| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — 1865 Inspection Pit |
| | Steamtown's historic roundhouse complex consists of the above - and below - ground remains of a series of roundhouses and turntables built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad between 1865 and 1937. In advance of the new exhibit buildings' construction, archeologists excavated and studied the buried foundation of the first roundhouse built in this vicinity. The circular exterior wall of the 1865 roundhouse, located approximately 145 feet from the center of the existing turntable, . . . — Map (db m19837) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — 1902 Roundhouse Office |
| | Across the tracks, adjacent to the back of the new exhibit building, is the historic 1902 roundhouse office - headquarters of the roundhouse foreman. Built in 1902, the roundhouse office is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western's Scranton yard. Throughout the steam era, the roundhouse foreman was responsible for each locomotive that entered the roundhouse complex. He supervised inspections, adjustments, repairs, and cleaning. The office's location allowed . . . — Map (db m19899) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — 1902 Roundhouse Section |
| | The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad built its second roundhouse in this location in 1902. When first constructed, this building was part of a forty-six-stall roundhouse. After an extensive modernization program in 1937, only the three locomotive stalls before you remained from the earlier 1902 design. Following modernization, the new roundhouse utilized industrial practices of the time. The new roundhouse was "not intended to be a rest room, a loafing place or club room, and there is . . . — Map (db m19893) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — 1902/1937 Inspection Pit |
| | Stalls inside the 1902/1937 roundhouse had below-grade work pits. These shallow brick and concrete-lined pits ran down the center of each stall and extended from the front to the rear walls of the roundhouse. Upon a locomotive's arrival at the roundhouse, mechanics climbed under, around, and over all parts of the steam engine searching for problems that might interrupt the operation of the locomotive while on the road. — Map (db m19835) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — 1902/1937 Roundhouse |
| | The roundhouse was and is the heart of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DL&W) yards. Here, mechanics perform daily maintenance on steam locomotives - routine inspections, light repairs, and boiler washes. Hissing steam, pounding hammers, and the drone of engines provide a constant backdrop for the mechanics' work. During the 1940s and 50s, the diesel electric locomotive, with its different maintenance requirements, rendered the roundhouse obsolete. The DL&W removed two-thirds of its . . . — Map (db m19833) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Bullard Company #2 |
| | This oil-burning steam engine was designed to be operated by a single engineer-fireman and was among the smallest standard-gauge locomotives ever built. Locomotive #2 operated up and down the railroad sidings and loading tracks outside the Bullard Company's Bridgeport, Connecticut, machine tool manufacturing plant. Locomotive #2 switched freight cars to and from the loading tracks and lined up loaded cars to be picked up by a freight train. — Map (db m19907) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Canadian National Railways #47 |
| | In 1914, the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada purchased six 4-6-4T locomotives from the Montreal Locomotive Works, a division of the American Locomotive Company. This Baltic tank locomotive carried coal and water in a coal bin and water tank built into the locomotive's frame, instead of in a separate tender coupled to its end. Its large, sixty-three-inch drive wheels indicate that #47 was built for passenger service and it was so employed, providing commuter service in suburban Montreal. This . . . — Map (db m19903) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Casting Iron |
| | The blast furnace was the heart of any iron-making establishment. Lined with heat-resistant brick, known as refractory, the stack was filled from the top with alternating layers of iron ore, anthracite and limestone. As the raw materials worked their way down inside the stack, the heated air blast caused the coal to burn, which in turn melted the ore and limestone. the calcium in the limestone acted as a flux, which removed impurities from the melted ore and formed slag. Just below the melt . . . — Map (db m10574) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — City of Scranton |
| | Scranton grew from a village into a city through the success of the ironworks, coal mines, and railroads. The Scrantons built a company store and hotel to attract potential workers and customers to the city. More businesses followed. The city's population grew from 2,230 in 1850, to 76,000 in 1890. The Scranton Estate On a hill overlooking the furnaces stands the home of Joseph H. Scranton, president of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company from 1858 to 1872. The 1871 mansion, built next to . . . — Map (db m10552) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Claremont & Concord Snow Plow #60 |
