ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa.— As East Broad Top trains last weekend christened 1.3 miles of restored mainline track that had lain dormant since 1956, EBT Foundation Chairman Henry Posner reiterated the nonprofit group’s resolve to rebuild the tourist line another 18 miles up to the coal-mining region that gave the narrow gauge line its reason for existence.
Henry Posner III electrified a Fall Reunion meeting of the Friends of the East Broad Top volunteer group by pledging that “a couple of collapsed tunnels in our way are not going to stop us from going all the way to Broad Top Mountain.”
Since 2020, the foundation and its volunteer partner group, both non-profits, have spent millions of dollars and thousands of work-hours to rescue and restore the heart of the line, a registered National Historic Landmark. This includes shops, roundhouse, station/headquarters, six Baldwin 2-8-2 steam locomotives and a fleet of freight and passenger cars. So far, most work has focused on rebuilding the footprint of the railroad’s 1960-2011 operations and infrastructure, when it ran seasonal steam trains on a 4½-mile segment. Opening new track is the first step to pushing beyond that envelope.
“We’ve crossed the Rubicon,” said Posner, alluding to an ancient Roman military maneuver that translates roughly to “no turning back.”
Restoration of this 1.3-mile stretch to an overhead bridge at Jordan Summit is the first step in the “March to Saltillo” campaign to reopen the first 9 miles of line to the town of that name, where the Friends are also planning to recreate a razed station and water tank.
Posner’s remark came in response to an audience question about the difficulty of pressing the track restoration beyond Saltillo over the rugged 11-mile stretch leading to the former mining center of Robertsdale. There, the Friends maintain an EBT station and a museum, and offer railbike and handcar rides and walking tours of the mine ruins. That segment includes 2.6% grades, a horseshoe curve and two tunnels in which drone surveys have mapped rock falls. While significant, the rock falls are not total cave-ins.
Successful fund campaign, higher goal for 2025
The Friends’ 2024 fund-raising campaign far outstripped its $220,000 goal, achieving that in the first quarter and topping out at $361,000 – almost $1,000 a day – according to chair Karen Bulman. From this fund, the group issues grants to the Foundation to buy ties, tie plates, spikes and ballast; rebuild the Saltillo station; fabricate a new tender tank for 1914-built engine No. 15, the next in line to be restored; further building restoration at the EBT’s Rockhill shop; and support the EBT archives project. Since 2020, when the Foundation bought the property, the Friends have raised more than $1 million [See “Friends of EBT reaches $1 million … ,” Trains News Wire, June 6, 2024].
When the 2024 campaign reached its goal early, the group’s board decided to funnel all excess donations toward the extension of the main line, accelerating the work. Track restoration is carried out by two Foundation employees led by foreman Henry Long, and a group of Friends members usually numbering six to 12, led by volunteer coordinator Gene Tucker.
The Friends group announced its 2025 goal is $270,000, with $75,000 dedicated to the March to Saltillo; $50,000 to the Saltillo station project; $15,000 toward the trailing truck of steam engine No. 15; $90,000 toward the joint Archives and Special Collections project; and $40,000 for additional work on buildings in the Rockhill shop complex.
Volunteer coordinator Dave Bulman reported that in 2024, 186 members gave 9,000 hours of time on projects at Rockhill Furnace and Robertsdale. New this year is the joint Friends-Foundation “Young Easties” program, which in two day-long sessions attracted 21 students aged 13 to 17 to learn about and work on projects.
A Friends special
EBT on Saturday (Oct. 5) ran a seven-car special for some 210 members of the 2,179-member Friends, ensuring that those who had donated toward the track materials for the extension were the first to ride over it. [See News photo: A first at East Broad Top, News Wire, Oct. 6, 2024.]
At least one public trip with EBT’s 1927 J.G. Brill Co. gas-electric car, the M-1, ran on the new line. EBT also operated a special motorcar trip there for historian Lee Rainey, author of the road’s landmark history and a longtime Friends coordinator on both Rockhill building preservation and organization of the company’s archives.
Other features of the three-day celebration included nine regular passenger runs and two photo freights, all pulled by 2-8-2 No. 16 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1916); six public runs each with the M-1 and the M-3, a 1928 Nash inspection vehicle. There were also speeder rides, shop tours, seminars, and an archives open house staffed by coordinator Julie Rockwell and technician Sammy Bellin.
For the railroad, the weekend’s flawless operations also underscored the mechanical fitness of its restored steam locomotive, No. 16. After a two-year-plus rehabilitation, it ran for 150 days throughout the 2023 season, carrying 35,000 passengers. An inspection early this year discovered cracks in two driving-wheel spokes, which took it down for the entire summer season while a diesel pinch-hit. Once it was repaired [See “East Broad Top 2-8-2 No. 16 is back in service,” News Wire, Aug. 29, 2024], it developed an overheated bearing. After fine-tuning that issue, No. 16 resumed front-line duty for the Reunion.
Among other news, General Manager Brad Esposito said the Foundation’s long-term goal is to carry 100,000 riders a year. The road’s historic 1880s-era fleet of a wooden coach and two wooden combines is undergoing restoration, which will help add capacity, but Esposito said he foresees the need for more new-coach seating and likely a new first-class car. EBT in 2022 bought four new coaches from Hamilton Manufacturing of Bellingham, Wash.
— Updated at 10:20 a.m. with latest version of “March to Saltillo” map.
