A Plethora of Trains and Trolleys!

…continuing with the 19^th day of our August 2018 3-week exploration of parts of the northeastern USA.

If you like railroads, trains or trolleys, this long (very long) post should satisfy your interest and perhaps provide you with a destination to visit on your next vacation!

This is “Steamtown”, a National Historic Site in Scranton Pennsylvania that operates under the aegis of the U.S. National Park Service.  This industrial heritage site is dedicated to the role that steam railroads…and the people who worked in the industry…played in America’s Industrial Revolution.

Steamtown occupies around 62 acres of the Scranton railroad yard of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.  While there are diesel locomotives on display, the heart of the collection is a large grouping of standard gauge steam locomotives and related rolling stock. 

What follows is a fairly lengthy posting featuring a lot of rail related photos!

This big steam locomotive is situated just outside the museum structure adjacent to the parking lot of the Steamtown Historic Site.  Locomotive 2124 was built as #2044 in the Reading Shops for the Reading Railroad in 1924…and then was rebuilt in 1947 and was renumbered 2124.  For most of this locomotive’s working life, it was used to haul coal trains before being retired in 1956.  At one point in 1959, it was brought back into service to pull a series of rail fan excursions.  Final retirement for this beauty was in 1963.

Reading Railroad Diesel Locomotive #903 is also on display in Steamtown’s parking area.  It was one of the first General Motors Electromotive Division FP7s ordered by Reading in early 1950 to replace their passenger steam locomotives.  Number 903 is currently owned by the Philadelphia Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.

I have no idea about the history of this attractive locomotive that is also on display near the Steamtown’s parking area.

 

This is a good time for a little background on Steamtown’s collection of locomotives and rolling stock.

The majority of the steam locomotives, rolling stock and other railroad equipment were originally collected by F. Nelson Blount, owner of Blount Fine Foods, a large seafood and soup processer (Panera Bread and Legal Seafood among others).  Originally his collection was exhibited in Bellows Falls Vermont but in 1984 it was moved to Scranton.  

Steamtown and the upscale Radisson Hotel now occupying Scranton’s former Lackawanna Depot, were intended to help revive the area’s economy.  The need for improving the museum’s financial stability combined with the collection’s historical significance led to the acquisition of the site by the National Park Service in 1995.   

Not all of the locomotives or rolling stock at Steamtown are in pristine condition.  This is Union Pacific Locomotive #4012, nicknamed “Big Boy”.  This 4-8-8-4 (wheel configuration) locomotive was built by the American Locomotive Company in 1941.  It is among the largest steam locomotives ever built.  This articulated locomotive weighs 625 tons.  It worked for 21 years hauling freight between Cheyenne Wyoming and Ogden Utah, logging over 1,000,000 miles before it was retired in 1962. 

Unfortunately the Steamtown’s turntable and roundhouse are too small to handle the size and weight of #4012 and it has remained outdoors since it arrived in Scranton.  While it is possible that this locomotive could be restored to working order, it’s unlikely that the track, switches, culverts, trestles, bridges, etc. could handle her great weight.  As a consequence, she remains on static outdoor display…

Steamtown’s Museum is built around a working turntable and a roundhouse.  However, they are mostly replicas reconstructed from the remains of a 1932 structure.  Some original outbuildings were built between 1899 and 1902.

 

The visitor center, the theater and the technology and history museums were built in the style and on the footprints of the missing portions of the original roundhouse.  Exhibits focus on the history and technology of steam railroads, particularly the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.  Parts of the museum cover life on the railroad as well as business, labor and governmental relationships.  There is a film that is shown regularly throughout the day.

This is Illinois Central Locomotive #790.  It is the only Illinois Central Railroad 2-8-0 Consolidation type of its class to survive into the diesel age of locomotion.  Built in 1903 by the American Locomotive Company, it was originally owned by Chicago Union Transfer Railway.  Illinois Central bought it in 1904.  Illinois Central, which dated back to 1851, operated over 4,200 miles of track between Chicago Illinois and New Orleans Louisiana.  This particular locomotive pulled heavy freight trains in Tennessee. 

