EBT Locomotive Roster
M-2

M-2 was an attempt to build on the great success of M-1, but avoid the costs of the Brill license and electrical drive components used on M-1. An 8-14-1926 concept drawing for M-2 can be found in the EBT Archives. ^AA1275. As presented, the car body was more similar to that of the M-1, but much shorter. The final M-2, being a hodge-podge of parts, looked significantly different than the plan, but similar proportions. The plan also notes it's intended use on the relatively level Shade Gap Branch.

What became M-2 started as the merging of the body of a streetcar mounted on the frame and drivetrain of a White. This as done by the Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, a 3' gauge sister railroad to the EBT (sharing most of the same board members.) A couble chain drive ran from the underside of the car to sprokets on the single rear axle outboard of the rear wheels. How power from the front mounted engine reached the chain drive is unclear. Possibly the logintudal drive shaft ran to the truck axle mounted under the car, with sprokets where the wheels would have been. Ath the front a two axle bogie truck was mounted jsut behind the pilot.

The EBT purchased the car from the ET&WNC. They rebuilt the front end of the car, extendeing the body to enclose the engine, and creating a baggage compartment in a proportion similar to the archive plan. The car was painted green with yellow-orange lettering like M-1.

M-2's chain drive proved to be unreliable, and it locked up on its one and only attempt to climb to Broad Top Mountain. She was assigned to service on the relatively level Shade Gap Branch where she also excelled at breaking down. Within a year the unit was out of service and later scrapped.

At the Fall Reunion 2023, an original steel panel off M-2 including the "M-2" lettering was displayed as part of the EBT/FEBT Archives exhibit. The panel had been discovered to still exist in storage. This is the only portion of the car known to survive.

General References

• G1 - East Broad Top - Lee Rainey and Frank Kyper - p. 214
• G2 - A Ramble into the Past on the East Broad Top - Frank Kyper - p.60-61