| | Coupled in front of the locomotive, this type of wedge-shaped plow simply pushed snow to the side. Because of their reliance on a locomotive's momentum, plows were often operated at high speeds - a practice fraught with danger. Nonetheless, snow removal was slow work; plows often retreated to sidings to allow passenger and freight trains to pass. The Boston & Maine Railroad shops built Snow Plow #60 before 1910. In a snowstorm, "the engineers and the firemen, the conductors and the . . . — Map (db m19908) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — CNJ #5 Steam Derrick — Idler Gondola #9208 |
| | This steam-powered wrecking crane was part of a small fleet of cars designed solely to maintain the railway - to remove wrecks and to lay, replace, and resurface the track. The Central Railroad of New Jersey #5 steam derrick was built in 1918 and spent most of its working life in northeastern Pennsylvania. It could lift up to 150 tons. Though it could move itself and its idler for short distances, a locomotive usually pulled #5 to the work site. The idler gondola, when coupled in front of the . . . — Map (db m19840) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Shops |
| | In 1907 William Truesdale, president of the DL&W, hired architect Frank J. Niles of New Jersey to replace the original locomotive shops. Niles designed four new structures: A five story pattern shop, a foundry, a blacksmith shop, and a locomotive erection shop. At its peak in 1910 almost 2000 men worked at the shops. DL&W continued to repair and manufacture locomotive equipment at this site until 1951. As new modes of transportation replaced the railroad, work declined. When DL&W sold the site . . . — Map (db m10593) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — DL&W Coal Hoppers |
| | Hopper cars like these carried the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's heaviest and most profitable freight - anthracite coal. With increases in coal production came the need to increase hauling capacity. In the decades before 1900, the DL&W progressed from six-ton-capacity jimmies, to twenty-ton wood drop-bottom cars, to forty- and fifty-ton steel hoppers for hauling coal. Steel hoppers, like those in front of you, were loaded from above and emptied through two bottom chutes. Some . . . — Map (db m19910) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — E.J. Lavino & Company #3 |
| | The American Locomotive Company built this 0-6-0T saddle tank industrial switch locomotive in 1927. E.J. Lavino and Company put the #3 to work at its Sheridan, Pennsylvania, yards. E.J. Lavino and Company operated a ferro-manganese blast furnace in Sheridan. Manganese, a necessary ingredient in the manufacture of steel, was provided by E.J. Lavino to the United States' steel industry. The steel industry, in turn, was an important supplier to the railroads - supplying the basic ingredient for . . . — Map (db m19817) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Grand Trunk Western #6039 |
| | In 1925, the Grand Trunk Western Railway purchased five 4-8-2 Mountain locomotives, numbered 6037 through 6041, from the Baldwin Locomotive Works. These coal-burning locomotives had cylinder-shaped Vanderbilt tenders and enclosed all-weather cabs. The Grand Trunk Western Railway, controlled by Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada, owned track in Michigan and Illinois and provided commuter service to Detroit. In the 1950s, the Grand Trunk leased this engine to the Central Vermont Railway. It was one . . . — Map (db m19900) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Illinois Central #790 |
| | This 2-8-0 Consolidation was built in 1903 by the American Locomotive Company and sold to the Illinois Central Railroad in 1904. For many years, this engine saw hard service on the Illinois Central, hauling freight trains through Tennessee. In 1918, #790 was overhauled and modernized with a superheater. It continued to work until it was retired to storage in the 1950s. — Map (db m19897) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Lackawanna Iron |
| | Iron was forged in Slocum Hollow by 1797. Nearby are remains of Lackawanna Iron Co. works begun 1840 by Scranton and associates. Iron rails for the Erie R.R. were made here, 1847. Steel-making begun in 1875. Closed in 1902. — Map (db m10531) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Long Island Railroad #193 Rotary Snow Plow |
| | This rotary snow plow (built in 1898) worked the Long Island Railroad for sixty-nine years, until its retirement in 1967. The Long Island #193 was a Canadian-invented plow designed to reduce the cost of snow removal. Much like a modern snowblower, it used rotary blades to disperse snow. This model was most commonly used on routes through the Great Plains and western mountain ranges, where deep snow drifts were common. The Long Island Railroad was one of only seven railroads east of the Mississippi to purchase a rotary snow plow. — Map (db m19909) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Making Steel |
| | In 1875, the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company installed Bessemer Converters in order to convert their pig iron into steel. The steel works was located across Cedar Avenue where the General Dynamics plant now stands. The Bessemer process involved charging a large egg-shaped vessel with several tons of molten pig iron and blowing air through passages in the bottom. The resulting shower of sparks was the excess carbon being burned off. Rather than remove all the carbon, the blows (periods of blast) . . . — Map (db m10537) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — New Haven Trap Rock Company #43 |
