EBT Specials Use Track Unused for 6 Decades

Special trains on the East Broad Top Railroad operated last weekend over a mile of track that has been closed for more than six decades.

The Friends of the East Broad Top rode a portion of the south end of the line in an open air car pulled by Plymouth diesel-hydraulic switcher M-6.

A report on the website of Trains magazine indicated that the trips left Rockhill Yard and ran to the Pennsylvania Route 475 grade crossing.

That track segment has never been used for excursion service during the tourist operation era on the historic Pennsylvania narrow gauge railroad.

Members of the Friends group have been working to repair the track so that it can handle work trains, speeders, and handcars.

Eventually EBT has an objective of restoring by late next year the track as far as Pogue, which is located two miles south of the Route 475 crossing.

To read the story go to https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/ebt-opens-the-door-on-south-portion-of-main-line/

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 Announces 2022 Schedule

The East Broad Top narrow gauge tourist railroad in Pennsylvania has announced its 2022 regular operating season.

It will kick off on Feb. 19 with the Winter Spectacular event, Trains magazine reported on its website.

Regular excursion trips will operate five days a week on Wednesday through Sunday May 6 through Aug. 28. The schedule will shift to Friday through Sunday operation in September and October.

EBT also announced a slate of several theme trains that will operate from early April to mid December. Those events are described at  https://eastbroadtop.com/

The Friends of East Broad Top recently said it has topped its fund-raising goal of $100,000.

Donations have totaled $163,777.19 and will be used to assist the EBT with historic preservation and renovation of various buildings and facilities.

More information is available at https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/east-broad-top-railroad-announces-2022-season/

EBT Gets State Grant for Track Repair

Pennsylvania tourist railroad East Broad Top has been awarded a $1.1 million state grant for track rehabilitation.

Trains magazine reported on its website that the funding will be used to rebuild 7.8 miles of track between Rockhill Furnace and Three Springs and Saltillo.

In time EBT is eyeing reopening a section of the railroad that has not been used since the original 33-mile EBT ended operations there in April 1956.

Other work that the grant will support includes improvements at the Colgate Grove picnic area and in Rockhill yard.

In a related development, the support group Friends of the East Broad said it has raised $86,675 thus far this year.

The group’s goal is to raise $100,000. Donations have been made by 322 donors.

Money raised by the group will be used to pay for stabilization and restoration of the Rockhill machine shops complex

Next year the Friends group will seek to raise funds to pay for repairs of the Rockhill coal tipple and to improve programming at the Robertsdale station.

Additional information is available at https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/east-broad-top-gets-1-1-million-from-state-for-restoring-track-other-projects/

In other EBT news, Railfan and Railroad magazine reported on its website that the tourist railroad handled more than 10,000 passengers in its first year of renewed operations.

The EBT resumed carrying passengers this year after being out of service since 2011.

Railroad general manager Brad Esposito said EBT operated 42 excursions and plans to increase that number in 2022.

Officials are optimistic that some 2022 trips will be pulled by restored steam locomotives.

Although a full schedule of 2022 excursions won’t begin until next May, EBT plans to offer a few trips during the winter and early spring.

Esposito said about 20 percent of EBT passengers have participated in shop tours.

As for when steam will return, Esposito could give no date but said restoration work is going well on Baldwin-built 2-8-2 No. 16.

BT schedules and ticket information is available at eastbroadtop.com. To read more about recent developments involving EBT, visit https://railfan.com/following-successful-season-east-broad-top-looks-to-a-steam-filled-2022/

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 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 Expects to Have 2 Engines Operating in 2021

Paul Woodring and Bob Farkas were on hand to see East Broad Top No. 12, “Millie,” headed for Orbisonia on May 1, 1982. (Photograph by Robert Farkas)

The East Broad Top Railroad said two of its six steam locomotives are expected to return to service as early as 2021.

In a news release, the railroad said it has hired a small number of employees and commenced repairing track that has been out idle for several years.

The EBT has six 2-8-2 Mikado-type locomotives and all six have been inspected for their suitability to be returned to service.

One of the two Baldwin-built engines that inspectors said could make an early return to service has not operated since 1956.

But locomotive No. 16 was overhauled in 1955 and inspectors concluded that it is in good condition.

