Lack of heat limiting activities at Electric City Trolley Museum, Steamtown

Borys Krawczeniuk, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·2 min read

Nov. 18—Lackawanna County officials closed the Electric City Trolley Museum indefinitely Thursday because of lack of heat.

The Steamtown National Historic Site will partly close starting Sunday for the same reason, the National Park Service announced online.

Steamtown spokeswoman Megan Stevens said the park service expects to install temporary heating so the trolley museum can reopen before Thanksgiving.

Museum and facilities manager Wayne Hiller blamed the closure on the park service's failure to complete a heating system renovation before cold weather arrived. The park service operates Steamtown, but its system also heats the trolley museum, which sits on the same grounds in downtown Scranton.

Hiller said the museum will go ahead with its Elf on the Shelf excursion, scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving, and Santa on the Trolley excursions, scheduled for the four Saturdays and Sundays following Thanksgiving. Related activities that normally take place inside the museum on Santa excursion days — arts and crafts, balloon art, face painting and other children's activities — may be curtailed, he said.

Hiller said the heating project began in October, and the park service promised a temporary heating system. A technician began preparing only Thursday for the installation of that system. The museum could manage the lack of heat while temperatures stayed mild for most of the last six weeks, he said. With outside temperatures dropping below freezing overnight this week and barely above 50 degrees inside the museum during the day, Hiller said he decided to close to spare his shivering staff and customers.

Efforts to reach Steamtown Superintendent Cherie Shepherd were answered by Stevens, who declined to explain why the heating system upgrade didn't take place during the summer.

Online, the park service announced closure of several of Steamtown's indoors attractions starting Sunday "due to ongoing mechanical issues with its heating system."

Steamtown's visitor center, theater and history and technology museums will remain closed. The roundhouse, railyard and grounds will remain open and holiday events will continue. Indoor restrooms will be closed and portable toilets will be available outside.

Hiller said Steamtown has faced heating and cooling systems problems for several years, including leaky underground pipes. Shepherd notified him in late August or early September that Steamtown would replace the system starting in October.

"I mean you do not start a heating project in October," he said. "We've been pretty fortunate this year with outside temperatures, you know, reaching in the 60s, high 50s and 60s in October, but hey, at nighttime, the buildings get pretty darn cold and wet, no heat whatsoever. And it's just been snowballing every day. And now with temperatures in the 20s, this building this morning was 51 degrees."

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.