Re: East Broad Top: "$50 for the 50th" Campaign

I attended the 50th Anniversary celebration yesterday. Great day. Steam trains, M-1 motorcar rides, speeder rides, roundhouse/shop tours and the special ceremony highlighting the past 50 years. There were a number of railroad and Friends officials who announced plans for the future. One highlight is a new aggressive approach to restoration of rolling stock, motive power and facilities. Grants are actively being pursued for restorations.

The $50 for 50th is a good Campaign that will save an historic structure. A certain tower in Italy has nothing on the EBT's blacksmith shop. If not saved in the next year or two it will collapse. The Friends have done a wonderful job repairing and saving other buildings and I hope the blacksmith shop will be next.

The best part of the day for me was when my wife took a photo of me leaning out engine 15's cab window. It was the same window I leaned out of with my father as my mother photographed us two weeks after the railroad reopened in 1960. Engine 15 looks great today but I haven't weathered quite as well...