| | The Vulcan Iron Works built engine #43, an industrial saddle tank 0-4-0T switcher, in 1919. The engine was purchased by C.W. Blakeslee and Sons out of New Haven, Connecticut, for work at their New Haven Trap Rock Company quarry. At the quarry, small switch engines supplied empty gondola cars to steam shovels for filling. Once filled with cut rock, the engine pulled the loaded cars over to the rock crusher. Larger engines hauled cars filled with crushed stone to the company's railroad at . . . — Map (db m19806) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Oil House |
| | During the steam era, railroads across the United States constructed oil houses to safely store the flammable oils and greases used in railroad operations and maintenance. The DL&W built this reinforced concrete and steel oil house in 1912 in accordance with early twentieth-century safety practices. It was located conveniently close to the roundhouse complex, yet far enough away to minimize damage to locomotives, rolling stock, personnel, and other railroad yard buildings in case of fire or . . . — Map (db m19780) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Oil House Foundation |
| | The brick border on the plaza area in front of you marks the location of the underground foundation and cellar of an oil house built about 1870. This oil house is the earliest known oil storage and distribution facility at the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western's Scranton yard. In 1912, when a new oil house was constructed, this building was converted to store the railroad yard's waste oil. — Map (db m19777) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Pennsylvania Boxcars |
| | Boxcars were the backbone of the railroads' non-bulk freight business. During a journey, a freight car was often coupled and uncoupled to several different trains. As a result, one company's freight cars might be found on a dozen different lines. The design of boxcars evolved over decades. Wooden cars gave way to stronger steel cars, which were further strengthened to increase capacity. The Pennsylvania Railroad Shops converted boxcars from wood to steel beginning in the mid-1940s. At the . . . — Map (db m19819) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Rahway Valley #15 |
| | Baldwin Locomotive Works delivered this engine, a 2-8-0 Consolidation-type locomotive, to the Oneida & Western Railroad in 1916. In 1937, after twenty-one years of grueling Tennessee mountain service, the Oneida & Western Railroad sold it to the Rahway Valley Railroad for use on their New Jersey short line. During its active career on the Rahway Valley, #15 hauled freight between the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad at Summit, New Jersey, and the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Central . . . — Map (db m19902) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Reading #2124 |
| | Originally built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works during the mid 1920s as a 2-8-0, the Reading Company rebuilt #2124 among thirty other engines, as a 4-8-4 Northern in January 1947. Reading Northerns were heavy-duty freight locomotives assigned most often to coal traffic. Their wide fire-boxes burned culm, a wast product of anthracite coal. Together, the engine and tender weighed 405 tons and easily pulled 150 loaded coal hoppers. Retired from freight service in 1956, #2124 was rescued from . . . — Map (db m19901) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Rolling and Puddling |
| | The Scrantons initially intended to make and market pig iron alone. However, they soon decided to produce a smaller, finished product. In 1844, nail-making machinery was installed and a puddling mill constructed approximately one thousand yards above the furnaces along Roaring Brook. Nails were made from wrought iron plates. In order to convert their cast iron into wrought iron, the Scrantons built several reverberatory or puddling ovens. Cast iron averages about four percent carbon content, . . . — Map (db m10575) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Scranton Iron Furnaces |
| | (Left Panel): Scranton was founded as an ironmaking community. In the late 1830's, the natural resources of the Lackawanna Valley attracted William Henry, the Scrantons, the Platts, and their associates. Nearby they found coal, waterpower, limestone, and iron ore - everything needed for making iron. The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company built its first blast furnace in 1841, adding four more by 1855; rolling mills and steel mills spread up and down Roaring Brook. William Henry, a New . . . — Map (db m10535) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Scranton's Iron Furnace |
| | Beginnings In August of 1840 William Henry, Seldon and George Scranton, and Stanford Grant noted abundant outcroppings of coal and iron ore while prospecting in the Nay Aug Ravine. The wealth of raw material prompted them to purchase 503 acres in the area, and by September they had begun construction of a blast furnace, marking the birth of industry in Scranton. At the time the area, known as Slocum Hollow, contained only a schoolhouse, gristmill, sawmil, cooper shop, the Slocum house, and . . . — Map (db m10603) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Settlement |
