Living History Dies

At the end of our 2010 Summertiming, the weekend before Jan started back to work, we went to Orbisonia to see an old friend, The East Broad Top Railroad. A piece of living history, this remnant of a Narrow Gauge railroad built to haul coal out of mines in the region has been kept operating as a living museum by it’s owner, Kovalchick Scrap. We wrote a Post about it at the time:

East Broad Top 2010

I took this PIC in 2010

Returning just today to the same spot on the line we found:

This!

In 2010 we watched this kind of activity at the Station in Orbisonia. 

Watching for a signal from

the Conductor.

Board!

Returning today what we found at the station was:

This!

Why is the Platform empty?

“closed for 2012”

Will there ever be a train on these tracks again?

It turns out the East Broad Top has been operating on a shoestring for years, running equipment until it required extensive repairs and then parking it in favor of still useable cars and engines:

“Only one of the steam locomotives is currently operable, down from four in 2001, because updated federal safety regulations now require railroads to dismantle each operating steam engine and test every part of its boiler. Federal certification for No. 15 cost the East Broad Top several hundred thousand dollars and took four years; there's no money to certify a second engine. Running a railroad with one 94-year-old steam locomotive, however, is betting against the odds. Sooner or later No. 15 is bound to have a problem more serious than last year's broken spring.”

Lew