EBT 15 received a 1,472 Service Day Inspection back in 2005 to make her legal to operate under Part 230, but a 1,472 is not the same thing as an "overhaul" or "rebuild." It's a boiler inspection, as well as any repairs needed to pass that inspection. Certainly, when I saw her at the last spectacular in 2011, she did not look like an engine that had been overhauled at any time in the recent past. She had problems during the event and was withdrawn from service and replaced with a diesel at one point. Ridden hard and put away wet would probably be a better way to describe 15.

/Kevin Madore

Hello,

Per O Anderson's comment, it reminds me of the detailed website maintained the late Ben Fisher on the Welsh Highland Railway Project. It appears this website is now on archive status but recalled checking it constantly during the WHR reconstruction. Extremely interesting on what they had to go through on the right of way preparation, civil design and extensive track laying. As I recall detailed chronologies were also provided on the former SAR Garratt NGG16 restorations at Boston Lodge.

Here is a link to the archived site:

https://www.whrsoc.org.uk/WHRProject/index.htm

In today's world perhaps a virtual platform can be the historical record medium versus a hard copy book. This WHR website took a lot of effort to maintain but was so helpful to those who wanted to follow the rebuilding and redevelopment of the railway. Not sure if Facebook is a polished but is possibly a more accessible platform and takes less effort to maintain.

Part of building the excitement and support for the EBT rebirth is having this resource available.

Not sure what the world is going to look like when and if COVID ever ends but wishing the best for the foundation. Perhaps its remoteness could help in the initial restoration but of course butts in seats = $ and that is going to be difficult moving forward.

Regards

Randy Musselman

As seen in Trains:
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... main-line/



Nice pictures on the site. They ballasted up to the bridge and are only a mile away from the Colgate picnic grove!

It's 3.6 miles to Colgate Grove from the station....Runk Road is easily a mile south of the grove, give or take...not sure where they get 3.5 miles to Runk from Orbisonia.

Back in the day it was advertised as a 10 mile round trip, which included the mileage of wyeing the train at both ends....reality is its just over 8 miles ,rt, including wyeing.

10 miles is a much better figure for marketing purposes IMHO.

What a great project. Without doubt THE railroad preservation/restoration story of the decade.

Kudos to Bennett Levin, Wick Moorman & Henry Posner for making it possible.

Ross Rowland

One of the inexplicable things that happened during the NPS era when it seriously looked like NPS would step in and run EBT like Steamtown (and there were on-train NPS 'guides') was that they would get off the train at Colgate and so could the passengers. The NPS guide would try to give an historic presentation there.... and would stand by the locomotive. Usually with the blower running, pops lifting, air compressor banging, all kinds of racket, and nobody could hear a thing they said.

I imagine that the report back was something like 'nobody cares to listen to the presentation'.....

Similar but later era at Steamtown where the NPS presence in the cars was primarily to keep people seated at all times while the train was in motion....

Reminds me of a visit to Steamtown in Scranton early after they reopened decades ago and taking the tour of the grounds. It was led by a "guy with a gun" in NPS uniform. Standing beside a dead steam locomotive he gave an "explanation" of how it worked etc. etc. I listened and soon concluded any comment I might offer to correct his misunderstandings would be a waste of time. So, i left the tour.

So Brave.

The issue of under-trained, not-knowledgeable-enough, or simply new docents/guides has been addressed in this forum many times.

www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=21407

The problem with speaking up in this situation is that neither the erroneous guide nor the other people present have any way or ability to discern your actual expertise, and there is therefore no way to distinguish your corrections from other people that may spout major errors of fact/history, or reprise the entire "The only reason we got rid of trolleys/steam locomotives was the NCL cabal with GM and Firestone/GM blackmailed railroads by threatening to withhold their traffic!" conspiracy theories, or worse (I have heard of people claiming railroads were part of "maintaining systemic slavery" or the like, as if that were their only function).

The only thing one can really do is attempt to hunt down someone in some position of authority and ask that the erroneous guide/docent be reviewed.

.

I have direct information from knowledgeable sources that the introduction of the k27's led to the shooting of Franz Ferdinand........... ...

A recent post on the Fans of the EBT says that the replacement of the ties and spiking down of the rail from the Ruck Rd bridge north to the Grove including the wye is complete. Next comes the ballast and tamping. The EBTF also has received a grant to refurbish the track to Shirelysburg plus add accomdations in the Grove. BTW the EBTF purchase of the EBT ROW/track south of the concrete bridge also includes trackage rights to Mt Union, but a lot of trackwork needs to be done by someone.

