Steamtown Steam Over Scranton: The Locomotives of Steamtown Special History Study

This document contains the results of many months of research conducted in 1987 and 1988 for preparation of a Scope of Collections Statement for Steamtown National Historic Site. During the course of that project, the author accumulated a wealth of important raw data that contributed to a determination of which rolling stock should be acquired from the Steamtown Foundation for preservation at the park.

Because of the perceived management and interpretive value of the research material, it was decided that a special history study be undertaken to incorporate this information and to provide illustrations and bibliographic data. In essence, this report provides the rationale for decisions regarding the acquisition of locomotives for Steamtown National Historic Site; unpublished chapters filed at the park and available to interested parties by purchase of electrostatic copies likewise contain the rationale for non-acquisition of certain locomotives. The sections of this report regarding individual locomotives are mostly brief. On consultation with National Park Service Chief Historian Edwin C. Bearss, it was decided that footnotes would not be used and that each section would have its own bibliography.

The author is the National Park Service Historian for the Western Region, headquartered in San Francisco. Most of the time spent on this project was contributed and voluntary. All extensive research, such as that conducted in such repositories as the libraries of the California State Railroad Museum and the Colorado Railroad Museum, was performed gratuitously on personal time. The author also provided substantive information from his extensive personal library.

It is important that readers appreciate the time and money constraints under which this study proceeded, and that much pertinent data was thus unavailable from sites in the regions wherein the various Steamtown acquisitions originally operated or were located. That research must be left to others undertaking more detailed accountings of these locomotives.