What is the EBT? For 65 years the EBT has been a tourist railroad offering steam excursions on five miles of track, but the story of this time capsule goes much deeper. The East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company was a 33 mile short line narrow gauge railroad built in 1872-74 to service the coal fields of the remote Broad Top Mountain area of south-central Pennsylvania, and haul the coal to the Pennsylvania Railroad at Mount Union or to on-line iron furnaces. Unusually for such a successful railroad, the EBT was built with narrow gauge tracks, just 3' between the rails. The EBT dutifully and, for the most part, profitably performed this duty for over eighty years. The Broad Top coal business faded in the mid 1950's as oil and gas replaced coal power in many applications and the need for Broad Top coal haulers came to an end. On April 14, 1956, the line officially ceased freight operations.
Even at that time the EBT was the last original narrow gauge railroad east of the Rocky Mountains. As with it's contemporaries, the EBT was closed and sold for dismantlement and salvage. Unlike them, the EBT was never dismantled. Nick Kovalchick of Kovalchick Salvage purchased the line in 1956, but did not dismantle it immediately. The entire line laid dormant until 1960, when at the request of the Orbisonia Bicentennial committee, the EBT began operating excursions on a short portion of the line. The rides were so popular Nick decided open the railroad as a tourist attraction the next year on 5 miles of the line while the remaining 28 miles of the road went into a kind of stasis for the next 50 years.
The EBT is a complete, intact 19th and early 20th century railroad and infrastructure. The entire 33-mile, 3-foot gauge main line is intact as are six steam locomotives built for the EBT, over 200 steel freight cars built by and for the EBT, a complete, belt-driven shops complex that has no equal in North America, and a living history from the people who worked the road and the industries it served. As far back as the 1930's the EBT was recognized as a unique railroad when the National Railway Historical Society began sponsoring excursion trips on the road. The National Park Service designated the EBT as a National Historic Landmark in 1964 (today one of fewer than 2,500), it's highest designation of historic places and placed the railroad on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966 upon the inception of the Register.
Beginning in 2002 volunteers of the Friends of the East Broad Top began restoration work at Rockhill, on the Shops, rolling stock and track. Many historic assets of the railroad were brought back from the brink of complete loss. Seasonal excursion service operated until the end of 2011, the last three years of which it was leased to a separate nonprofit. When the lease could not be renegotiated, the railroad shut down for a second time. It again slept while awaiting a saviour as the FEBT and a tiny paid staff worked to keep the railroad intact.
The remoteness that made the EBT special then has helped save it for today. Alas, time and the tight budgets of an isolated attraction have taken their toll on the railroad, particularly on the unused portions of the line and the historic shops complex. Public efforts to preserve and restore the EBT have been building for four decades now. In February 2020 a new nonprofit, the EBT Foundation, was able to purchase most of the railroad from Kovalchick Salvage. The EBTF is now working to restore the railroad and resume operations on close cooperation with the volunteers of the Friends of the East Broad Top
The East Broad Top is the greatest untapped historical resource of the Industrial Age. It is a unique time capsule of the life and times of the rural industrial culture, one waiting to be opened and shown to the world. All it needs is your help. Buy a ticket and ride a train. Volunteer to help with the FEBT Restoration Crews. Donate to the FEBT Restoration Fund. Tell friends about the East Broad Top Railroad, oldest narrow gauge in America and the last east of the Rockies!
