Eastern Railroad Discussion > Scranton, PA rail fanning advice please

I'm picking up my son at Lycoming College in Williamsport PA on 8/3, it's about an hour from Scranton.  I know Steamtown is there, I've never been.  I'll only have from about noon on Friday until dark to check things out, I have to pick him up Sat AM.  I'll look at their site, but I'm guessing most action there happens on weekends?  

Does NS or CSX have a mainline close with decent traffic?  

Any recommendations for for the area are appreciated!  Thanks!

The Delaware-Lackawanna  often operates on Saturdays, you can see it from the parking lot at Steamtown, or from the foot bridge over to the mall.

In Williamsport, you can see the Lycoming Valley Railroad with its Reading-inspired livery.

Hi, I use to live in Williamsport, PA and know that Steamtown in Scranton, PA is about an hour and forty-five minutes away and that is with no traffic.  Steamtown is a nice visit and it is on our travel list again this summer.  If you have time there is English's Model Railroad shop in Montoursville (5 minutes from Lycoming).  Also, there is a nice model train collection/display at the Thomas Taber Museum on 4th Street in Williamsport.  As for Norfolk Southern they usually only go to Williamsport once a week for the coal train and I have never seen a CSX train here, ever.  I do not think the NS travels to Scranton and especially not the CSX.  Maybe I am incorrect but I have never seen or heard of it traveling here or there.  If you are traveling on Route 15 north to Williamsport and pass the White Deer exit you can look immediately to your right and you will see a bunch of old passenger cars through the trees.  We have no idea the hours but it is called "Central PA Chapter NRHS", we just know people have been refurbishing them over the years.  Hope this helps, save travels.         

where do u live now?
 

NS now owns the former D&H through Scranton, but I have no idea what the operating patterns llook like.

The standard advice for the Delaware-Lackawanna is get to Bridge 60 Tower (adjacent to Steamtown) for 8am, then wait and see what happens.  There's also a D-L group on Facebook that might help.

Dunder Mifflin Paper Company still getting loads of paper rolls? 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/19 10:40 by JohnM.

CSX operations closest to Scranton PA are about 100 miles east at Newburgh, NY.
 WRT to NS operations through Scranton (Taylor Yd), there are six daily road trains:
- 11Z / 14R between Enola and Binghamton that generally operate in daylight with early morning departures out of their originating yars often meeting somewhere southwest of Scranton.
- 36T /  37T between Allentown and Binghamton that I think are also daylight trains that pass through Scranton in the mid to late afternoon (TOP21 changed their scheduling as these trains no longer run to from Buffalo)
- H97 Binghamton to Scranton and return to Binghamton turn which is a nocturnal Monday - Friday run with a Taylor yard doublestacks and manifest traffic for the DL and Taylor-based locals (eg, daytime K81). On weekends, H97 is replaced by Taylor-Binghamton-Taylor nocturnal turns K82 or K79.

Note that R&N also operates a turn local through Taylor yard out of Pittston Yard near Wilkes Barre to serve its Scranton area customers - I think this is a daily daytime operation (although maybe not on weekends?).

As for other Scranton area diversions, the Electric City Trolley Museum is interesting featuring a trolley ride on a portion of the old Laurel Line: http://www.ectma.org/

If you can arrange your schedule so as to be in Scranton by 8 a.m. Friday instead of noon, do so. That's the best way to be on top of whatever the Delaware-Lackawanna is doing, and they're by far the coolest show in Scranton. If you get there at noon it will be a crapshoot as to knowing where to go to find a train.

And oh yeah, I'd allow two hours to travel from Scranton to Williamsport. You may get there faster, but it's definitely not just an hour.