Locomotive #790 was pulled from storage in 1958 to assist Illinois Central trains through floodwaters…as the diesel/electrics would short out in the water.  In 1965, it was once again used for flood duty…at the Clinton Iowa Corn Processing Company, where “it plowed through overflow from the Mississippi River.

This is a view of some of the railroad equipment on display in front of a few of the bays of the roundhouse.  This is a big museum!

Believe it or not, this diesel locomotive is 84 years old.  Delaware-Lackawanna and Western locomotive #426 was a pre-production model for the Electro-Motive Corporation’s SC product line and it was built in February of 1935. 

Trap rock is used on various construction projects, including road paving, building foundations and railroad ballast.  In Connecticut, the New Haven Trap Rock Company was the primary customer of the Branford Steam Railroad. 

At the height of steam operations at the 300 acre complex, a set of 4 – 6 small 15 ton 0-4-0 saddletank locomotives were used to move the loaded gondola cars around and 2 heavier 40 ton locomotives moved the product down the 6.2 miles of track to either the port or the interchange with the New Haven Railroad.  

The E.J. Lavino and Company 0-6-0 locomotive was built by the American Locomotive Company in 1927 as Poland Springs Railroad #2.  Yes, this locomotive was scheduled for delivery to Poland Springs, the bottled water company located in Maine.  Apparently it was never delivered to Poland Springs but it is known to have been sold to the E.J. Lavino Steel Company at Sheridan Pennsylvania in 1949.  

Note: 

• Poland Springs in Maine were first exploited for bottled water back in 1845!  Now owned by the Nestle Company, it is one of the largest purveyor of water in the world and the company draws its water from several sources in Maine.
• Currently there is an ongoing lawsuit against Nestle claiming that the company has defrauded consumers by filling bottles of its Poland Spring water with ordinary groundwater.

This is just one of the many pieces of railroad equipment on display.  A ‘hot box’ is the term used when an axle bearing overheats on a piece of railway rolling stock.  Before the mid-twentieth century, axle bearings were housed in a box that used oil-soaked rags or cotton (‘packing’) to reduce friction of the axle against the truck (wheel) frame.  If the bearings overheated, fire could threaten to destroy the entire rail car…and the train itself if not uncoupled in a timely fashion from the car that was on fire.  Derailment and a wreck was also possible…

It was necessary to constantly inspect trains as they rolled by.  If the railroad worker spotted smoke, sparks or fire, the train would have to make an emergency stop.  The ‘hot box’ would then be doused with water from the tank and the box would have to be repacked with lubricated materials.

Other exhibits featured life size figures of people using or working for the railroads.  These included porters, ticket window attendants, engineers, passengers, immigrants, conductors, firemen and others. 

Firemen on steam trains were responsible for tending the fire that ran the boiler for powering the steam engine.  It was a hard demanding job involving constant shoveling of coal into the boiler’s firebox. 

Notes:

·       Vladimir Lenin escaped to Finland in 1917 by posing as a fireman on a steam locomotive.  The engineer later recalled that Lenin shoveled with gusto as he fed the engine…making the train run fast!

·       Simeon T. Webb was the fireman on the Cannonball Express when it was destroyed in the legendary wreck that killed engineer Casey Jones.  At the last minute, Jones told Simeon to jump.  He did and survived to become the primary source for information related to the wreck.

·       Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Sanders worked as a fireman when he was 16 or 17.

·       Martin Luther King Sr. worked as a fireman on the Atlanta Railroad when he was 14 years old. 

For those young folks out there, before we had email, tweets, texts, etc. people actually communicated via letters and postcards.  Most mail, newspapers, magazines and packages moved around the nation via the nation’s railroads.  The Railway Mail Service was very important from the 1890s until the 1960s.

This beautiful Louisville and Nashville Railroad Railway Post Office (RPO) car was built in 1914.  It was restored at the Steamtown National Historic Site in 1999. 

