EBT late-August update

So far it's been a pretty good season at the East Broad Top. The annual Community Appreciation Day on August 15 attracted a fair crowd of riders. Some came to take advantage of discounted fares, others to ride the evening train or to see the Civil War reenactors who set up camp at the railroad for the weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday a Civil War band played on the station platform and then boarded the train, only to discover a skirmish underway -- complete with a cannon -- in a field beside the long fill at Runks. Band members climbed down off the train and joined the fray while other passengers watched. Several trains were also ambushed on the Rockhill wye.

In other EBT news, the railroad has hired a crew headed up by Charlie Wooten, a dedicated Friends of the East Broad Top volunteer, to replace 1,000 ties this summer (in addition to about 1,200 replaced last year). And the railroad's own employees have rebuilt several switches at the south end of the Rockhill yard.

Plans for the Fall Spectacular are still being debated. There will definitely be a photo freight Friday, October 9, but when it will depart and what the consist will be aren't final yet. Also, FEBT members will demonstrate several pieces of equipment in the machine shops -- the drill press and the big wheel lathe (both circa 1906), plus the newly-restored shop steam engine (circa 1870), which if all goes well will operated on compressed air.

-- Lawrence Biemiller


A train pauses to let reenactors join a lineside skirmish.


Departure time nears for the Community Appreciation Day evening train.


FEBT members have returned the governor to the shops steam engine.

--

Lawrence Biemiller
Washington, D.C.