Steamtown National Historic Site ⓘ

The locomotives at Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) range in size from a tiny industrial switcher engine built in 1937 by the H.K. Porter Company for the Bullard Company, to a huge Union Pacific "Big Boy" built in 1941 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). The oldest locomotive is a freight engine built by American Locomotive Company in 1903 for the Chicago Union Transfer Railway Company. In 1991, a Special History Study of the locomotive collection at Steamtown NHS was prepared for the National Park Service (NPS) by Gordon Chappell, an historian for the NPS. The document contains the results of research conducted in 1987 and 1988 in preparation for a Scope of Collections Statement for Steamtown National Historic Site. During the course of that project, the author accumulated a wealth of important raw data that contributed to a determination of which rolling stock should be acquired from the Steamtown Foundation for preservation at the park. As with any subject matter, research and information is constantly evolving. For questions related to the collection at Steamtown NHS, we encourage you to e-mail the park: stea_visitor_information@nps.gov.

The Steamtown USA rolling stock, equipment, and archives were assembled in the 1950s to early 1960s by F. Nelson Blount, a steam locomotive fan. Steamtown USA was originally located in North Warpole, New Hampshire, but moved to Bellows Falls, Vermont, in 1967 and then from there to Scranton in the mid-1980s. On March 29, 1989 the administrative arm of Steamtown USA donated rolling stock, museum objects, archives, and miscellaneous equipment to the National Park Service through a signed donor letter. The 1,002,011 objects and archives became the foundation of the park’s museum collection. The rolling stock is not part of the museum collection, instead each piece is treated as a historic structure. For a roster of the rolling stock please go to the Places tab. From 1989 to 1995 the park concentrated on collecting objects to go on exhibit in the Visitor Center, Theater, History Museum, and Technology Museum, all of which opened in 1995., The number of history objects and archival material added to the museum collection spiked considerably in 1994. As of 2019, the collection contains 2,684 archeology objects; 208,142 history artifacts; and 4,602,933 archival items. The size of the park’s archival collection ranks 3rd in the NPS and the size of the history collection ranks within the top ten in the NPS. In the early 1990s the park conducted several archeology projects. All were done as compliance projects prior to work, and during work, on the grounds and buildings. No prehistoric artifacts were found in any of the excavations. Of the 4,617,261 objects/items in the collection only 1159 are on exhibit in the Visitor Center, History Museum, and Technology Museum. The exhibits designed in 1995 are still in use. On occasion the park hosts temporary exhibits using objects and art work from non-NPS sources.

Our museum collection consists of objects and equipment related to the steam-railroading era, including the steam-to-diesel transition, and contains archival and photographic materials, and archeological objects recovered from sites within the park. View items that have been entered into the NPS Web Catalog: https://go.nps.gov/STEAwebcatalog

Other resources can be found at: NPS Museum Management Program: https://www.nps.gov/museum/index.html

The Steamtown archival collection is extensive. Besides the Nathan Collection the park managed to acquire additional large collections in 1998, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012. This includes a significant amount of material on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Wyoming Railroad; the Erie Railroad; and the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad. A large collection of glass plate negatives from the archives have been scanned to make the images available to researchers. The park archival collection is available by appointment only during regular business hours as staffing allows. Please refer to the "Access and Use" section below. Search a curated selection of images from our archive collection through the NPGallery: https://npgallery.nps.gov/STEA Discover and explore Digital Assets from other National Park Service sites: https://npgallery.nps.gov/

The park library is located in the Office and Storage Building and contains a variety of research material. Among the many volumes are: Car Builder’s Dictionary, Locomotive Cyclopedia, Official Railway Equipment Register, The Science of Railways, and Railway Age. There are also a significant number of rail related magazines and periodicals.

The library is available for use by researchers and park staff by appointment only during regular business hours as staffing allows. Please refer to the "Access and Use" section below.

Steamtown NHS occupies about 40 acres of the Scranton railroad yard of the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, one of the earliest rail lines in northeastern Pennsylvania. At the heart of the park is the large collection of standard-gauge steam locomotives and freight and passenger cars that New England seafood processor F. Nelson Blount assembed in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1984, 17 years after Blount's untimely death, the Steamtown Foundation for the Preservation of Steam and Railroad Americana, Inc., brought the collection to Scranton, where it occupied the former DL&W yard. When Steamtown National Historic Site was created, the yard and the collection became part of the National Park System. The Steamtown Collection consists of locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars, and maintenance-of-way equipment from several historic railroads. The locomotives range in size from a tiny industrial switcher engine built in 1937 by the H.K. Porter Company for the Bullard Company, to a huge Union Pacific "Big Boy" built in 1941 by the American Locomotive Company (Alco). The oldest locomotive is a freight engine built by American Locomotive Company in 1903 for the Chicago Union Transfer Railway Company. A Special History Study of the locomotive collection at Steamtown NHS was prepared for the National Park Service by Gordon Chappell, an NPS historian. This document contains the results of many months of research conducted in 1987 and 1988 for preparation of a Scope of Collections Statement for Steamtown National Historic Site. During the course of that project, the author accumulated a wealth of important raw data that contributed to a determination of which rolling stock should be acquired from the Steamtown Foundation for preservation at the park. "Steam Over Scranton: The Locomotives of Steamtown" was published in 1991, and has been out of print for many years. However, an online edition is available by clicking on the title.