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Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) is a railroad museum and heritage railroad located on 〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The National Parks: Index 2009–2011 . Part 2 )〕 in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). The museum is built around a working turntable and a roundhouse that are largely replications of the original DL&W facilities; the roundhouse, for example, was reconstructed from remnants of a 1932 structure. The site also features several original outbuildings dated between 1899 and 1902. All the buildings on the site are listed with the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Yard-Dickson Manufacturing Co. Site.〔Kissel, Kelly P. (From Train yard Spouts National Park ). Ludingtone Daily News. May 19, 1992. Pg. 5, Accessed March 11, 2012.〕 Most of the steam locomotives and other railroad equipment at Steamtown NHS were originally collected by F. Nelson Blount, a millionaire seafood processor from New England. In 1964, Blount established a non-profit organization, the Steamtown Foundation, to operate Steamtown, USA, a steam railroad museum and excursion business in Bellows Falls, Vermont. In 1984, the foundation moved Steamtown to Scranton, conceived of as urban redevelopment and funded in part by the city. But the museum failed to attract the expected 200,000 to 400,000 annual visitors, and within two years was facing bankruptcy.〔Barcousky, Len. ''(Federal Train Park Steams Both Sides )''. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. July 3, 1994. Pg B1. Accessed July, 18, 2010.〕 In 1986, the U.S. House of Representatives, at the urging of Scranton native Representative Joseph M. McDade, approved $8 million to begin turning the museum into a National Historic Site.〔(House Approves Spending for Scranton Steamtown ). The Pittsburgh Press, October 16, 1986. Accessed July 16, 2010〕 The idea was derided by those who called the collection second-rate, the site's historical significance questionable, and the public funding no more than pork-barrel politics.〔Hinds, Michael deCourcy ''(As 'Steamtown' Grows, So Does Park Debate )'' New York Times, November 23, 1991. Accessed July 16, 2010〕〔Kelly, Brian. (A Tale of Piggery ). Newsweek. April 13, 1992. Accessed July 18, 2010,〕 But proponents said the site and the collection were ideal representations of American industrial history.〔At Scranton's Steamtown, (At Scranton's Steamtown, Our Industrial Past Comes to Life ) New York Times. January 8, 1992. Accessed July 16, 2010〕 By 1995, the National Park Service (NPS) had acquired Steamtown, USA, and improved its facilities at a total cost of $66 million. Steamtown National Historic Site has since sold a few pieces from the Blount collection, and added a few others deemed of greater historical significance to the region. By 2008, low visitor attendance and the need of costly asbestos removal from many pieces of the collection were spurring discussion about privatizing Steamtown. ==Museum and collection== Steamtown NHS is located within a working railroad yard and incorporates the surviving elements of the 1902 DL&W Scranton roundhouse and locomotive repair shops. The visitor center, theater, technology and history museums are built in the style of and on the site of the missing portions of the original roundhouse, giving an impression of what the original circular structure was like. The museum has exhibits about the history and technology of steam railroads in the United States and Pennsylvania, particularly the DL&W; life on the railroad; and the business, labor, and governmental relationships between railroads.〔 The theater shows a short film throughout the day.〔 Many locomotives and freight and passenger cars are on display. Some have open cabs and compartments that visitors can climb in and walk through, including a mail car, railroad executives' passenger car (with dining room and sleeping / lounge areas), a boxcar, two cabooses, and a recreated DL&W station with ticket window. A steam locomotive with cutaway sections helps visitors understand steam power. Part of one of the 1865 roundhouse inspection pits uncovered in archaeological excavations is also preserved ''in situ'', under glass.〔 Some of the rolling stock is historically connected to the site, including a DL&W steam engine and diesel, caboose, boxcar, a former World War II troop sleeper that the DL&W converted to maintenance of way service, and numerous passenger cars. Former Oneida & Western/Rahway Valley Railroad 2-8-0 engine #15 was overhauled by the DL&W. Other noteworthy pieces are the popular Union Pacific Big Boy #4012, Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) #2929 (a rare Jubilee 4-4-4), Nickel Plate Road (NKP) S-2 #759, and Reading Company (RDG) T-1 #2124.〔 Engines NKP #759, Canadian National #47, New Haven Trap Rock Co. #43, and Rahway Valley #15 have operated at Steamtown, but not since the move to Pennsylvania.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Steamtown National Historic Site」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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