Expand<\/a><\/p>\nBob Durkin, president of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce, estimates the train\u2019s visit to the city generated between $16 million and $17 million in economic development throughout Northeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Through discussions with Jeremy Komasz, superintendent of Steamtown National Historic Site, Durkin determined about 110,000 people attended the Big Boy Reunion over two weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe park service will traditionally tell you that for every day trip visitor to a park site, they spend an average of $81 per day (in the area), and about 4% of people who visit parks stay overnight and spend an average of $500,\u201d Durkin said.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Durkin cited data from the American Independent Business Alliance which states, on average, 52.9% of each purchase at local independent businesses is recirculated locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf someone spends $81 at a local restaurant, that money is paid to the employees and those employees then spend that money somewhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In addition to a half-hour wait time for tables, Peoples said the restaurant used two cases of eggs a day to accommodate the breakfast rush while the Big Boy was in town.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friends come down for lunch, and one guy said, \u2018I\u2019ve never seen the mall like this,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
As customers from New Hampshire to Connecticut \u2014 and all the way from England \u2014 visited Scranton to see the historic locomotive, Peoples noted Cosgrove\u2019s brought on additional workers to meet the demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsually we\u2019re a one-server restaurant; we had two on for two weeks,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The influx of customers also came at an opportune time, Peoples said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very grateful,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Fourth of July is usually a terrible week for the restaurant business, but it definitely made up for it. We\u2019d like to see it every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Renato Luongo, owner of Abe\u2019s Kosher Delicatessen, 326 N. Washington Ave., said the restaurant benefitted from the Big Boy visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were noticeably busier \u2014 up about 15% to 20%,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a big benefit because of all the construction going on around town. That slows things down a lot, so it was nice to have a little boost.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durkin lauded Komasz\u2019s leadership for helping make the Big Boy Reunion a big success.<\/p>\n
\u201c(He) has breathed a whole new breath of life into Steamtown,\u201d Durkin said. \u201cFrom his first week on the job, he reached out to us and we\u2019ve met a number of times and talked even more. When we first talked about this, we were excited. We were talking maybe 30,000 to 40,000 people, not 110,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Durkin witnessed the excitement of train enthusiasts firsthand as he traversed through downtown Scranton during the first two days of the Big Boy\u2019s stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was over there multiple times, just to check out the crowds, and folks were lined up all the way to West Side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Curt Camoni, executive director of the Lackawanna County Convention and Visitors Bureau, also witnessed droves of people enjoying the city and frequenting its restaurants.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw a lot of happy people and a lot of full businesses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Local hotels also saw a spike in business, Camoni said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe visitors bureau was collecting hotel data and we saw sellouts happening all over Lackawanna County,\u201d he said. \u201cThe first two days Big Boy was in town, we saw a significant increase. We (also) saw a significant increase the first weekend, and we saw another significant increase the last two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Big Boy\u2019s travels through Luzerne County created excitement, Alan Stout, executive director of Visit Luzerne County, doesn\u2019t believe the train had the same economic impact there.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeeing the pictures of all the people along the side of the tracks in White Haven, Mountain Top, Pittston, and even out in Wyoming County, going over the Nicholson Bridge, was incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as far as economic impact, we didn\u2019t hear from our hotels about it. The fact that it was parked at Steamtown for two weeks, I\u2019m sure had a greater impact on the hotels in Lackawanna County.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lindsay Griffin-Boylan, president and CEO of the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce, felt the arrival of Big Boy brought many visitors to Luzerne County that trickled down to area shops.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt definitely brought a lot of people in,\u201d she said. \u201cWe saw a lot of the visitors using a lot of our local businesses, so we were very happy about that. It was just good to see people in the valley, frankly. From Luzerne to Lackawanna, they were everywhere to watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Camoni believes Steamtown officials will continue seeking opportunities to bring more historic trains to Scranton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe great thing about the current leadership at Steamtown is they\u2019re always looking for new ways to showcase the history and the preservation of the steam engine in Northeast Pennsylvania,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they get something they think they can execute at a high level, that would be good for the area, I think they\u2019ll take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON \u2014 Stephanie Peoples described the impact of the Union Pacific\u2019s Big Boy 4014 on Downtown Cosgrove\u2019s as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,803,28,178,180,179,181],"class_list":["post-237791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-business","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Downtown](\"https:\/\/www.thetimes-tribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/STT-L-BIGBOY-0708-03.jpg?w=620\")
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