short summertime shuttles around the rail yard and longer train excursions under her watch were propelled by diesel engines. An optimist might say the interlude gave park visitors a glimpse of the historical shift when diesel locomotives eclipsed steam.<\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t Dieseltown. The historic site, a combination museum and working railroad yard, is dedicated to preserving and explaining the history of steam railroading and its impact on the nation.<\/p>\n

So on the April morning when the newly rebuilt Baldwin Locomotive Works #26 switch engine steamed out of the roundhouse, got hitched up to passenger cars and began pulling visitors behind steam for the first time since the last operating steam engine was taken out of service in late 2012, Ms. Conway stopped her conversation in an exhibit hall mid-sentence to attend to the sound of a mellow hoot in the distance.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo nice to hear it whistle,\u201d she said. \u201cSo nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The <\/a>
The working turntable at Steamtown’s center moves engines and cars into position for display, maintenance or short journeys. (Laura Legere\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Steamtown <\/a>
Steamtown preservation specialist Mike Oprisko coordinates a crew as it moves a wheel set, including axle and wheel, for the Baldwin #26 steam engine during its restoration. (Kenny Ganz\/NPS Photo) <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The restored roundhouse at Steamtown is both a maintenance shop and an exhibit hall with raised platforms so visitors can view the cars and engines up close. (Laura Legere\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Steamtown's <\/a>
Steamtown’s collection includes a 1914 Railway Post Office car on view in the History Museum. (Laura Legere\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The Baldwin 26 is neither the burliest nor the most glamorous of the locomotives and rail cars on view at Steamtown. A temporary exhibit about its restoration explains the locomotive\u2019s history: Initially a homebody, it was built in 1929 at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone, Delaware County, and stayed there for nearly two decades, working within the factory complex as a \u201cshop goat,\u201d a kind of rail version of a tug boat, moving rolling stock around.<\/p>\n

Then it had other lives, pulling cars in and out of the Jackson Iron & Steel plant in Ohio, and later disguised by a private owner as a locomotive from a mid-central U.S. railroad known as the Nickel Plate Road.<\/p>\n

\n

Steamtown National Historic Site<\/h2>\n

350 Cliff St., Scranton, PA 18503<\/p>\n

1-888-693-9391<\/p>\n

Official Website<\/a><\/p>\n