No. 14 is the other locomotive earmarked for a potential return to service next year.

It was overhauled in the 1980s and had been used for tourist train operations.

EBT officials said work will begin shortly on No. 16 with work on No. 14 set to begin this summer.

“We have taken a very methodical and detailed approach in determining which locomotives would be the first candidates for repair, and we are extremely fortunate to have a very talented and experienced group of steam experts advising and assisting us in getting our program rolling,” said EBT general manager Brad Esposito.

Workers have also renovated stall No. 8 at the EBT roundhouse to create a work space.

The project including pouring a new concrete floor that includes in-floor radiant heating.

Modern lighting was installed and a new electrical system was installed.

Stall eight is now separated from the rest of the roundhouse with metal sheathing to provide fire protection.

The roundhouse and machine shops will receive a fire-suppression system. Tracks in stalls five through eight were rebuilt.

Also rebuilt was the track leading into the locomotive shop and a stub switch leading to the turntable.

EBT has returned to service two hopper cars that will be used to spread ballast in future track projects, including repairing the main line to Colgate Grove this summer.

Other work set to begin soon includes stabilizing the blacksmith shop and repairing the main shops.

Volunteers from the Friends of the East Broad Top group have assisted with repairs, including starting work on a combine car.

Volunteer work has been halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the membership roster of the Friends group has grown to more than a thousand.

The pandemic in part also led to cancellation of a planned open hour in early June.

Future of Pennsylvania’s EBT Remains Murky

The East Broad Top in August 1962 in happier days. The image was made by the late Ed Treesh.

The future of the Pennsylvania-based East Broad Top narrow gauge railroad remains uncertain eight years after it ceased operating.

The railroad’s owner says the property is for sale, although he won’t disclose the asking price.

A recent report on the Trains magazine website cited sources that placed the price at $8 million.

That includes the track, buildings, Mikado steam locomotives, hopper cars and thousands of acres of land.

The owner, Joseph Kovalchick, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, is insisting on selling the property in a single package.

Kovalcick acquired the railroad in 1956, but subsequently shut down its freight operations. In 1960 the EBT resumed operating as a tourist railroad.

The Trains report said it would cost millions of dollars to rebuild the steam locomotives to current standards, replace hundreds of ties, repair bridges, and market the operation.

Some former EBT employees have in recent years mowed the grass around the Rockhill Furnace station and painted the buildings.

Friends of the East Broad Top has undertaken volunteer work at Rockhill Furnace and Robertsdale to stabilize and restore buildings and rolling stock.

Kovalchick has paid for some of the materials used and has permitted the group to conduct periodic tours of the roundhouse and shops complex.

Saving the EBT will require a benefactor with deep pockets. No interest in taking over the EBT has been shown by the federal or state governments.

Some fear that when Kovalchick, who is in his 80s, is no longer around that the EBT may pass into history as have other narrow gauge railroads that have not been preserved.

Narrow Gauge Combine Moved to EBT

A combine car from the former Tuscarora Valley Railroad has been moved to the East Broad Top Railroad in Pennsylvania.

Car No.101 is in temporary storage on the EBT at Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania, where the Friends of the East Broad Top are helping to restore the car, which ran on a narrow-gauge line in another part of the state.

The car is the last remaining piece of rolling stock left from the 3-foot-gauge Tuscarora Valley, which ran for 27 miles from Port Royal to Blairs Mills in Juniata and Huntingdon counties between 1891 and 1934.

The Tuscarora Valley had intended to connect with the EBT’s Shade Gap branch at Richvale but never did.

The combine was built as a coach in the 1880s by Billmeyer & Small of York, Pennsylvania, and converted into a combine in 1916. The Tuscarora bought the car used in 1895.

In recent years, the car has been serving as a woodshed on a farm whose owner, Bernie Rowels, donated the carbody to the Friends of the East Broad Top.

After the Friend group was unable to move the car from Rowels’ property, the Darrow family acquired it and began restoration work.

The car has since been bought by Stephen Lane, a part-time steam engineer on the Everett Railroad, who arranged to have it sent to Rockhill Furnace.

The EBT is for sale and a long-term storage agreement cannot be achieved at this time. The EBT has not carried passengers since 2011.