I notice there is a post below saying #3 is for sale; who owns it and what are they asking for it?

I’ve done my best to follow the project since it got back up and running, and while I’ve heard that there are potentially trackage rights to Mt Union, I’ve never actually heard that officially from anyone. Henry Posner last year made it clear that, for the time being, Mt Union wasn’t the focus. While plans can change, I imagine they probably want to stay away from Mt Union because of who exactly it’s owned by. There’s also the fact that there really isn’t anything in Mt Union these days except rotting hopper cars and a few other pieces. For now, Mt Union will probably be looked at another time.

As for Shirleysburg, I remember the grant being put out but I’ve seen nothing about it since. They likely will restore that mile or so it takes to get there but the closest thing anyone has said about going there was the official EBT page showing a few pictures of the area saying “anyone want to go to Shirleysburg?”

Lastly, I believe it’s around $250,000 for #3. Maybe a bit more. A third party bought the locomotive at an undetermined date, presumably within the last decade or so (neither the Kovalchicks nor the EBTF own #3).

For those not watching the news closely, a couple updates:

The EBT has completed its track project northbound from Rockhill Furnace to Colgate Grove. The first public trains to the picnic grove since 2011 ran this past weekend (10/08/2021), almost a decade since the last public run. This concludes 18 months ofbridge replacement, tie replacement, ditch work, ballast, and surfacing done by both paid employees and a crew of volunteers led by one Gene Tucker (which quickly earned a nickname as 'Gene's Army). The picnic grove remains closed pending further upgrades to the facilities, which the Foundation was awarded a grant to complete.

Whist I was unable to attend this year's Friends of the East Broad Top Fall Reunion, the FEBT has announced this year's fundraising goals and project initiatives.

Trains Magazine story:
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... oks-south/

This is the big one, in my opinion:

Initialization of the Reconstruction of the Saltillo Station and Water Tank
Yes, you're reading that correctly--the Foundation is preparing to push south as was discussed at the 2020 Reunion. It makes sense to push Saltillo as the destination of 'phase 1' of a southward expansion--no tunnel work required, 6 bridges, in surprisingly good shape (all of which have been recently inspected and found sound), about a dozen grade crossings, and the location has a (partially-intact) wye for turning the train around to go back north. By requesting the FEBT's aid in reconstructing these two lost structures, the Foundation has signalled both its comittment to southward expansion and something of a timeline for doing so.

The Saltillo station was demolished in 2006 after decades of neglect and disrepair, before which a full HAER study was done and the building was stipped of unique elements by the Friends in the event reconstruction could ever occur (an action that, as fate has it, was worth going through the trouble of). Those recovered elements will likely either be incorporated into the station's recreation, or used to make copies. The architect doing this initial work, John Bowie, is an FEBT member and lead the HAER study, and is donating his time.

The Saltillo water tank was lost to fire in December 1986, but the pump was saved by the FEBT. Like all of the EBT's tankhouses, the Saltillo tank was a square, fully enclosed structure. Only one of the four tankhouses remains standing today (at Coles, where the Joller Branch split from the mainline and climbed to the top of the mountain to serve a mine).

Three things I take from this.

1. I have no idea why this forum really doesn’t post much about the EBT. I guess this forum just loves mysteries or controversy. The EBT is just chock full of awesome stuff right now with how much they have going on, and there’s even a bit more pertaining to other projects that wasn’t put into the articles. Very exciting times.

2. Saltillo absolutely does make sense as the first “stage” in restoring track towards Robertsdale, but while the bridges and potential issues in land ownership are worth some thought, I am most concerned about the grade crossings, and there are a lot of them. That’s not cheap, and I just wonder about the safety of some of these crossings, a couple of which cross a state road. On a side note, I also wonder if they’ll be able to use copies of the older grade crossing signs they use at a couple of the northern crossings, or if they have to use just standard crossbucks.

3. I guess this opens the opportunity for other buildings to be rebuilt as well. There’s been suspicions that the railroad will go about a mile further north past the picnic grove to truly connect with the town of Shirleysburg, and part of that extension supposedly could include rebuilding the long lost station structure there as well. Along the way to Saltillo, the EBT passes through a town called Three Springs, and there was once a depot and an extant passing loop there as well. Wonder if Three Springs gets the same treatment at some point.