(Photos by the author) – Yesterday we showed you a load of images from a family trip we took to Steamtown USA which is a national historic site in Scranton, PA. It’s basically the land of the iron giants as the place is crawling with restored and working steam locomotives that worked long lives in the USA and Canada. Some of them are all-stars because of their size and speed, some of them are more workaday units that are resting comfortably but they all have a story and they all have an incredible presence to understand and experience when you are near them.

One of the neatest things in the entire place is the cutaway locomotive. Seriously, an actual, full-size locomotive that has been painstakingly cut to show the different parts of the boiler and other mechanical areas of the machine. Outside of the number of locos that can be seen there is the actual roundhouse that they are stored in. The building is incredible and serves not only as the garage for the trains but as an exhibit hall, a multi-level viewing area, and a part of the attraction itself.

This is a pretty incredible place and we were absolutely blown away by how large, interactive, and fun it was. Even my wife was shocked at how cool the place was. If you have kids or are just a gearhead yourself you owe it to stop at Steamtown USA and take a look at the mighty beasts of steel and iron that helped to build this country, one shovel of coal or load of logs at a time.

100% BangShift approved!

Click the images below to expand them and then scroll on to see them all at full size –