SCRANTON, Pa. — The National Park Service’s Steamtown National Historic Site this weekend revived its traditional Labor Day Railfest event, operating steam and diesel shuttle trains, demonstrating machine-shop skills, and providing a festival venue for a wide array of rail-related activities.
After cancellations and schedule disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic, the event returned to its customary Labor Day weekend schedule for the first time since 2019. On Saturday and today (Aug. 31-Sept. 1) visitors rode a diesel-powered “caboose hop” and a steam-powered shuttle that ran about a mile on the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, using a portion of the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad’s Hoboken, N.J.-to-Buffalo, N.Y., main line.
Pulled by Baldwin Locomotive Works 0-6-0 switcher No. 26 (BLW, 1929), the trains ran east past the former DL&W Scranton station, a six-story 1908 Beaux-Arts structure that has been repurposed and renovated as a Radisson hotel.
Speeder and handcar rides, a walking tour to the former DL&W Mattes Street tower, tours of the Scranton station, and various talks and musical presentations were part of the event.
The Scranton-based Delaware-Lackawanna displayed its celebrated American Locomotive Co. streamlined PA passenger diesel No. 190, a former Santa Fe locomotive that now-retired Southern Pacific locomotive engineer Doyle McCormack acquired and painted in Nickel Plate Road colors to honor his and his family’s ties to that carrier.
Built in 1948 as a Model PA1 unit and later upgraded as a PA4, it eventually worked for Delaware & Hudson, Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México before McCormack bought it and started restoration. He sold it last year to Delaware-Lackawanna, which intends to finish electrical work to make it operational.
Coupled to No. 190 was the Pullman-built NKP 10-roomette, 6-bedroom 1950 sleeper City of Lima (open for visitors), and standing next to them was Steamtown’s NKP Class S-2 2-8-4 Berkshire steam engine No. 759 (Lima Locomotive Works, 1944). Also open for inspection was former Lehigh Valley Railroad office car No. 353, the Black Diamond.
Among the many groups providing displays for visitors was the Anthracite Railroads Historical Society, which owns several historic diesel locomotives that are housed at, or used in partnership with, Steamtown. One of those is Lackawanna-painted Electro-Motive Division F3A unit No. 664, which was running caboose hops in the yard. ARHS also owns a former Jersey Central Alco RS-3 that was on display, as was a former Louisville & Nashville Alco FA-2 cab unit undergoing restoration in the locomotive shop.
Other groups included the Iron Horse Society, which supplies volunteer help and funding to Steamtown; the Amtrak Police Department, which brought a K-9 corps demonstration; the Pocono Rail Historical Society, which maintains a station at the nearby town of Tobyhanna; the Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railway Historical Society; and Operation Lifesaver. The adjacent Electric City Trolley Museum operated cars throughout the weekend.
Opened in 1995, Steamtown began holding Railfest gatherings in November 2007, then switched to an annual Labor Day weekend event from 2008 to 2019. The 2020 event was canceled by the COVID pandemic, and although NPS sponsored midsummer events in 2022 and 2023, this weekend marked the resumption of a traditional end-of-summer schedule.
