I remembered the ideas for an alternate Steamtown I shared with
@SsgtC in a PM before starting this thread, and came up with an idea:
IOTL, N&W 1218 and CP 2816 were both part of the original collection at Bellows Falls, VT but have since been sold off to the VMT and CP Rail respectively. Thanks to the sheer number of changes made to railroad preservation for the better ITTL, one idea I had was that on May 21, 2018, which would have been F. Nelson Blount's 100th birthday, the two steamers arrive from Calgary and Roanoke respectively, then run special trips for Steamtown from their location in the old NYO&W yards in Scranton.
I can see the 2816 running on the Delaware & Hudson's native trackage in the area, as well as the former CNJ line to Newark. Since in my TL, I'm thinking the D&H will indeed take up that part of the CNJ (thanks for the idea
@Joe Bonkers). Meanwhile, I could hypothetically see the 1218 mostly work on the old Lackawanna routes out of Scranton on similar excursions. Better still, why not have the 2816 cross the border, reach Chicago on the Milwaukee Road, and then double-head with 1218 over the Erie Lackawanna's former Nickel Plate and DL&W routes to Scranton.