Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. PA-127: East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Company

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HAER No. PA-127
At the first EBT Board of Directors meeting, on September 3, 1871, the Board authorized the survey of possible rights-of-way for "a railroad of either narrow or broad-gauge from the East Broad Top coal field to Mount Union..." The following year, the EBT Board "Resolved that the gauge of the railroad be fixed at three feet..., a decision perhaps driven by concern for construction costs.


The EBT Board of Directors made an unusual and important decision when they chose the gauge of their new railroad. The choice of the three-foot gauge profoundly influenced the railroad's operations and technology. Today, the EBT's claim to fame, as touted in promotional literature, is that it is the only operating narrow-gauge railroad east of the Rocky Mountains. Beyond this distinction, however, the gauge has additional significance. Narrow-gauge railroads, that is those roads having a gauge less than today's standard-gauge of four feet, eight and one-half inches, were a new phenomenon in the United States in 1872. The East Broad Top was only the fourth railroad in the United States to adopt the unproven narrow-gauge technology when construction began in 1872.