EBT No. 16 Ready for Revenue Service Runs

East Broad Top Railroad said last week that it will operate 2-8-2 No. 16 during its Winter Spectacular later this month.

No. 16 is the first EBT steam locomotive to be restored to operating condition.

EBT posted on its Facebook page a video of the Baldwin-built steamer moving under its own power on Feb. 1.

A news release from EBT said No. 16 “will play a key role” in the Feb. 18-19 Winter Spectacular event, including providing steam power on all previously scheduled excursions.

Since the EBT Foundation acquired the former EBT in 2020 excursion trains have featured a gasoline-electric car.

No. 16 last operated in 1956 and was built in 1916. It is expected to handle most EBT excursions this year.

EBT Receives 1st Wrinn Preservation Award

The East Broad Top tourist railroad has received the first Jim Wrinn Award for Biggest Railroad Preservation story. The award was presented during the HeritageRail Alliance meeting last month.

The Pennsylvania-based narrow-gauge railroad was honored for its efforts to restore the historic line and its locomotives and rolling stock to operating condition.

The award was presented to the Friends of the East Broad Top and the EBT Foundation.

HRA is a professional trade group for tourist, scenic, historic or excursion railway and trolley operations in the United States and Canada.

Also honored during the meeting was Andy Muller, owner and CEO of the Reading & Northern, for his work in steam locomotive preservation

EBT Continues Restoration Work, Planning More

The historic East Broad Top Railroad and allied Friends of the East Broad Top group recently shared some updates on their efforts to get the Pennsylvania narrow gauge tourist railroad in to service.

That included finishing track rehabilitation to the Colgate Grove picnic area and wye.

The work, included removing brush, replacing cross ties and installing ballast, was completed in time for a EBT Friends annual reunion last weekend.

Opening the track to Colgate Grove adds another mile and a half to excursion train service although surfacing work remains to be completed.

Scheduled excursion train service returned on June 11 over three miles between Rockhill Furnace and Runk Road.

The EBT is now turning its attention to rehabilitating the track south of Rockhill Furnace with the goal of providing excursions into a scenic mountainous area once dotted with coal mines.

This is work is getting a boost from the EBT Friends group which recently pledged to assist with this work.

The railroad would like to reopen 20 miles of track in a region that has not seen regular EBT train service since 1956.

Thus far the excursion trains have been pulled by a center-cab General Electric switcher with occasional special appearances of a gas-electric car built by the EBT in 1927.

However, shop workers are seeking to restore EBT steam locomotives to operating condition.

EBT officials say Nos. 16 and 14 may be the first locomotives to begin revenue service followed by No. 15, which was the last steam locomotive to operate on the railroad before operations ceased in 2011.

The EBT Friends group also said it is raising money to rebuild a razed passenger and freight station and water tank in Saltillo, located 7.8 miles south of Rockhill Furnace.

The first step is to raise $25,000 for preliminary work to be done by architect John Bowie of Philadelphia, a longtime FEBT member and author of the Historic American Engineering Record study of the Saltillo depot before it was demolished.

Bowie will donate his time for that phase of the project.

EBT General Manager Brad Esposito said the 275-foot-long 1904 steel trestle over Aughwick Creek at Pogue although it will need abutment work.

He described tunnels at Sideling Hill and Ray’s Hill as “not great, but not terrible.”

The EBT Friends group has been working for years to help stabilize the shops complex in Rockhill Furnace where some structures were sinking into the ground; leaning at precarious angles; and suffering roof, rafter, foundation, and window damage

The East Broad Top Foundation, which owns the railroad, has raised $156,919 thus far this year.

The foundation and the EBT Friends group both said their membership has increased significantly since the foundation acquired the railroad.

EBT Launches Scheduled Excursion Service

The historic Pennsylvania-based East Broad Top Railroad inaugurated scheduled service on June 11.

Although the narrow gauge railroad has offered a handful of excursions during special events, it was the first time that it has operated scheduled public passenger service since 2011.

The first train was pulled by General Electric center-cab diesel switcher No. M-7 and ran from Rockhill Furnace for about 3½ miles to Runk Road Bridge.

The train operated three round trips over the weekend.

Special movements ran earlier in the week to Colgate Grove using gas-electric car No. M-1 and parlor car No. 20, the Orbisonia.

