Ron Morgan has written another East Broad Top article for the Huntingdon, PA Daily News: All need to work together for the greater good of the EBT project (September 3, 2014)

While the article is behind a paywall, here are two short excerpts:
and

The line will likely remain as it is regardless of the owners, its obvious its preservation seems secure. We here have not speculated but thrown ideas around, read them as you will and use them or not!


cheers

Very true. I think no matter what there will always be an East Broad Top with station and facilities in Orbisonia and a stall full of tucked away steamers. It's the future of operations that, to me, seems to be in jeopardy. If Salone is unable to resume tourist service, and no one else with deep pockets is willing to step up to the bat then it's very possible that the Orbisonia site will become an industrial museum with static displays.

https://www.facebook.com/ebtrr

Your speeder crew at work: The EBT's owner, Joe Kovalchick, has given the Friends of the East Broad Top permission to run its speeder south of Meadow Street during next month's FEBT Fall Reunion. Which is great but, geez, you can hardly wade through the grass and vines south of the Odd Fellows Cemetery crossing. Several weekends of work are in store for the speeder crew (which isn't even part of the FEBT, except for one member).

You sure assume an awful lot, there. I see no reason to think it's impossible that after a few years of inactivity for someone to start chipping away at the treasures that still exist there, with a locomotive here and a passenger car there to be sold off in the name of 'getting capital for eventual operation' and thus gutting the collection to the point where it's just a few decaying buildings and rails with weeds popping through, never again to be pushed down by a train.
Of course, I badly want to be proven wrong about that.

I think it is dangerous to assume anything, especially this. Your post demonstrates the complacent additude a lot have had toward the EBT, assuming it would always be there. It's part of the reason we are where we are, granted, just a small part.

There's not that many places to sell off 3 foot gauge equipment, EBT is a very unique situation. Its one that has thrived past other NG lines. EBT is a rarity thats difficult to replace or duplicate.

How can you say (presumably with a straight face) that EBT "..has thrived past other NG lines." ?

That would be huge news to the C&TS and D&SNG, not to mention to those who have watched it turn into a weed path the last couple of years.

Not operating or maintaining at all hardly constitutes thriving.

Someone looking for more 3-footer equipment wouldn't be interested in duplicating or replacing anything, they'd likely be looking to move said equipment to a totally different operation. 3-footers have swapped and sold off plenty of equipment in the last few years. All the very active 3-footers (the old D&RGW lines and the White Pass, for examples) have equipment they didn't start off with. Yeah, the market is small, but it's not THAT small.Quoted for truth.

All you need is for someone to want to equip a new 3' gauge park railroad, and the locomotive roster could be gone in a month.

Both Knotts Berry Farm and the Huckleberry are good examples of "greenfield" operations that were developed during our lifetime, luckily the EBT locos weren't available then.

On edit:
I probably should include Dollywood in that list, too.

Plenty of EBT equipment has been sold off already. Just look at all the EBT hoppers that can be seen now on the C&TS, D&S, Sumpter Valley, WP&Y, etc., as well as the standard gauge 0-6-0 languishing in Indiana.

-Philip Marshall

For what it is worth the FEBT Restoration Crew continues to perform both maintenance and restoration of the structures in Rockhill Furnace. Notably, this year structural repairs were made to the Sand House and it no longer leans to the east.

For what it's worth, that the FEBT volunteers continue to soldier on to preserve the physical plant of the EBT with so much uncertaintly surrounding its future is truly commendable.

If anyone is interested in photos here are some from earlier this year. Yes, it is Facebook, but I don't think you need to log in to look at them.

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheEB ... 3911919042

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfTheEB ... 8724169042