Diesel arrives at East Broad Top from Durango & Silverton

ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. — West met East here Thursday morning (Feb. 13, 2025) as the East Broad Top Railroad took ownership of former Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad diesel unit No. 1203, an H.K. Porter six-axle locomotive built in Pittsburgh in 1946.

After a week-long trip by heavy-haul truck from its last home in Colorado, the diesel arrived at the shops and headquarters of its new owner, EBT Foundation Inc. After a few weeks of setup, it is expected to enter work-train and standby passenger duty.

It was five years ago today – Feb. 14, 2020 – that the newly formed nonprofit Foundation announced that it had bought most of the iconic 33-mile-long narrow gauge East Broad Top, a National Historic Landmark, with the backing of industry leaders Wick Moorman, Bennett Levin, and Henry Posner III. [See ‘The East Broad Top will run again and again,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 14, 2020.] Its common-carrier coal-hauling days ended in 1956, and in 1960 the new owners, the Kovalchick family, revived a short portion as a seasonal steam-powered tourist line. It ran as such until closing at the end of 2011. Using 55-ton, 340-horsepower center-cab General Electric diesel switcher No. M-7, the Foundation resumed regularly scheduled passenger service with short trains in 2021 and 2022 as ridership grew.

In 2023, EBT restored to operation 2-8-2 Mikado steam engine No. 16 (Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1916), which ran flawlessly that summer and fall, routinely pulling six- and seven-car trains. In 2024, the engine cycled in and out of service for mechanical issues. [See “East Broad Top No. 16 out of service . . .,” News Wire, April 11, 2024.] Each time, the M-7 pinch-hit, but it cannot haul the same number of cars. As a result, EBT was forced to reduce the consist and rebook or cancel hundreds of reservations while increasing schedule frequency with a shorter train.

Protecting schedules

No. 1203, a DE75CT model, will serve as the prime protection power for No. 16, one of the three largest of the road’s fleet of six BLW Mikados, all built between 1911 and 1920. The Foundation eventually hopes to steam all six of them. The diesel will be renumbered as EBT No. 19 and painted black with orange trim to match the steamers. It is powered by an Alco 6-cylinder Model 251 prime mover, and is operated from an Electro-Motive Division control stand.

An end-cab switcher that rides on spoked drivers in C-C configuration, the unit produces about the same pulling power as either of EBT’s two medium-sized Mikados, Nos. 14 and 15, General Manager Brad Esposito told News Wire.

The Foundation’s board had been considering buying a larger diesel for several years, but “finding the right one” took time, he said. “It’s cool to have it here,” he said. “It gives us peace of mind.”

In addition, as EBT and its auxiliary nonprofit Friends of the East Broad Top continue to restore more of the original main line, train operations will be expanded, placing greater importance on maintaining a base of reliable power.

The move also represents the unit’s repatriation to Pennsylvania. It was built in 1946 by H.K. Porter Co., Inc., of Pittsburgh, a producer of small industrial locomotives – internal-combustion as well as conventional steam and fireless steam types.

EBT Foundation President Henry Posner III said in a statement, “While there are many narrow-gauge railroads around the world, 36-inch gauge presents unique technical challenges in sourcing locomotives. In this case, we were lucky in that the Durango & Silverton had this one-of-a-kind locomotive available. [Speaking as] a Pittsburgher: It will be good to have the locomotive back home in Pennsylvania.”

Porter apparently built the unit for export to Pakistan. When that sale fell through, U.S. Gypsum Co. bought the engine for its narrow gauge plant railroad at Plaster City, Calif.

In 1979, that firm re-equipped its fleet, selling the unit for tourist service on the Huckleberry Railroad in Michigan. That line later sold it for use on the Georgetown Loop Railroad in Colorado, and from there it moved on to the Durango & Silverton in 2015.

As part of the recent transaction, EBT sent two more of its home-built steel hopper cars to D&SNG, which already owns several for maintenance-of-way service.

EBT Notebook

In other noteworthy recent developments:

— A rebranding of the road’s marketing identity retains the classic EBT acorn-shaped logo – designed by EBT employee P.F. Yeager in 1937 – but adds the words “National Historic Landmark,” “Railroad Heritage Park” and “America’s Most Authentic Industrial Heritage Site.” This applies only to marketing materials, not to rolling stock or retail sales items. Director of Sales and Marketing Jonathan Smith explained that, by itself, the logo has always been recognized by railfans and historians, who already know the EBT story, but not by the general public.

— Effective with the opening of the 2025 regular season in April, all fares will include a guided tour of the historic 1900-era machine shops. EBT will continue to offer extended in-depth tours for a fee, but this is the first time all regularly ticketed passengers can view the belt-driven overhead line shaft system that powers machine tools such as a lathe, drill press, wheel press, and other implements.

— Friends of the EBT is soon expected to announce groundbreaking for its reconstruction of the razed EBT station at Saltillo, Pa. Reopening the main line to that town — 8 miles from Rockhill — is the near-term goal of the joint Foundation-FEBT track restoration project.

— The Foundation has purchased a storefront building in Mount Union, Pa., northern terminus of the EBT main line, site of a dual-gauge yard and onetime interchange with the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Harrisburg-Pittsburgh main line, now Norfolk Southern’s Pittsburgh Line. This accomplishes two aims. First, it provides more space for the joint Foundation-FEBT Archives and Special Collections team. It also establishes a beachhead in Mount Union, signaling the Foundation’s desire to eventually gain ownership of the last 4 miles of main line into that town. That segment is owned by East Broad Top Preservation Association, a group that since the early 2000s intended to restore the entire EBT but whose plans never came to pass.