It was a quick 1-hour drive from Dingmans Ferry campground to Scranton, PA along I-84.
Steamtown National Historic Site is dedicated to Steam trains and the facilities that made steam powered travel possible. All the locomotives in their collection are coal-powered steam with one exception. We have seen many train museums on this trip and we have a few more to visit but this one is unique because it not only has running coal-powered locomotives but also has actively operating repair and rebuilding facilities for steam locomotives.
One special treat is the ranger lead tour through the repair facilities where we saw two locomotives disassembled and in the process of being rebuilt by paid staff and volunteers. The sight of one of these monsters with its shroud of iron removed is something that everyone should see in order to truly understand what made these behemoths go and the labor required to keep them going.
In the display area, a full-size, once operating locomotive has been cut-away to clearly show how all the internal systems interacted. This one display is worth the trip to Steamtown.
All steam engines must have a mandatory periodic of checks, so Wednesday’s train runs are handled with a diesel-electric engine. That locomotive is the one exception in their collection. We will try to come back tomorrow to see the steam engine running.
The once active Scranton train depot has been converted into a Radisson Hotel. The waiting room is now Carmen’s Restaurant, where we had the lunchtime buffet. The meal was good but the real treat was spending time in this spectacular building.
The Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour is tourist gem that Scranton has to offer. Here, we climbed onboard a cable car and rode to a depth of 300-feet into the shafts of a once operating anthracite mine. The guides are primarily from coal mining families. They told stores about the conditions and suffering the old miners and their families lived through. The way the mine owners treated the workers is disgraceful and it’s even more disgraceful to think our government allowed the owners to continue that treatment for as long at they did – and possibly, still do.
We spent the night just outside of Scranton at the Lackawanna State Park campground. Our site has 50-amp electrical service and the facilities are clean and newly renovated. The price is a bargain at only $13 per night with our senior citizen’s discount. The regular $16 price would still have been a bargain. If I had the choice of being young or taking the discount, I would gladly pay the additional $3. Not many in my age group would chose otherwise.
