(Photos by the author) – As most of you know, I spend a lot of my days on the road and away from my family. The beauty of the internet is that I get to make content and stuff from wherever I am. That being said, when I am around the homestead I try to to cool stuff with the family and concentrate our time together. Over the winter, we decided to take a road trip to Pennsylvania from our home in the Boston area to check out Steamtown USA in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This is a national historic set devoted to preserving the history of steam locomotives and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt it is a place that EVERY SINGLE BangShifter alive has to visit at some point. If you like trains or anything to do with steam power, it is absolutely freaking incredible.
They have locomotives here from all over North America, including a Union Pacific Big Boy which was my favorite part of the whole deal. If you have kids, there is ample opportunity to climb all over stuff, touch things, and do the kinds of things that get kids hooked on this stuff. We were there during a snowstorm so there were areas closed off which would be open in more favorable weather. For the sake of fair reporting I’ll tell you that we walked in and bought the same ticket that anyone else buys to see the place so there was no special access or anything.
This is easily one of the coolest places we have ever visited as a family and I think many of you out there in reader land would love it as well. I’ll be back with more photos and information tomorrow. For now, check this out!
Click the images below to expand them and then scroll on to see them all –
Love this kind of stuff!.Another great spot to visit is “the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan. They have all kinds of steam era stuff turbines to locomotives, vintage airplanes and automobiles. Every invention that built America and you will never see it all in one day!
Brian, if passing through Cheyenne, WY, check out the UP Steam Repait facility. Tours are free, but dependent upon what’s going on in that shop. Pure BangShift nirvana. Be sure to ask about why the roundhouse is still standing. It’s typical Wyoming lore.
This is where the UP 4014 Big Boy is being fully restored to running condition.
A lot of the thumbnails are upside down.
West coast it’s the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento
And don’t miss the museum in Ely, NV – it’s amazing. They still have a wheel lathe and other goodies including a rotary snow plow.
But mostly I wanted to say – WAY COOL and thanks for posting this. That Big Boy is AMAZING! I can’t imagine what it took to fire that bad boy up and put him to work. I’m guessing it had an automatic coal feeder as NO fireman could have kept up with that firebox!
Brian, That\’s very close to me. I\’ve been there many, many times. You should go on the trolly ride too. While you\’re there you absolutely have to go to the Lackawana coal mine tour. It\’s a bitter reality of the life of a coal miner and their family.
Yeah the 4884 could pull a mile long freight at 70 MPH!
You should also check out the Tunkhannock viaduct in Nicholson PA just up the road on RT11. Impressive doesn’t describe it. It was the largest concrete structure of it’s time
http://pic90.picturetrail.com/VOL2210/716707/1468921/251015354.jpg
Go to You Tube and type in Japan Railway Journal. All kinds of trains, including Shinkensen (bullet trains), & steam locomotives that are still active. Each episode about 28 min long.
You should also check the Transportation Museum in St. Louis. They have an assortment of steam and diesel/electric locomotives as well as other types of transportation. It has been years since I\’ve visited, but they do have a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy on display. The sheer size of this beast is awe inspiring, just imagine the sound and the power this thing made!
You should also check the Transportation Museum in St. Louis. They have an assortment of steam and diesel/electric locomotives as well as other types of transportation. It has been years since I’ve visited, but they do have a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy on display. The sheer size of this beast is awe inspiring, just imagine the sound and the power this thing made!