Nickel Plate 759 on the turntable at Steamtown National Historic Site
NPS Photo
The locomotives at Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) range in size from a tiny industrial switcher engine built in 1937 by the H.K. Porter Company for the Bullard Company, to a huge Union Pacific "Big Boy" built in 1941 by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). The oldest locomotive is a freight engine built by American Locomotive Company in 1903 for the Chicago Union Transfer Railway Company.
In 1991, a Special History Study of the locomotive collection at Steamtown NHS was prepared for the National Park Service (NPS) by Gordon Chappell, an historian for the NPS. The document contains the results of research conducted in 1987 and 1988 in preparation for 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. As with any subject matter, research and information is constantly evolving. For questions related to the collection at Steamtown NHS, we encourage you to e-mail the park: stea_visitor_information@nps.gov.
