The East Broad Top Lives!

Just saw this in my newsletter from the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club. Take a look at https://eastbroadtop.com/nonprofitbuysebt/. It is a neat operation. I first rode it in 1964 or 1965 when I was visiting colleges in that area!

Sounds great. Best wishes to them in this endeavour. Sounds like they've thought it through and have a plan. I've been involved with preserving steam in England, South Africa and Kenya, and it's always great to see other initiatives. In the USA I've ridden the Durango and Silverton in Colorado (twice, several years apart), and also the Strasburg (which is mentioned in the newsletter), and both were good experiences.

Just came across this update. Looks promising.

East Broad Top notebook: Work continues to restore steam locomotive, improve passenger-car fleet (Trains)

Progress on the rebirth of the East Broad Top Railroad continues on multiple fronts as part of ongoing efforts since the narrow gauge railroad was acquired by the non-profit EBT Foundation in February 2020. Some updates:

— Work continues on restoring 2-8-2 steam locomotive No. 16 (Baldwin, 1916) to service, possibly later this year...
— Important but unspectacular work continues on the passenger-carrying car fleet, at the rate of one car every week or two...
— The track crew, in conjunction with Friends of the East Broad Top volunteers, continues to work to close the approximately three-quarter-mile gap between the current end of track used for public excursions and the restored wye at Colgate Grove...
— An FEBT-funded project to raise the shops storehouse, which had begun to sink into the ground, is well under way...

East Broad Top continues steady progress (Trains)

Almost two years into its revival, the East Broad Top’s return is moving forward at a rapid pace, with thousands of new crossties, work on the historic shop complex, and, progress on steam locomotive restoration...

>4 John5918: I rode the trains there back in the '60's when I was interviewing at a college in Huntingdon PA with my father. We stopped on the way up and then came back and rode from the station, up to the picnic area and back again.

My daughter ended up going to college in Huntingdon so I made it a point to detour through Orbisonia around 2003 and 2004 to try and catch it running and I did see it once or twice. .sometimes a caboose hop and other times as a work train! These were north of Orbisonia and south of Shirleysburg.

I'm looking forward to seeing this operation really get up and running. . . there are some real top railroad 'dogs' that are working on it. It's exciting and I'm sending my pennies to them as often as I can!!

The trolley museum next door has one of the two North Shore Electroliners there. The other one is at the Illinois Railroad Museum. I "think" the one in Orbisonia has run on a short stretch of track towing a generator behind it.

I did ride on it once or twice in revenue service when Septa's Philadelphia and Western (aka the Pig and Whistle) ran it for a few years until they found out it was too heavy for the bridge across the Schuylkill River between Bridgeport and Norristown PA.

East Broad Top sells out Winter Spectacular (Trains)

The East Broad Top Foundation posted a sold-out Winter Spectacular celebration Feb. 18-19, with 10 internal-combustion-powered trips over its restored main line between Rockhill Furnace and Colgate Grove and tours of the roundhouse and station archives...

In separate but related news, Esposito confirmed Hamilton Manufacturing Co. of Sedro-Woolley, Wash., is constructing four new EBT passenger cars . Hamilton is best known for building some 50 historic-looking passenger cars for Alaska’s White Pass & Yukon. Three of the cars are straight coaches, Esposito said, while the fourth is a handicapped-accessible car to comply with requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. He noted that the cars will exhibit a vintage appearance that will “look at home on the East Broad Top”...

I've just found a new article, Work continues to return first EBT steam locomotive to service.

Five mind-blowing East Broad Top Railroad facts (Trains magazine)

It seems hyperbole has found its way into the railway press. I wouldn't describe them as mind-blowing, but they are, well, interesting.

I'm looking forward to visiting the EBT again someday...in the meantime I've uploaded a memory of my 2010 visit in my picture gallery.

I visited and rode it in 1965 while on my way to Juniata College for an interview. I got a real chuckle out of the payphone with a crank for "central".

My daughter went to Juniata and I always drove up to see her and more than once I saw a small train or a single engine running just north of Orbisonia.

PS: the crank phone worked much better than my cell phone . . .

I , too, hope to visit again. It's a long day trip for me: 3 hours, 30 minutes one way.

My annual check was in the mail several months ago!!

East Broad Top Railroad locomotives in the 21st century (Trains)

What you should know about the East Broad Top Railroad locomotives fleet the next time you visit this revitalized narrow-gauge treasure...

According to the various railfan message boards EBT #16 rolled out of the roundhouse under power sometime last week. First time under steam since 1956.

>12 alco261: Which message boards do you track?

>13 ulmannc: None in particular - I just rummage - the notification about #16 showed up over on the OGR forum , the EBT Facebook page (which you can sort of access without belonging to Facebook), and one other place whose name I don't recall.

EBT opens its first steam-powered season in 12 years (Trains)

The East Broad Top Railroad opened its first steam-powered season in 12 years with the return of regularly scheduled excursion trains for weekend operations Friday, May 5, through today, May 7. EBT 2-8-2 engine No. 16 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1916) easily handled its six-car train. Freshly overhauled, the 81-ton engine broke in with runs during February’s Winter Spectacular railfan event and on a recent photo charter. But this was the first regularly scheduled steam excursion service since the narrow gauge line shut down in 2011 prior to its purchase eight years later by the non-profit EBT Foundation, Inc., and its subsequent restoration. “{No. 16} runs better every time we take it out,” said EBT Master Mechanic Dave Domitrovich. A National Historic Landmark, EBT consists of 27 miles of main line, six Baldwin Mikado steam locomotives, a fleet of historic and modern rolling stock, a circa-1900 machine-shop complex and roundhouse, and a station and general office...

EBT Foundation announces details of extended shop tours (Trains)

Expanded tours of the East Broad Top Railroad shops, roundhouse, and archives will be offered for the first time in 2024, the non-profit EBT Foundation, Inc., has announced...

Having worked on preserved steam locomotives in UK, South Africa and Kenya, I always find it interesting to see the workshops on heritage lines. I got an unofficial tour of the Durango and Silverton workshop more than twenty years ago after introducing myself to the crew as a footplateman, and I recall being welcomed on an arranged visit with Kenya Railway officials to the workshop at Tyseley in UK, and informally as a footplateman at Hoth Valley in Australia, although unofficial tours are more difficult these days due to health and safety as well as insurance liability issues. However I much prefer actually getting my hands dirty working on a steam loco to just riding behind one or looking at the workshop!