SCRANTON — More than 80 people stood on a Steamtown railroad platform Friday morning awaiting the arrival of a recently restored locomotive and the history it reflected.
As the PA-4 Delaware Lackawanna 190, strikingly blue with sharp white detail, made its way down the tracks, it was met with both cheers and tears by onlookers, many of whom traveled from as far away as Canada to participate in the historic moment.
Doyle McCormack, rail restoration specialist, greets spectators upon arriving in the newly restored Nickel Plate 190 diesel locomotive at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton Friday, July 11, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The newly restored Nickel Plate Road 190 diesel locomotive parks next to the Nickel Plate Road 514 at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton Friday, July 11, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The newly restored Nickel Plate Road 190 diesel locomotive arrives at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton Friday, July 11, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Rail restoration specialist Doyle McCormack stands next to his wife Laurie during a ceremony marking the arrival of McCormack’s recent restoration project, the Nickel Plate Road 190 diesel locomotive. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Spectators take photographs of the newly restored Nickel Plate Road 190 diesel locomotive as it arrives at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton Friday, July 11, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Rail restoration specialist Doyle McCormack greets spectators upon arriving in the newly restored Nickel Plate 190 diesel locomotive at the Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton Friday, July 11, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
People get onto the Nickel Plate Road 190 at Steamtown National Historic Site Friday. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Douglas Fear, of Montreal, waited with camera in hand as the locomotive made its way toward him.
When a friend asked earlier this week if he wanted to make the trip to see train, he didn’t skip a beat before answering, “I want to go. I’m going.”
Fear said the locomotive was unique, the “last survivor” of its kind.
“I’ve had a quiet love affair with these locomotives for a long time,” he said.
Engineer Dominick Tardogno looks out of the window of the Nickel Plate Road 514 locomotive at Steamtown National Historic Site Friday. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Rob Davis of Red Bank, New Jersey, also made the trip to see the train.
As he looked around at his fellow railroad aficionados, he said the group had much more than an intellectual interest in the railroad.
“These engines have an emotional following,” he said.
Commitment to restoration
Genesee Valley Transportation Co. Inc., or GVT Rail System, President Michael D. Thomas traveled to Oregon in March 2023 to meet preservationist Doyle McCormack, who brought the locomotive from Mexico when it was simply a shell.
Rail restoration specialist Doyle McCormack reacts to a crowd during a ceremony marking the arrival of the Nickel Plate Road 190 diesel locomotive to Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton Friday, July 11, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
For two decades, McCormack worked to restore the rail apparatus, before selling it to the GVT Rail System, which oversees Pennsylvania’s Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad.
Thomas remembers that meeting to commemorate the sale and his great respect for McCormack’s talent and love for the railroad.
GVT Rail System brought the locomotive back to Pennsylvania, where its restoration was completed.
Laurie McCormack remembers driving her husband home from the airport after he purchased the locomotive all those years ago.
When he questioned what he had gotten himself into, she pulled over the car and said, “If you’re in, you’re in. If you’re out, get out of the car.”
Post-World War II
“Today is a great day in the history of railroad preservation,” Thomas said. “The locomotive that was left for dead in a foreign country, now restored and operating, is nothing short of a miracle.”
In speaking with others outside the railroad industry, Thomas said he struggled to come up with an accurate description of the significance of the restoration of the locomotive.
“Imagine if you were an airplane buff and you had the opportunity to get the Spirit of St. Louis,” he tells them. “That’s the kind of magnitude this represents in the railroad industry.”
The locomotive was built after World War II, when the country was finally over a tumultuous period. Its construction signaled the revitalization of the railroad industry.
“We feel this very close to our hearts,” he said.
Following the dedication ceremony, the locomotive made its maiden run to the Poconos to highlight its comeback.
More than 80 riders got to not only experience what it was like to be aboard the historic train, but also to take photos and videos to mark the historic day.
The train was used for special excursions in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area in the 1970s.
“The locomotive has come back home,” Thomas told riders.