Steamtown National Historic Site - Demonstrations, Tours, and Excursions

Demonstrations, Tours, and Excursions

Steamtown NHS offers a variety of demonstrations, tours, and excursions that demonstrate how railroads functioned in the age of steam. Park rangers give guided tours of the locomotive shop, where one can see work being done on the steam engines in the original roundhouse area; the Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive on display; and demonstrations of the turntable on a regular basis. They also give talks on the history of Steamtown. The Scranton yard occupies about 40 acres (16 ha).

Several working locomotives take visitors on short excursions through the Scranton yard in the spring, summer, and fall. Most rides are on passenger coaches, but there are also caboose and handcar rides offered. These rides are included in the admission, although reservations may be required. Longer excursions are scheduled with separate tickets. These include a ride on a Pullman coach and longer trips to various nearby towns, including the Lackawanna River valley and Carbondale, Tobyhanna and Moscow, Pennsylvania. On rare occasions, excursions are run to the Delaware Water Gap, East Stroudsburg, and Cresco, Pennsylvania, or on the Canadian Pacific Railway to Binghamton, New York. Steamtown also plays host to RailCamp, a program put on by the National Park Service and National Railway Historical Society to educate future railroad employees and fans of the industry about railroad operation and preservation.