A journey of a thousand miles begins with but one step...
At the south end of the East Broad Top's Rockhill Furnace Yard two lonely buildings stood vigil over the brush and fallen leaves. The Section House was the base of operations for the track crew for this part of the railroad. Bent and sagging the Section House still resisted the ravages of time. With all the track in the Rockhill Yard to attend to, the crews in this section needed more room. Beside the section house stood the section car shed. Having lost nearly all its siding and roofing boards on one side by 2001, the building was within a good shove of coming down. The dilapidated building can be seen in the first photo.
In 2001 a small crew of RTY volunteers and EBT crew members on their own time started sprucing up a few buildings around the yard such as the Machine Shop tool wing and the Freight Station. Over the winter they jacked up this building, repaired the deck frame and replaced the south wall framing and south roof gable. This can be seen in the second photo.
The following spring, after a seventeen year absence from work sessions in Rockhill, the Friends of the East Broad Top was invited back on the property. This building, having been started, was selected as a 'test bed' for Friends work.
With the first work session in June 2002, the crew attacked this building with a fervor. The new framing was modified to match the original based on old photos of the building. In preparation for the work, reproduction siding had been milled. The new wall was completely resided and rotten siding on the remainder of the building was replaced. Even interior details were built and applied to match the original.
In July the temporary roof was removed and a permanent one put in place. All the trim and facia was installed. In August new doors were fabricated and installed based on the original doors. In September the repaired rear windows and replica side window were installed along with new track boards inside. In October the building was painted.
It may not sound like a lot of work, but it was all done with hand tools as there is no power out there. By the Fall Spectacular of 2002, the EBT had already placed a restored EBT MOW trailer in the building for storage. We have used the trailer on a number of other restoration projects and continue to store it there.
The Section House was started at the same time, but it's hidden problems caused work to be delayed until 2003, but that is a subject for another Pic of the Week. Until then...
PS: Sorry about the lack of a Pic of the Week last week. Got busy getting ready for the November Work Session.
Chris Coleman, FEBT Webmaster
www.febt.org
