East Broad Top restoration cost to date: $10 million

Man speaking with video screen in background — Brad Esposito, general manager of the nonprofit EBT Foundation, Inc., gives a review of work completed and an update on progress in restoring the historic narrow gauge East Broad Top Railroad, ad the American Legion hall, Rockhill Furnace, Pa., on Feb. 14, 2026. It was exactly six years earlier that the foundation announced that it had acquired the railroad from its previous owners, the Kovalchick family. Dan Cupper

ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. – More than $10 million has been invested to date in rescuing and restoring the narrow gauge East Broad Top Railroad in central Pennsylvania.

EBT Foundation General Manager Brad Esposito didn’t hesitate to name that figure in response to a question during his state-of-the-railroad review, part of the Foundation’s Winter Spectacular event Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 14-15. The first such winter outing since 2023, it featured diesel, steam, and gas-electric-powered trains.

Speaking Saturday at a dinner held in an American Legion hall that was once an EBT president’s home, Esposito said funding to support the railroad’s rebirth comes from a broad base. It is anchored by the 2,200-member Friends of the East Broad Top, which has contributed more than $1.5 million in cash, plus tens of thousands of hours of volunteer labor. Other sources are state and federal grants, corporate donations of cash and in-kind contributions, and foundations such as the Emery Rail Heritage Trust.

“The Friends have been knocking it out of the park” in fund-raising, Esposito said, consistently exceeding each year’s campaign goal. For 2025, FEBT set out to raise $270,000 but actually took in twice that amount, $540,000. This year’s goal is $350,000, of which $236,000, or 67%, is already collected.

Friends President Andy Van Scyoc said last year’s volunteer effort alone contributed 19,200 hours of labor. That work went toward structural restoration, track construction (alongside the Foundation’s own paid track department), freight- and passenger-car rehabilitation, tour guide work, archival preservation, and staffing of FEBT’s museum in Robertsdale, at the inactive southern end of the line.

Steam engine returns for Spectacular

Steam engine and passenger train with caboose — East Broad Top 2-8-2 Mikado engine No. 16 leads a northbound passenger train across the Long Fill near Shirleysburg, Pa., on Sunday, Feb. 15, as part of EBT Foundation’s Winter Spectacular. Dan Cupper

The Winter Spectacular kicked off Feb. 12-13 with Lerro Photography photo freight charters [see “News photos: With steam sidelined …,” Trains.com, Feb. 12, 2026], followed by a day of passenger and freight runs pulled by EBT’s H.K. Porter diesel No. 19, pinch-hitting for the road’s Mikado 2-8-2 engine No. 16. Earlier in the week, the 1916 Baldwin Locomotive Works steamer was sidelined with valve-gear components – including a rod and a bell crank – that were deformed by a small amount of condensation moisture that froze in minus-9 degree weather. For steel parts with tolerances of .005 inch, that was enough to disrupt the engine’s valve timing.

Unwilling to risk further damage, Master Mechanic Dave Domitrovich held No. 16 out of service until the repair was both sound and tested. He credited his Mechanical Department team for working long days to identify and repair the issue, which included experts from other steam railroads who showed up to help. That effort, he said, enabled the engine to perform flawlessly all day on Feb. 15, the final day of the event.

East Broad Top 2-8-2 No. 16, leading a southbound passenger train, approaches Enyeart Road Crossing north of Orbisonia, Pa. on Sunday, Feb. 15, as part of EBT Foundation’s Winter Spectacular event. At the throttle is Foundation board member Linn Moedinger, retired president and chief mechanical officer of the Strasburg Rail Road. Dan Cupper

Extensive restoration work

The 33-mile-long EBT served as a common carrier from the 1870s to its shutdown in 1956, followed by private operation as a steam tourist line on 4½ miles of the original main line from 1960 to closure in 2011. In 1964, the National Park Service designated it a National Historic Landmark. In 2020, three longstanding rail-industry leaders – Wick Moorman, Henry Posner, and Bennett Levin – organized the foundation and set about reviving operations, with a goal of eventually restoring the lion’s share of the route. [See “The East Broad Top will run again and again,” Feb. 14, 2020.]

Esposito gave an illustrated narrative on the six years of progress, from restoring weedy track whose rotted ties couldn’t support the weight of any of EBT’s six Baldwin Mikados, to reviving the complete circa-1900 belt-driven shop complex. That includes a locomotive shop, car shop, machine shop, boiler shop, foundry, blacksmith shop, storerooms, master mechanic’s office, lumber shed, and freight office. Many of those buildings had sunk into the ground, one of them by 20 inches, and needed to be jacked and shored up.

Some of the milestones Esposito noted are:

Installation of 20,000 crossties. “Every tie on the main line needed to be replaced,” he said.
Reopening the southern main line more than two miles to Pogue, Pa.
Returning to service No. 16, an engine that had not run since 1956.
Design and installation of a fire suppression system, with holding ponds, to protect the road’s historic shops and eight-stall roundhouse. It is expected to be activated soon.
Mucking out ditches where residents had discarded “old TVs and tires” and spreading stone ballast and replacing culverts to permit free-flowing drainage.
Relaying yard tracks and redecking of the turntable.
Installing roofing on most of the shop buildings in Rockhill and all three EBT-related buildings in Robertsdale.
Constructing a new station at Saltillo (an FEBT-funded project), nine miles south of Rockhill, the next goal of track restoration. [See “Groundbreaking marks start of construction …,” April 5, 2025.]
FEBT’s development of the Young Easties and NextGen Easties programs to stimulate volunteerism among the young – ages 13-17 for Young Easties and ages 18-30 for NextGens.
Conducting a drone survey of the Sideling Hill and Ray’s Hill tunnels to establish a baseline for engineering work when the time comes to reopen them.

Among the next steps, he said, are:

Re-laying of track at both ends of the next stretch of main line to be restored, the seven-mile so-called “March to Saltillo.”
Advertising for bids and awarding of contracts for the repair of the 1904 steel truss bridge over Aughwick Creek at Pogue, and a smaller steel girder bridge at Three Springs.
Disassembly of engine No. 15 (Baldwin, 1914), the next one in line to be returned to service. Already, he said, the boiler jacket and all appliances have been removed. A new tank for its tender has been fabricated by Curry Rail Services of Hollidaysburg, Pa.
Beginning the design process for a five-year plan to acquire more passenger cars to handle ridership increases. In 2022, EBT acquired four new-built cars from Hamilton Manufacturing in Washington State but would prefer to find a builder closer than 3,500 miles away. [See “First new coach arrives …,” July 20, 2022.

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