Steamtown National Historic Site

The city of Scranton is located on the ancestral homelands of the Lenape people.

Date of Visit: November 29, 2025

Among Pennsylvania’s 19 National Park Service sites, there are many that speak to the incredible history our Commonwealth has seen. And with its rich railroading history, it’s only natural that Pennsylvania would be home to a National Historic Site dedicated to that unique aspect of our country’s industrial heritage.

Railroad crossing sign between two sets of train tracks. Beneath the white X is a brown sign with white letters pointing left to Steamtown and the Electric City Trolley Museum

Steamtown National Historic Site does just that. Located in the yard of the former Lackawanna Railroad, Steamtown is a free-admission park that is well-worth a visit.

hand holding a train ticket made to look vinage with the town name Scranton

Our day at Steamtown began with a ride on the Moscow Holiday Express, a special excursion train that traveled from Scranton to the borough of Moscow. (You can read about it here).

While the train ride cost us about $70 for the four of us, admission to the exhibits at Steamtown is always free.

Families stand in line at two windows of a small white building with gray roof and the words "tickets and information" over the windows.

Junior Ranger activity books are also free, as they are at all NPS sites. We stopped by the information kiosk and picked one up for Jakob, our eight-year-old who loves to learn everything about everything.

Union Pacific Big Boy locomotive with 4-8-8-4 wheel alignment on display at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton, PA

His favorite part was identifying locomotives by their wheel alignment, like the 4-8-8-4 Big Boy that sits outside by the parking lot. The Union Pacific engine on display was one of 25 built in the early 1940s. The sheer size of it is incredible: 85 feet long plus an additional 50 feet for the coal tender behind it. Its weight of more than 700,000 pounds is hard to fathom.

Looking at the turntable of a roundhouse at Steamtown National Historic Site with three small steam engines in the far left background.

The engine sits outside because it’s too large to fit in the roundhouse complex, which is home to a large selection of preserved rolling stock and interpretive exhibits. The roundhouse is original to the site where it once served the Lackawanna. Its existence is one of the primary reasons why Steamtown has been preserved as part of the National Park Service.

A gray diesel engine with number 2452 in yellow letters in a maroon stripe sits in the middle of an open-air part of the roundhouse at Steamtown National Historic Site.

Several locomotives are on display in the uncovered center of the roundhouse, including four steam engines and three diesels (plus a pair of cabooses).

Three of the steamers are small – think Thomas the Tank Engine sized. But the main attraction in this part is the #790 (a 2-8-0 engine, as Jakob could tell you). The engine was built in 1903 and ran on the Illinois Central Railroad. A set of stairs allows you to climb up into the cab.

young boy in a blue coat pulls a string to ring a bell in the cab of an antique steam engine

Not only is it a great look at the complexity of operating a steam locomotive, it’s also really fun to pull the string and ring the engine’s bell.

lanterns and other metal railroad equipment on dispay at Steamtown National Historic Site.

That ringing echoed throughout the courtyard and the faintest echoes of it could be heard in the indoor exhibits. The first exhibits told a general story about railroads with cases full of memorabilia and artifacts – number plates from historic locomotives, lanterns used by conductors and railroad workers, and tools used in the manufacturing of these impressive machines.

large wooden box with the words "handle with care" in red letters in the foreground as two children sit on crates watching a tv screen in the background.

Inside an old boxcar, wooden benches provide seating for a short video highlighting the different types of freight cars that can be seen on the railroad.

Other videos can be found throughout the exhibits, including the Steel & Steam video that tells the story of early railroading.

There are more locomotives and equipment on display under the cover of the roundhouse, including several steam engines – some of which formerly pulled trains at Steamtown. There are also diesel engines, cabooses, and passenger cars.

Inside a mail car with green walls and large canvas bags at

Visitors can climb inside a former mail car and sort mail into slots while imagining what it would have been like to do this as the car rocked back and forth while traveling along the tracks at 50 miles per hour.

A black steam locomotive with half of its front stripped away to show the internal workings of the engine and boiler.

Another intereting engine in the collection is #8, a 1923 Baldwin locomotive that serves as a cutaway engine with exposed boiler and internal workings to show how coal turns to steam to power these beasts.

Blue-tinted lgihts around two bar-covered windows behind red velety couches at Steamtown National Historic Site.

Other highlights of the exhibits include a tribute to the men and women who worked on the railroad. If you want to take a rest, there’s also a restored passenger waiting room complete with authentic ticket sales counters.

Two steam engines side-by-side: on the left is a black and yellow engine #2124 and on the right is a larger gray engine

As mentioned earlier, the displays do extend outside of the main roundhouse. Next to the parking lot, alongside the Big Boy, is my favorite engine on display. Reading Railroad #2124 has been cosmetically restored to its original black and yellow paint. It’s sister engine, #2102, still operates excursions to Jim Thorpe on the Reading & Northern Railroad.

old steam engine with black paint peeling sits idle on a track ahead of some rusty freight cars.

Other engines and rolling stock on outside display have been left in a state of disrepair. We saw many rusty pieces of equipment while leaving the yard on our excursion, the weather and elements taking a toll on the once important machines.

Room full of brown shelves filled with train memorabilia

After seeing all of the displays, we made two more stops before leaving the park. First, we popped into the gift shop, which is housed in a small outbuilding near the entrance. We took home a wooden train for our two-year-old and a Junior Ranger passport book for Jakob so we can collect stamps as we visit more NPS sites.

Shadows cover the left half of the turntable and roundhouse at Steamtown National Historic Site.

The first stamp was our last stop. We visited the information kiosk on our way out where Jakob recited the Junior Ranger pledge, gave his completed packet for verification, and received his badge and passport stamp.

An old caboose with faded red paint awaiting restoration inside the roundhouse at Steamtown National Historic Site.

We spent about two hours exploring Steamtown, and it’s possible to spend more if you take one of the ranger-led tours into the locomotive shops where staff and volunteers are working to restore even more history.

And I look forward to seeing the fruits of their labor on future visits to Steamtown.

Steamtown National Historic Site
350 Cliff Street
Scranton, PA 18503

large black locomotive number 490 on display in front of the Steamtown National Historic Site roundhouse.

When You Go

Admission is free. Train rides can be purchased for a fee. In addition to long excursions like the one we took, short 20- and 45-minute rides are offered during the summer and early fall.
The site is mostly accessible. Only a few exhibits, including the mail car and locomotive #790, require stairs.
The Junior Ranger program is free to participate in, and there are three different levels that can be achieved, all receiving the badge upon completion. Programs are available at most NPS sites.
Next door to Steamtown is the Electric City Trolley Museum. The museum is unaffiliated, though it does make a nice complement to Steamtown. The trolley museum also offers trolley rides that leave from the same platform as Steamtown’s excursions.