Steamtown

Scranton: American park, American history, American innovations –built on steel rails and packed inside of brick buildings. That’s one of our National Parks just about 3 hours from Wellsville – Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, PA, signed into existence by Ronald Reagan 25 years ago.

The park sprawls over 40 acres that years ago held the guts of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. In the 1850s, men crawled into brick lined pits under trains to service the steam engines. If they were lucky, they crawled out, went home and came back to do it again.

Countless limbs were lost in those pits but labor was cheap, worker safety was unknown and there was always another willing to pick up the wrench and keep the trains running. The rail lines were the circulatory system of the industrial revolution and the system grew for over 100 years.

Steamtown has 100 engines and cars that chug and thunder enough to shake the ground mildly or make the overhead pedestrian bridge shimmy.

Short rides are offered Wednesdays through Sundays. 5 times a day the conductor yells his, “All‘ board” for the short trips. There are long excursions in the summer and duringthe October foliage season

An operating steam engine is the glory part of Steamtown but the hard, serious work is the historic preservation in the tool shop. Steamtown, like many parts of the park system, operates with bare bones staff - only 8 mechanics keep the excursion engines running. When time allows, they rebuild locomotives taking years and spending about $1.5 million.

Rebuilding is hard and repair is frequent. These old engines were slapped together ascheaply as possible. The rule seemed to be build ‘em fast, keep ‘em running till they’re scrap. The goal was to make as much money as possible moving things and people around the country.

There wasn’t any care to put clean water in the boiler. Sometimes an engine (depending on weight and landscape) would need to refill water in as few as 30 miles. If the only water was from a creek, that would do. It meant a serious build up of scale inside the boiler.

Coal was the other part of making steam and the cheaper it was the better the railroad liked it. Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal offered a cleaner burn so that was desirable but it often had shale mixed in. Boys as young as 8 worked grueling 10 hours shifts picking shale out of coal as it passed them on a conveyer belt. The fireman always hoped for clean coal. He might shovel 2 tons of stuff in the firebox in an hour and he wanted every pound of it to make steam.

Engines went to the roundhouse for routine maintenance and small repairs. That’s where they’d drive the engine over a water pit and drop the ash and where workers crawled over and under the engine before sending it back to the rails to earn money.

More serious repairs took place in the tool shop and the work done there was pretty impressive given that they used slide rules, hammers and sweat. Did you know that some engines have steel tires on their wheels? Changing a train tire starts with removing the axle and then moves on toward a ring of white, hot flame to expand and remove the steel tire.

It seems that while there were about 1,250,000 steam engines (2,000 remain) made, many were one of a kind made for a certain route or a specific task like moving lumber. Some were almost experiments to figure out a better, or more accurately cheaper, way to build the next one. Repairs then, as now, meant making parts by hand.

Sometimes the designers or railroad workers would invent a safety or labor saving feature but worker-safety and ease weren’t in the realm of interest for railroad operators. There was a ready supply of hungry people willing to work on any engine.

The steam engines died out quickly once diesel came in. The diesel didn’t need those water or coal stops. Diesel maintenance demands were lower, speeds higher and the labor cost was a fraction. A diesel needed one mechanic for every 40needed on a steam engine. Within a few years of their introduction, the diesel took over the rails.

My favorite part was the History Museum where a life-size figure of a paper boy, porter, tycoon, passenger, conductor, etc stood next to information about how that person fit into railroad society. The exhibit listed wages, hours, duties, traditions and clothing. It made history feel very personal. I was so absorbed by the exhibit I didn’t think to take a single photo there.

On the other hand, if I could bring one thing home, it would have to be the mail sorting car. I’m a sucker for organizers. My husband said he’d rather have the velocipede. I can see the allure.

BOX To visit Steamtown go to http://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm. Entry is free to children ages 15 and under. Adults ages 16 and up pay $7. There is also a senior citizen pass that, for$10, allows entry to the holder and 3 companions, valid at any National Park Service facility for one year.

Steamtown has a railroad yard (be attentive for moving trains at all times), History Museum, Technology Museum, theater, roundhouse, tool shop and a gift shop. Train rides carry and extra fee. Find food across the pedestrian bridge at the Steamtown Mall.

Cut away view of inside a steam engine boiler.

Chugging with steam - the glory of the steam age
These pipes at the front of the image will go inside the boiler as it is rebuilt.
More of the cut away boiler to give an idea of what is happening.

Inside the caboose. See more of my photos on flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stoneflowerpottery/sets/72157627545255713/

To visit Steamtown go to http://www.nps.gov/stea/index.htm. Entry is free to children ages 15 and under. Adults ages 16 and up pay $7. There is also a senior citizen pass that, for$10, allows entry to the holder and 3 companions, valid at any National Park Service facility for one year.

Steamtown has a railroad yard (be attentive for moving trains at all times), History Museum, Technology Museum, theater, roundhouse, tool shop and a gift shop. Train rides carry and extra fee. Find food across the pedestrian bridge at the Steamtown Mall.