Railfest Returns to Steamtown

Steamtown National Historic Site’s 2022 Railfest weekend is being offered in partnership with the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum’s Arts on Fire event held at the Scranton Iron Furnaces. Both sites are excited to be collaborating to provide an interactive and immersive experience showcasing our community’s history. In addition to free admission, there will be no cost for Steamtown’s short train rides, the Scranton Limited and the Caboose Experience. Free transportation between Steamtown and the Iron Furnaces will also be available.

Steamtown will host a ribbon cutting ceremony at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 11^th to celebrate the restoration of the Union Pacific “Big Boy” No. 4012. Shortly after the ceremony, scheduled tours of the cab of the “Big Boy” will be provided by NPS staff and volunteers. Special programming will be offered throughout the weekend, including tours of Mattes St. Tower, demonstrations of Maintenance of Way equipment provided by the New Jersey Trackcar Excursions group, hand car demonstrations, tours and demonstrations within the locomotive shop including updates on the Boston & Maine No. 3713, special Railfest-exclusive Junior Ranger activities, scheduled Ranger Programs, and of course, our short train rides, the Scranton Limited and the Caboose Experience. Several community partners will be in attendance with site information and exhibits. For those interested in genealogy, our Historian will be on-site with the Lackawanna Historical Society to assist those digging into their family history.

Arts on Fire at the Scranton Iron Furnaces will take place 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 11^th, kicking off at 11 a.m. with a ceremonial lighting of the furnace.  Arts on Fire will feature Lackawanna Markets arts vendors, arts demonstrations, food trucks, music by Bryan Banks, Steamtown’s “Ring of Fire” demonstrations, and the return of Hot Metal to the furnaces.  The Lackawanna Historical Society will feature a community participation mural project, and artist and sculpture professor Brian Glaze will fire up his cupola furnace and melt iron.  Scratch blocks will be available for your artistic expressions in cast iron.

Steamtown’s Railfest weekend continues into Sunday, June 12^th with an excursion to Gouldsboro, departing from Steamtown at 11 a.m. and returning at 3 p.m. Tickets for this excursion may be purchased in advance online through recreation.gov by searching “Steamtown National Historic Site”, or on-site at the Information Kiosk during regular business hours. Please note: due to limited crew availability, there will be no Yard Shuttle available on excursion day, only the Caboose Experience.

Stay informed by visiting www.nps.gov/stea or @SteamtownNHS on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Learn about the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum by visiting www.anthracitemuseum.org or @AnthraciteHeritageMuseum on Facebook and @AnthraciteMuse on Twitter.