Scranton, The Electric City!

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Scranton is once again The "Electric City" , a nickname attached to Scranton for its early electric street railways.  Shake-down runs of the new "Electric City Trolley" system began the week of March 19, 2001.  The Electric City Trolley Station and Museum is a project managed by Lackawanna County in Scranton.  The museum has been open for about a year in a former silk mill located on the Steamtown grounds.  Regular trolley excursions began on April 15.

Initial operations will utilize Philadelphia Suburban #76.  The collection of cars at Scranton is made up of pieces from the former Buckingham Valley and McGeeTransportation museums.  Although 76 is slated to be the main runner this year several other cars are operational. The excrsion ride, beginning at the Steamtown excursion depot (above) will be approximately a mile long at first.  This trip will include a stopover and tour at Scranton's Historic Iron Furnaces (below)  This route is, for the most part, the former main line of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railway, an interurban line that ran principally between Scranton and Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania.  As time and funding progresses, the route will be extended to Montage Mountain (about four miles to the south of downtown Scranton), the site of the new Lackawanna County Visitor Center & Red Baron's AAA Baseball (to see the rehabilitation of this route, click here).

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