SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Train fans from near and far have descended on the Electric City this weekend for the annual Railfest at the Steamtown National Historic Site.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s become a staple of Labor Day Weekend in the City of Scranton, where folks can learn about railroading history on site and enjoy the sights and sounds these trains have to offer. <\/p>\n
“It\u2019s one thing to see things sitting, but to hear the roar of the engines, feel the ground shake, get the sights and smells; it brings it to life for the next generation,” Mike Rinkunas, President of the Iron Horse Society, said.<\/p>\n
Rinkunas and the Iron Horse Society are the philanthropic partner of the Steamtown National Historic Site committed to preserving the history of these trains for future generations.<\/p>\n
Rinkunas says Railfest is a special weekend that brings visitors from all over the country to Scranton to see things most visitors don\u2019t typically see during a normal visit to Steamtown.<\/p>\n
One of those visitors is Joshua VanBarriger of Binghamton, New York, who loves the behind-the-scenes experiences of Steamtown that Railfest provides to folks like him.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re right now in the shops, and you don\u2019t get to see this usually unless it\u2019s a big event,” VanBarriger said.<\/p>\n
And if you thought the event wasn\u2019t big enough already, add two running Stuart tanks from WWII that folks can ride in the back part of Steamtown to raise funds to help preserve a World War II Sleeper Train owned by the Iron Horse Society.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, the sleeper would have taken them to and from the home front, but the tanks and the halftracks would take them right into battle,” Rinkunas said.<\/p>\n
Rinkunas added that these tanks and trains have a stronger connection than most folks would know about our Nation\u2019s history on and off the battlefield.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe equipment behind me was actually made by the same companies that built the railroad equipment, so when our nation went to war, everyone pitched in,” Rinkunas said.<\/p>\n
The last day of Railfest 2026 is tomorrow, September 6th, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Steamtown National Historic Site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Train fans from near and far have descended on the Electric City this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-279864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279864","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=279864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}