Re: Top 10 list of Steam Places *LINK*

I would have thought that both the Texas State RR and the Tenessee Valley would have been in the top ten.... but, to keep the flames away, I won't say which sites should drop off to fit them. Instead, I'd just replace Steamtown, EBT, and Strasburg with the word "Pennsylvania".... and that would also cover Horseshoe Curve, Altoona, the Alleghany Portage RR site, Starrucca and Nicholson Viaducts, the Rockville Bridge...
(9) Steamtown (current steam most of the time, and potential) Politics and lack of success longterm keep it lower on the list.
I wish more museum operators would visit both Steamtown and the California State RR Museum; many museums could learn a lot from those sites. I'm always amazed about how much both museums can teach about railroading even without having anything running!
Honestly, even though I went to engineering school, took thermodynamics, became a licensed PE, etc., I never really understood the physics of why steam locomotives worked until a NPS ranger gave her canned talk explaining the park's O-6-0 with its side cut away, exposing it innards.
Steamtown also has one of the most informative RR museum websites out there.
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Chris Webster
[www.speakeasy.org]