A Trip to Old PA

As our first foray exploring the Quaker State, we took a weekend trip to Scranton, home of SteamTown USA National Historic Park. After so many years in Michigan's Upper Penninsula, where everything is far away, it constantly surprises us how close things are here. We threw a few things in the car and headed out.



Two and a half hours later, we were standing in the lobby of the former Delaware, Lakawanna, and Western depot checking in to our room. We found ourselves surrounded by brass, marble, and tile vaulted by a massive Tiffany skylight.  Built in the heady economic days of the early 20th century and remodeled as a hotel only recently, it was decidedly dramatic - over the top even. A unique reminder of past styles of wealth and display.

But our biggest treat turned out to be unanticipated. Happening through the hallway that night, we were drawn to the lobby by the sound of jazz. Not your usual Saturday night lounge music, but jazz standards played with swing, with style, with exciting solos. Ann and I  spent the evening enjoying the session with a few dozen others. One of our favorite concerts of recent memory, and we almost missed it.

The fact that the station was preserved and has flourished now as a hotel is a minor miracle. Scranton has been an iron town, a railroad town, and a coal town. That's three strikes against it in a more modern age, and it's been in decline since the 1920's. The historic park seems to have had a significant effect on the downtown, with a new mall between the park and main drag, and several newer hotels in addition to the restored Lakawanna station.





The park presented a variety of rolling stock (restored and not), interpretive areas, and demonstrations. Our favorites were the round house demonstration and some of the old unrestored stock. Seeing, hearing, and smelling a massive coal fired steam locomotive pull into the center of the roundhouse and spin silently on the turntable is not to be missed. Nothing stirs the blood like a steam whistle. And the wistful, elegiac feel of the bent and decaying Shay engine brought home the feeling of times past.

There's also early iron mining sites to visit and coal mine tours available.We thought Scranton well worth a stop if you're in the area and like trains and history. If you're interested in more of our photos from SteamTown, take a trip to:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jbp1111/ScrantonTripSteamtown?authkey=Gv1sRgCI708a395OiOOA#