Casey Jones’ Heaven Sits in Scranton’s Steamtown : National Historic Site Is a Haven for Railroad Buffs With Its Large Collection of Steam Locomotives

The 56-year-old steam railroad locomotive rumbled along the steel rails through Pennsylvania’s scenic Endless Mountains country at a 40-m.p.h. clip.

His red bandanna flopping in the breeze, 61-year-old veteran engineer Bernie O’Brien sounded the train whistle. Fireman Seth Corwin, 53, shoveled coal into the glowing red firebox, and steam poured from the old iron horse as it chug, chug, chug, chug, chugged.

People waved at the passing train from back porches of homes, from sidewalks in small towns, from farm houses, from bicycles, from motorcycles, and from cars parked at rail crossings.

O’Brien kept one hand on the throttle and waved with the other hand.

The train sped through a 3,629-foot-long tunnel. The engineer rang the train’s bell from one end of the tunnel to the other. “One of the rules of the road,” O’Brien explained. The train crossed the 240-foot-high, 2,375-foot-long Nicholson bridge, the largest concrete railroad bridge of its time.

Cold dust swirled from the steam locomotive through open windows into the six passenger coaches where every seat was occupied. The passengers didn’t seem to mind the coal dust. It was part of the adventure of reliving the era of steam.

The National Park Service train was on one of its 56-mile-round-trip excursions from the Ukrainian Bingo Hall in Scranton to the old railroad depot at Kingsley, Pa., which runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Inaugurated this year beginning Memorial Day and continuing until the last weekend in October, every run has been sold out as Scranton has become a center of attention for rail fans.

Riding the old steam train is a highlight of Steamtown National Historic Site, one of the nation’s newest national parks. A haven for rail buffs, it commemorates the history of the steam engines from 1850 to 1950.

“This is Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, how the West was won, turn-back-the-clock time,” shouted Pat Conway, 43, relief engineer, above the roar of the old locomotive. Conway hung onto an iron hoop inside the engine cab to steady himself from the swaying motion of the locomotive. He was covered with soot as was everyone else in the train engine.

Steamtown National Historic Site is a 35-acre spread adjacent to downtown Scranton in the abandoned Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad rail yard. The rail yard is a Valhalla of steam locomotives and steam-age rail cars.

“As far as we know, we have the largest collection of steam locomotives in any one place in America,” said John Latschar, 42, park superintendent. Steamtown has 30 steam locomotives, the earliest dating back to 1887. It has five old diesel engines and 100 passenger and freight cars.

Steamtown was the creation of wealthy New England seafood processor F. Nelson Blount, a die-hard rail buff obsessed with collecting steam engines and old rolling stock. When Blount was killed in a plane crash, the collection became the property of the nonprofit Steamtown Foundation.

The collection was housed in Bellows Falls, Vt., for several years before moving, in 1984, to the 146-year-old DL&W; rail yard abandoned by Con Rail in 1978.

When Con Rail walked away from the rail yard, it became the property of the city of Scranton. The city leased the rail yard to Steamtown, but it went belly up after two years.

A move was afloat to convert the old rail yard into a downtown mall when Rep. Joseph M. McDade (R-Scranton) quickly introduced a bill to make the historic rail yard, Steamtown and the Steamtown collection a National Historic Site, providing the city donate the property to the National Park Service and the Steamtown Foundation present its collection to the federal government. The park was authorized by a congressional act passed in October, 1986.

Attendance Doubles

Steamtown National Historic Site opened in July, 1988. Though open only from Memorial Day to the end of October, 26,000 people came the first year. This year’s attendance has already doubled. A six-year development plan calls for spending $60 million to restore the collection, partially reconstruct the old round house, rehabilitate the rail shops, build a new depot, and construct a coal tipple, two water cranes, a sand tower and a visitor’s center.

Since every rail fan magazine in the country has carried stories about Steamtown, rail fans have been coming here from all over the nation to ride the excursion train, to see the collection and view the old rail yard. “Steamtown has caught the imagination of rail buffs from coast to coast. It is an extremely exciting place for anyone interested in railroad history,” said Tim Landon, 35, of St. Paul, Minn.

Railroad mechanics, firemen, breakmen, conductors and engineers on loan to the National Park Service double as seasonal park rangers. Other railroad workers and railroad fans donate their time in the park and on the steam locomotive train excursions.

Engineer O’Brien, for example, is a career railroad engineer for the Delaware and Hudson line on loan to the National Park Service. Fireman Corwin operates a 100-bus transit system in Carmel, N.J., and drives 40 miles to Scranton to work as a volunteer fireman on the train three days a week.

Rail buff Tony Pawn, 62, who used to work for the Hughes aerospace corporation in Canoga Park, is a volunteer ranger on the train. On this trip he told passengers the tunnel the train passed through was guarded by soldiers during World War II as trains using the tracks carried war goods.

“Kingsley, the town we are approaching was named after Rufus Kingsley, a 13-year-old Revolutionary War drummer,” noted Pawn. Other volunteer rangers included Bob Flanagan, 66, a retired reporter and editor for the Scranton Times, and pharmacist Michael Castellano, 36, from Tunkhannock, Pa.

‘It’s a Thrill’

Norm Barrett, 41, the train’s conductor on loan from the Delaware and Hudson calls working three days a week on the National Park Service train “a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s a thrill for me to be doing this,” he insisted as he signed autographs for several boys and girls who gathered around him as a train stopped at Kingsley.

Earl Armon, 59, a heavy equipment operator from New Millford, Pa., sat in a coach with his wife, Bea, and their five grandchildren, Carrie, 10, Jennifer, 9, Kelly, 7, Lindsay, 5, and Amanda, 4. The whole bunch was wearing blue and white striped railroad caps.

None of the kids had ever ridden in a train before, let alone one pulled by a steam engine. “I saw a steam engine train in a picture book,” Kelly said. Added Jennifer: “I saw one in ‘Little House on the Prairie’ on TV.”

The National Park Service train operates on the main freight line of the Delaware and Hudson. Plans are to run the excursion trains over 26 miles of abandoned Delaware, Lacawanna and Western tracks from Scranton to Pocomo Summit, tracks that would become the exclusive use of the park service.

Back in the rail yard at Steamtown visitors ride a steam train on a five-minute run to the round house. They operate hand-pumped cars along short stretches of track, visit an old railroad post office car, sit in a passenger coach and watch films of old steam trains.

Mary M. Benninger, 75, one of the volunteer rangers in the park’s temporary visitor’s center, is dressed head to foot in railroad gear --an engineer’s outfit--railroad cap, red bandanna and denim shirt.

“This is my inheritance,” allowed Benninger. “My father was a railroad engineer from 1907 to 1937. My grandfather was a switchman, my uncle a yardmaster, and my brother a fireman.

“I’m in love with the railroad--the wail of the whistle, the sound of the trains leaving, pulling in and roaring down the tracks, all the romance that went with it.”

As the excursion train returned to the rail yard at Scranton Sue Pridemore, 42, a Park Service Ranger for 19 years, mused aloud: “I get goose bumps every time I see the train coming.”