At the height of their use, RPO cars were used on more than 9,000 routes and on more than 200,000 miles of track in North America.  Most routes were eliminated during the 1960s but the last RPO route between New York City and Washington D.C. lasted until the end of June in 1977.  The U.S. Mail business was important for the railroads as it was the key money maker on passenger service routes.  Cancellation of the ‘rail mail’ doomed remaining passenger routes…  

This is the dining room inside Erie Business Car #3.  This car was built by the Pullman Company in 1929.  It has 2 staterooms, 2 bedrooms and a room for the porter.  Erie Car #3 was the private ‘land yacht’ of the Assistant Vice President and General Manager of the Eastern District for the Erie Railroad for his business travels.  At its biggest, the Erie Railroad had 2,316 miles of track in the northeastern USA and into the Midwest as well.  

Steam Crane #5 is on display with CNJ Idler Gondola #92082.  This steam crane was built for the Central Railroad of New Jersey by the Bucyrus Company in Bucyrus Ohio in 1918.  The crane (derrick) has a 150 ton lifting capability.  This crane was designed solely to maintain the railway, removing wrecks and to lay, replace and resurface the tracks.  The crane could move itself and it’s Idler for short distances but it was usually pulled by a locomotive. 

This is Grand Trunk Western’s former steam locomotive #6039.  It appears to be stripped down to the metal for repainting.  This 4-8-2 Mountain Locomotive was built by the Baltimore Locomotive Works in 1925.  In the 1950s #6039 was leased to Central Vermont Railroad and it was one of the last steam locomotives employed in common carrier business in that state.

In turn, Grand Trunk Western (controlled by Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada) was one of the last U.S. railroads us use steam locomotives.  Its last scheduled steam train in the USA was on March 27, 1960, leaving from Detroit and terminating in Durand Michigan.  3,600 passengers bought tickets and they had to run 2 separate trains…

This is Nickel Plate Road Steam Locomotive #759.  This 2-8-4 “Berkshire” type locomotive was built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima Ohio.  FYI, the Nickel Plate Road is the commonly used name for the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad. 

Locomotive #759 was built as a fast freight locomotive and she wasn’t retired until 1959.  In 1965 she was added to the Steamtown collection.  In 1968, she was restored to operating condition for use in hauling the Golden Spike Centennial Limited, a special commemorative train that celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. 

At over 100 feet long Locomotive #759 is the largest locomotive in the Steamtown Museum’s roundhouse, with only a foot or two clearance at either end.  This is also the largest non-articulated locomotive at the Museum…

Locomotive #26 is a 0-6-0 type steam locomotive that was built in 1929 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works.  For its first 19 years in service, #26 worked at the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Eddystone Pennsylvania.  Painted with Baldwin’s standard olive green with aluminum trim, she hauled raw materials and completed locomotives around the plant.

 

Following WWII, #26 went to work for the Jackson Iron and Steel Company in Jackson Ohio.  She wasn’t actually retired until the 1970s.  Following the opening of Steamtown in Scranton in 1995, #26 was the primary power for the Museum’s Scranton Limited Trains.  After a complete overhaul completed in 2016, she returned to duty at Steamtown.

A very knowledgeable guide took a group of us on a tour of the roundhouse area…focusing on reconditioning efforts on locomotives and rolling stock and giving us an idea of the complexity involved.  The big issue in maintaining steam locomotives is all about the boilers.  Another issue is that people who work on boilers are few in this age of gas, diesel and electric engines.  Federal requirements and inspections are very demanding… Then there is the cost issue.  

This cutaway display showing the interior workings of a steam locomotive is color coded to assist the docent or park ranger with his or her explanation of how steam locomotives actually work…  

The 3 photos above are intended to provide readers with a vague idea of the size and complexity of the machine/repair/refurbishing shops at Steamtown.  The work is a slow process as neither money nor available skilled labor are abundant for the work.   All of this equipment is beyond my comprehension as I have a hard time hanging a picture on the wall…

Neither human skeleton nor a steam locomotive skeleton are things of beauty unless you’re an anthropologist or an engineer.  In any case, this is the bare bones of Boston and Maine Locomotive #3713.  She is known as The Constitution.  She is a 4-6-2 Heavy Pacific type locomotive that was built in 1934.  She is a being rebuilt to working condition in a partnership with the National Park Service and the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railway Historical Society. 

