A Huntingdon County judge Wednesday ruled that the organization that owns almost all of the East Broad Top Railroad can buy the remaining several miles at the northern end of the right-of-way from the EBT's former operator, thus making the historic narrow gauge line whole again, while extending the right-of-way far enough to connect with the Norfolk Southern mainline at Mount Union.

Judge Roy Ghaner ruled that the East Broad Top Foundation has 14 days to exercise its right of first refusal to intervene in former operator Larry Salone's East Broad Top Railroad Preservation Association's proposed sale for $2 million to local railroad enthusiast Stephen Lane's Juniata & Aughwick Railroad.

The foundation board will convene next week to vote, and is expected to match Lane's offer, thus executing the purchase, according to Bennett Levin, foundation member and chairman of the organization's Property Committee, adding, however, that he didn't want to be "presumptuous" in making a definitive prediction.

Salone first notified the foundation of Lane's offer in August 2025, giving the foundation 60 days to exercise its right to match, after which there was a delay on the foundation's part, followed by a request for proof that Lane's offer was genuine, and not an attempt to extort money from the foundation.

The judge ruled in May that Lane's offer was indeed genuine, then added this week that due to the foundation not having received enough information from Salone and Lane to determine the validity of Lane's offer -- but having squandered some of its originally allotted time to make a decision -- the foundation would have two weeks to make the purchase.

The agreement that provided the foundation with the right of first refusal was actually silent on how long the foundation had to decide, according to the judge.

While Salone and Lane set the deadline initially at 60 days, the normal criterion for how much time is allotted for a right of first refusal -- absent a stated deadline -- is simply what is reasonable, according to the judge.

Lane's offer was backed by an anonymous investor, Lane told the judge at a previous hearing.

He sought to maintain the investor's anonymity "due to the hostile nature of the sale," according to a motion that came into play at that time.

In the course of his inquiries to determine whether Lane's offer was in fact genuine, the judge conducted discussions in chambers to avoid revealing the investor's identity.

The foundation had reason to doubt the validity of Lane's offer because it was twice what the foundation initially offered for the property in 2024, even though there were components of the property that had since been sold or damaged -- which would seem to have made the assets less valuable, not twice as valuable, according to foundation lawyer Larry Newton, speaking at the time of a hearing in April.

"Money is not an issue with us," Levin said then. "But we don't want to be extorted."

The state Attorney General's office will need to review and approve the potential purchase by the foundation, as stipulated at an April hearing by the attorney for Salone and Lane, according to Levin.

The AG's office is generally responsible for transactions between nonprofit parties, according to Levin.

So let me get this straight, if the Foundation matches the $2 million purchase price that the J&A did, then the purchase is, as per the agreement, complete and the rest of the line goes to the EBTF? No "take-backs", no "never minds"?

I strongly suspect that the EBT Foundation believes--or even knows--that Lane/J&A doesn't actually have the money, or a supposed financial backer, to follow through with his ambitions...

I don't know about Lane/J&A'S finances but he also bid on the Luzerne & Susquehanna recently when that went up for bid. Not sure what his bid was, since it didn't even seem to be too strongly considered (Redevelopment Authority backed RJ Corman, Luzerne County Council is backing R&N) but that makes me thing J&A is at least somewhat more legit than a weapon to spite the EBTF.

Lane's offer was backed by an anonymous investor, Lane told the judge at a previous hearing.

He sought to maintain the investor's anonymity "due to the hostile nature of the sale," according to a motion that came into play at that time.

In the course of his inquiries to determine whether Lane's offer was in fact genuine, the judge conducted discussions in chambers to avoid revealing the investor's identity.

Besides the easy answer of "the whole narrow gauge line should be preserved INTACT" what is a serious legitimate reason for owning the line all the way into Mount Union?

Is the next step going to be to buy the Dollar General in Mount Union and demolish it so the wye can be relaid? With the wye gone, there's no historically accurate way to turn the locomotive for a return trip to Orbisonia.

There's also the hard reality that as much as a bunch of EBT foamers will cry and bemoan it, Amtrak would not be willing to add an handcapped-accessible additional station and I highly doubt Norfolk Southern would accomodate it either.

The EBTF is focusing on rebuilding the line south through the more scenic and pure Narrow Gauge ambience portions of the line. There's nothing of any major significant historical draw in Mount Union. To suddenly decide to build North will essentially create a "war on two fronts".

If the EBTF would get the line, I don't think the by-laws of the foundation would allow them to operate as a for-profit freight railroad, they could lease out the operating rights of the standard gauge portion to a designated operator. (Someone should let Riffin know!)

Otherwise, they're going to buy the line only to let it rust and rot into the ground, which is what it's doing already. The situation won't improve, the only change is the ownership.

There are plenty of things that a driven, creative organization could do with a terminus in Mount Union. It is by far the largest town on the railroad, and to my knowledge is the only location other than Rockihill itself that has any restaurants or bars within walking distance of the train.