One of those trips, on June 8, carried the EBT Foundation’s board of directors who inspected the progress made in rebuilding he railroad.

EBT officials have said they hope to begin scheduled service to Colgate Grove within a few weeks.

Track on the wye at Colgate Grove is being relaid with work almost complete on the south leg.

Trains will depart at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. on June 25-27 and July 9-11 and 23-25.

Service beyond those dates has yet to be announced but special runs are set for events being held

Aug. 12-15; Sept. 11-12; Oct. 9; Oct. 16-17, 23-24; Dec. 4; and Nov. 26-28, and Dec. 3-5 and 10-12.

EBT Receives Grant from Pittsburgh Foundation

The East Broad Top Foundation has received a $100,000 grant from the  Allegheny Foundation of Pittsburgh that will be used to support rehabilitation of the Colgate Picnic Grove

EBT locomotives have turned on a wye at the site since 1961. Part of the the wye was originally a line to a clay pit near Shirleysburg.

EBT said the grant will be used to make better use of Colgate Grove. They said such events as musical performances and food tastings are being considered.

A new platform will be built and plans are in the works for a new pavilion.

Officials also said the grant was unusual because the Allegheny Foundation concentrates its giving in southwestern Pennsylvania.

The EBT Foundation operates the historic East Broad Top narrow gauge tourist railroad, which will begin regular operations in June.

EBT Seeking Post-War Era Freight Cars

The East Broad Top Railroad in Pennsylvania is seeking a few standard-gauge freight cars.

The historic narrow gauge railroad plans to use the cars to show how during the post World II era standard-gauge freight cars were transformed into use in narrow gauge operation.

That was done using special transfer trucks and cast-aluminum coupler adapters.

EBT officials said the cars they are seeking must be specific to the era that will be portrayed.

Photographs show the EBT made widespread use of boxcars of the New York Central, Reading, and Pennsylvania Railroad, and gondolas of the Erie, Pennsy, and Baltimore & Ohio.

The EBT also hauled tank cars loaded with asphalt used to build paved roads in rural areas. Some cars carried supplies used to construct the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Standard-gauge cars were transformed at Mount Union, Pennsylvania, where the EBT had a connection with the Pennsy.

A gantry crane known as the Timber Transfer would lift standard-gauge cars and workers would roll narrow-gauge trucks beneath them.

The EBT Foundation, which operates the narrow gauge railroad, said those who have leads about available and era-specific standard-gauge cars should call it at 814-447-3285.

EBT Receives $1.4M State Grant

The East Broad Top Foundation has received a $1.4 million economic development grant that will be used for several projects and to help retire a mortgage held by the railroad’s previous owner.

The grant was awarded by the Pennsylvania Office of the Budget with funding from the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program.

Among the projects the EBT will apply the funding toward are building a new events facility at Colgate Grove four miles north of Rockhill Furnace.

Also in the works are extension of the main line northward a mile to Shirleysburg, stabilizing buildings within the Rockhill Furnace machine shops complex, and stabilization of a coal tipple and chutes at the south end of the Rockhill Furnace yard.

EBT plans to replaced deteriorated crossties throughout the yard.

The historic narrow gauge railroad shut down commercial operations in 1956 but operated as a tourist railroad between 1960 and 2011.

The EBT foundation acquired the property earlier this year from the Joseph Kovalchick family and is restoring its locomotives, rolling stock and infrastructure.

Plans are to resume public scheduled service next May or June. Steam locomotives are projected to begin revenue service in 2021.

The EBT owns six Baldwin 2-8-2 steam locomotives.

EBT Foundation General Manager Brad Esposito said the priority of the projects work listed in the grant application is undetermined.

EBT No. 16 Expected to be First Steam Locomotive to Return to Revenue Service

The East Broad Top Railroad expects to have its first steam locomotive back in service sometime in 2021, but officials are not predicting yet when that will be.

The first locomotive that will be returned to revenue service will be No. 16, “sometime next year,” said Chief Mechanical Officer Dave Domitrovich in an interview with Trains magazine.

Officials said No. 16 is in better condition than No. 14, which has also been tabbed for restoration to operating condition.

No. 16 was overhauled during the 1950s and was never used in tourist train operation.

Thus it hasn’t experienced the wear and tear that Nos. 12, 14, 15 and 17 endured.

