GUIDE TO GARDEN RAILWAYS

We take a trip to the East Broad Top Narrow Gauge Railroad in Orbisonia PA. The EBT it the oldest and one of only a few operating narrow gauge railroads east of the Mississippi River. The engine that pulls the days train is 2-8-2 #15. Built by the Baldwin locomotive works of Philadelphia Pennsylvania in February 1914, she has an operating boiler pressure pf 180 LBS. The railroad was chartered April 16, 1856 to mine and transport coal from the rich fields of Broad Top Mountain. The railroad did become a reality until the Rockhill Iron & Coal Company was incorporated. In 1919, the EBT was purchased by Madeira Hill & Company. At Mt. Union, MHC established a coal cleaning plant and a "timber transfer." Originally, the timber transfer was used to transfer wood from narrow to standard gauge cars from the McKelvey Brothers Logging Company. When the McKelvey Brothers went out of business in 1933, the timber transfer was used to change the trucks under standard gauge cars to move on the EBT rails until abandonment. Right after closing in 1956, the Kovalchick Salvage Company of Indiana, PA, a large railroad scrapper, bought the railroad and all its assets. In 1960, passenger service was restored to celebrate the bicentennials of Orbisonia and Rockhill. The EBT was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and remains the most comlete and authentic narrow gauge site in America and the last original narrow gauge east of the Rockies. In 2009 the nonprofit EBT Preservation Association signed a three year contract to operate the trains of the EBT with an option to purchase. (Information from the EBT web site)... http://www.ebtrr.com/history.html.... Please sit back and relax and enjoy the the production!