The Constitution was retired in 1958.  Designed with 80 inch drivers, a large firebox, and massive boiler, P-4 Heavy Pacific locomotives could easily cruise at 70 miles per hour, carrying enough coal to pull a 14-car train for about 250 miles and enough water to last about 125 miles. 

This is New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate Road) diesel locomotive #514.  She was built by the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors Corporation in La Grange Illinois in 1958.  The Nickel Plate Road was one of the last major steam railroads to switch to the new diesel-electric locomotives.

Steamtown took possession of #514 in 1985, as part of a trade which gave the Virginia Museum of Transportation clear title to an A-class steam locomotive.  Today #514, with its original Nickle Plate colors, is used in the Steamtown rail yards for switching and as a back-up for visitor’s train rides while steam locomotives are undergoing maintenance and repair. 

There are a lot of locomotives and rolling stock at Steamtown that are in less than pristine condition.  It’s all about money and priorities but for railroad buffs, it’s also a bit depressing.  Of course, rust and decay is usually better than being cut up for scrap metal!

This rather decrepit semi-streamlined steam locomotive off at the back of the rail yard was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1936.  Locomotive #2929 is a rare 4-4-4 “Jubilee” model.  In the USA, it’s referred to as the “Reading” type.  This class of locomotive was the last North American steam locomotives specifically built to win passengers back to the railways.  These engines were completely withdrawn from service by 1961.  

To see a photo of what this locomotive looked like back in 1970, just go to https://www.classicstreamliners.com/lo-cpr-f1a.html.  

Rahway Valley Railroad Locomotive #15 sits out behind Steamtown’s roundhouse.  It was built in 1916 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works as the Oneida and Western Railroad’s #20.  Rahway Valley bought it in 1937 and it last was in service for that railroad in 1953.  F. Nelson Blount acquired it in 1959 and restored it to operate at his Steamtown USA.  Later it was featured in the 1963 movie, “The Cardinal” which was nominated for 6 Academy Awards.  Eventually it became Green Mountain Railroad Locomotive #15 and it continued to operate until August of 1973 when a boiler tube blew out and injured a railway worker. 

The railyard with its ‘tired’ passenger coaches and a lot of other rolling stock along with the Steamtown National Historic Site are all included in the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Yard-Dickson Manufacturing Co. National Historic District.  The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant is part of the Historic District. 

The Dickson Manufacturing Company actually built steam locomotives.  It was founded in Scranton in 1856.  In 1901, the locomotive division was merged with 7 others to form the American Locomotive Company. (ALCO)  ALCO ceased locomotive production at the Dickson Works in 1909.  Only one locomotive made by Dickson prior to its merger into ALCO exists today.  Its #1005, an o-6-2 that was built in 1898.  It’s owned by Enterprise Plantation in Louisiana. 

The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant is an active US Army facility that manufactures 105 mm and 155 mm-diameter projectile bodies.  The Army Ammunition Plant was established in 1951 and it occupies a building that was built as a steam locomotive production and repair facility in 1910.

The Steamtown National Historic Site is an interesting place to visit both from a train lover’s viewpoint and in an historical context.  It’s all about the early days of rail and the impact of the railroads on the development of the USA.  This attraction does not seem to be widely known but it’s big, with lots of room to look around…and it’s impressive!  Steamtown only has about 100,000 visitors a year…an average of about 276 a day.   Love trains…?  This is the Place to go! 

The Steamtown National Historic Site is located at 350 Cliff Street in Scranton Pennsylvania.  It’s important to note that admission is FREE.  The only cost visitors can incur are at the gift shop or if they purchase a rail excursion ticket.  This museum is open for 362 days a year.  Website: https://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm.