| | In the 1830's, the Lackawanna Valley was largely wilderness. Here at Slocum Hollow there were five dwellings, a saw and grist mill, a school, a cooper's shop, and a hotel. To house the ironworkers and their families, the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company built houses on "Shanty Hill," today's "South Side," across from the furnaces. The first group to work at LI&C - German, Welsh, and Irish - lived in these houses, and built their own churches and schools. Between 1880 and 1900, eastern . . . — Map (db m10551) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Steamtown National Historic Site |
| | (1) Locomotive Erecting Shop (1909) - where heavy maintenance was done on locomotives. More than 70 locomotives were built here. The facility included a foundry, blacksmith shop, machine shop, and a laboratory. (2) Office and Storage Building (1909) - used as a warehouse for the erecting ship and served as the main office for the Scranton yard. (3) Sand Tower (1917) - used to dry and store sand. Sand is used on all locomotives to improve traction. (4) Containment Rings . . . — Map (db m19905) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Supplying the Blast |
| | By 1850, the application of steam power to the manufacture of goods was well established. Not only did the steam engine produce sufficient amounts of relatively stable power, but it freed industry from location along waterways. Two double connected lever-beam steam engines were installed at the Scranton Works in 1854. These engines, considered the largest of that type in America at the time, powered by large blowing cylinders, which produced the blast for the furnaces. By 1879, seven steam . . . — Map (db m10571) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Tank Car |
| | More than a century ago, railroads developed special cars to carry liquids - usually crude oil and petroleum products - without separate containers or packaging. Since many liquids required special linings, most tank cars were owned by individual shippers and carried only one class of product over many railroads. Industry practices recommended that a railroad siding be built next to an oil house so oils could be delivered either in barrels onto the loading dock or directly from tank cars. . . . — Map (db m19778) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — The Blast Furnaces |
| | These four stone stacks, built between 1841 and 1854, are the remnants of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company blast furnaces. The area in front was the casting floor. The molten iron was run into sand channels formed in the floor which served as molds for pigs and sows, bars of iron. The entire area was covered by a huge casting shed. In addition to the casting shed, an engine house and fuel and ore sheds were associated with the furnace. The blast furnaces were part of a larger complex of . . . — Map (db m10592) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company |
| | 1851 - 1951 Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company Here in Scranton, Pennsylvania was conceived and brought to successful completion the first segment of what is now the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, on which the first train was operated October 15, 1951. To George Whitfield Scranton (1811-1861) who more than any other person is entitled to be called the "father" of this railroad, and to all employees, past and present, . . . — Map (db m10606) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — The Lackawanna Valley |
| | The Lackawanna Valley seemed to have all the advantages for an ironworks - raw materials, waterpower, and topography. "This is a marvelous place. Only two years ago it was a wilderness... But the eye of speculation and improvement was on it, and a furnace was erected between the hills and upon the stream. The mines for coal to be used in this establishment, are within a biscuit toss of the doors of the furnace, and the ore is obtained on the opposite hill. The lime stone is less easily . . . — Map (db m10550) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Turntable |
| | The hub of the roadhouse complex was the turntable. From here, tracks radiated like spokes into each roundhouse stall. Engines returning to the roundhouse for maintenance rolled through a narrow two-track passage onto the turntable. An operator inside the control cab rotated the turntable bridge to align with the tracks leading to the assigned stall. The locomotive with its tender entered head first so that the smokestack was positioned under the ceiling flues. To leave the roundhouse, the procedure was reversed. — Map (db m19781) |
| Pennsylvania (Lackawanna County), Scranton — Union Pacific #4012 |
| | Locomotive #4012 is a 4-8-8-4 Big Boy. The Big Boys were the longest and among the largest and most powerful steam locomotives in the world. Even with their great size, the Big Boys were capable of reaching speeds in excess of eighty miles per hour. Steamtown's #4012 is 132'-10" long and with a loaded tender weighs 1,189,500 pounds. In service it carried twenty-eight tons of coal, 24,000 gallons of water, and developed a tractive force of 135,375 pounds. Twenty-five Big Boys were built . . . — Map (db m19898) |
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