Domitrovich expects the return of No. 16 to steam to create excitement and interest in the railfan/railroad history community because it last operated in 1956.

EBT workers continue to work on Nos. 14, but it needs boiler work, including moderate minor sheet repair and replacement; new flues and tubes; and considerable running-gear work.

The drivers of No. 14 will be sent to the Strasburg Rail Road for reconditioning.

In the meantime, the EBT expects to operate a few diesel-powered excursions and is eyeing a return to scheduled service next May or June.

The historic narrow-gauge railroad in Pennsylvania was purchased in early 2020 by the non-profit EBT Foundation from the Kovalchick family, which in turn had rescued it from being scrapped in 1956.

The EBT operated as a tourist railroad between 1960 and 2011 before shutting down.

The property includes 27 miles of main line; yards, shops and headquarters; six Baldwin 2-8-2 steam locomotives; and passenger and freight rolling stock.

The EBT Foundation in tandem with the volunteer Friends of the East Broad Top group has been working to rebuild track, renovate a circa-1900 shop complex, and restore the rolling stock.

Scheduled service is expected to operate between Rockhill Furnace and the Colgate Grove picnic area, a distance of about four miles.

Long-range plans are to reopen the main line to Robertsdale and Woodvale. The EBT Foundation is studying reopening a long-abandoned mountainous branch line to offer scenic views.

Thus far track rehabilitation on Rockhill Furnace-Colgate Grove segment is about half done, with some 3,500 ties replaced out of a projected 6,500.

About half of the 18 switches in need of renewal have been completed, including a rare three-way stub switch at the south end of Rockhill Yard.

Other work that remains to be completed includes replacing the Runk Road bridge, which was damaged last spring when struck by an over-height logging truck that dented a beam and shoved the track off center.

The foundation also announced it has hired Jonathan Smith, 22, formerly with the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, as a full-time sales and marketing representative.

EBT Eyes Reviving Branch Line Dormant Since 1940s

A branch line of the East Broad Top Railroad that has been out of service since the 1940s may be rebuilt and host excursion trains the EBT Foundation said.

The branch would provide ridge top vistas and increase the number of destinations available to visitors riding EBT trains.

The 2.5-mile branch is known as the Coles Valley Branch but also has been called the Midvalley Branch and Joller Branch

The EBT ceased public excursions in 2011 and in February of this year was acquired by the EBT Foundation.

EBT officials have said work is underway to rehabilitate four miles of the 32-mile mainline between Rockhill Furnace and Colgate Grove.

The more scenic sections of the railroad, though, lie to the south of there. The foundation owns the southernmost 27 miles of the EBT.

Eventually, the EBT is working to reopen the railroad to the Robertsdale/Woodvale area.

EBT Foundation chairman Henry Polsner III discussed reviving the Coles Valley Branch during a recent reunion of the Friends of the East Broad Top.

Posner said during his remarks that offering multiple rides and destinations would provide more opportunities for tourism investment including attracting visitors who will stay for multiple days in the region.

“We want to appeal to as broad a range of people as possible, to give people a reason to stay and boost the local economy,” he said.

The 1,300-member, nonprofit Friends group recently awarded a $86,000 grant to the EBT Foundation to pay for restoration of carpenter’s shop at the Rockhill Furnace shops complex.

The foundation is still working on a master plan of options without timelines, all of which are dependent upon receiving adequate funding.

The Coles Valley branch diverged from the mainline between the Wrays Hill and Sideling Hill tunnels just south of a horseshoe-shaped curve.

EBT officials have said Sideling Hill Tunnel will be easier to rehabilitate than Wrays Hill Tunnel.

Preliminary engineering inspections of all bridges and tunnels on the EBT concluded that the largest span, the 275-foot-long Pogue Bridge located three miles south of Rockhill Furnace, is in much better condition than expected.

EBT Gets Grant for Fire Suppression System

The East Broad Top Railroad will use a $100,000 grant to help pay for a fire suppression system in the its machine shop complex.

The grant was awarded by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.

“Fire suppression is a critical component of our stabilization and preservation effort at the East Broad Top,” said EBT Foundation General Manager Bradley Esposito in a statement.

The statement said upgrading the fire suppression system will EBT to open its shop for public demonstrations as well as ongoing essential repairs as the narrow gauge railroad works to resume operations.