…and that’s it for Steamtown…but wait!  See below to learn what else is located at this rail yard.

If you love anything and everything related to rails and transportation on them, Lackawanna County’s Electric City Trolley Station and Museum is located right across the parking lot from Steamtown.

This museum was created by the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority and Lackawanna County manages the museum.  The facility, a restored mill building from the late 1800s, is on long-term lease from the U.S. National Park Service.

Our visit to this museum was very brief!  We had no more than 25 minutes to look around before it was closed for the day.

Car #46 was built by the St. Louis Car Co. in 1907.  I think that it is very handsome indeed!  It is the sole surviving car from the first generation of cars to run on the Philadelphia and Western Railway.  This car survived because it was converted to a work car in 1928.  It was retired in 1976, but it has now been fully restored, complete with its arched leaded-glass windows.

So why is Scranton Pennsylvania referred to as the “Electric City”?  The first step in the city acquiring this nickname was when electric lights were introduced at the Dickson Locomotive Works in 1880.  The name really stuck when Scranton established the first continuously operating electrified streetcar (trolley) system in 1886.  In 1896, the various trolley companies were merged into the Scranton Railway Company.  That company operated trolleys in Scranton until 1954.

Open Trolley #651 has been recently and beautifully restored.  This 12 bench open trolley is over 37 feet long and it was built by the J.G. Brill Company in 1898.  It first served on New York City’s Third Avenue Line. 

Trolleys (aka Streetcars) really took off in the USA.  By 1895, almost 900 electric street railways and nearly 11,000 miles of track had been built in the United States.  The growth of streetcar systems lead to people living outside the city in ‘streetcar suburbs’, using the trolleys to commute to work.  Beyond that, the popularity of streetcars led to the rise of interurban lines…basically streetcars that operated between cities and towns.

I failed to take photo of that yellow tag/sign on the front of this trolley awaiting restoration so I can't identify it.  Still, these photos show just what kind of condition many of the museum’s trolleys were before being refurbished!  This one has a long process ahead of it…

This is former Philadelphia Rapid Transit Co. Trolley #8534.  This was the last of the 50 single-ended steel cars ordered in 1926 from the J.G. Brill Company.  The group of 50 cars were purchased in order to supplement 485 cars already owned by PRT.  It was felt that they were needed due to anticipated extra riders generated by the United States’ 1926 Sesquicentennial Celebration in Philadelphia.  These cars were phased out in 1957.

This was Philadelphia and Western Railway Company’s Car #206.  It was built by the J.G. Brill Company in 1931.  It was referred to as a “Bullet” car, named for the pointed streamlined ends.  This development was an attempt to rejuvenate the dying long distance electric railway industry.  Car #26 continued in service for many years, ending under Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority management.  Ultimately, it was converted into a “pickle car” to apply anti-icing brine onto the line’s electrified third rail.  Number 206 was finally retired in 1995.

My last photo from the trolley museum was taken outside the museum after it closed.  We didn’t really have a chance to check out the many displays in the museum that were related to trolleys and the streetcar/trolley business.

This is Philadelphia and Western Railway Company’s Car #401.  This work car was built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1907…the same time as was Car #46 as shown earlier.  Car #401 had a very long career in work service on the rail line, finally being retired by Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority in 1990. 

Timing is everything… If you’re there at the right times, visitors to the Electric City Trolley Station and Museum can board an authentic 1926 or 1932 antique trolley for a 5.5 mile trip over Roaring Brook, a mile long tunnel and along the original line all the way to the Triple-A Baseball stadium (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders) at PNC Field.

Lackawanna County’s Electric City Trolley Station and Museum is open 362 days a year.  Admission to the museum costs $6.00 for adults, $5.00 for senior and children from 4 – 17 are $4.00.  Trolley rides are extra.  This museum is located at 300 Cliff Street in Scranton Pennsylvania.  Phone: 570-963-6590.  Website: http://www.ectma.org/museum.html. 

…and so ends one of the longest posts I’ve ever written!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a longer than usual visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave