east broad top railfan spectacular

about this tour

photo by peter bowler

150 years ago the East Broad Top was among the earliest railroads in America to try a revolutionary new technology: narrow gauge. Operating from 1871 to 1956 and it is the oldest narrow-gauge railroad any where in the United States, and the last narrow gauge common carrier east of the Rocky Mountains. Nestled in the heart of Central Pennsylvania, the EBT stands as a monument to early railroading and our industrial heritage. 

When the EBT suspended freight service in 1956, its crews simply went home, leaving a time capsule that the Smithsonian has described as one of the most intact 19th-century industrial sites in the country. Saved from scrapping by the Kovalchick family, the EBT was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1964.

After many years of inactivity, the East Broad Top has been purchased by a new nonprofit foundation. With strong backing from prominent rail-industry leaders, the EBT Foundation will work with the volunteers of the Friends of the East Broad Top and the Rockhill Trolley Museum to return the Baldwin-built steam locomotives to operating condition and to continue stabilizing the railroad’s historic buildings.

We will have locomotive No. 16, a Baldwin 2-8-2 built in 1916 pull our train of coal hopper cars and one or two coaches through the rolling hills, forests and farms of the scenic Aughwick Valley. We will spend the morning hours operating a number of photo run-bys between Orbisonia which is called Rockhill Furnace by the railroad and Colgate Grove where our train will use the wye track for the return to Rockhill furnace. In the afternoon we will have the workshop tour at Rockhill Furnace where all six of the railroads steam locomotives are based plus M-1 which is a Brill Doodlebug railcar.

photo by peter bowler

On Friday October 11 we will visit the The Friends of the East Broad Top Museum at Robertsdale. A walking tour to the old Robertsdale Coal Mine is included and then you are welcome to try out their railbike on a mile of track. We will also visit and ride the Rockhill Trolley Museum which has over 20 trolley’s The Rockhill Trolley Museum collects and restores trolley, interurban and transit cars. Founded in 1960, the museum operates what has been historically referred to as the Shade Gap Electric Railway to demonstrate the operable pieces in its collection. "Shade Gap" refers to the name of a branch of the East Broad Top Railroad from whom the museum uses. In the afternoon the East Broad Top will be operating their regular tourist steam train of which you are welcome to follow it for photos.