FEBT Restoration – March to Saltillo
The East Broad Top Railroad was 30+ miles in length from the mainline of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Mount Union to the Broad Top coal field near Robertsdale. The EBT shut down as a coal hauler in 1956, but three miles of the line were reactivated as a tourist railroad in 1960 (extended to 4.5 miles in 1961.) The rest of the railroad remained in place, largely without maintenance. Resources were not available to reactivated additional track. As the decades passed, the ties rotted away and trees grew over the rails.
In 2020, the nonprofit EBT Foundation purchased most of the East Broad Top Railroad. Its nonprofit status opened doors for additional funding. For the first few years, track work was focused on the traditional tourist section of the line and Rockhill yard which had been generally unmaintained since 2011. By 2023 that work was completed and everyone was ready for a new chapter in track rehabilitation.
The March to Saltillo is a joint project of the Friends of the East Broad Top and the EBT Foundation to reopen track that has not seen trains since 1956. The traditional tourist line runs north from Rockhill, the March to Saltillo will reopen 9 miles of track south to the borough of Saltillo, PA. Track materials for the project (ties, spikes, ballast, etc.) are funded by donations to the FEBT Annual Campaign.
In 2023 work began on a section from the end of the yard in Rockhill to the PA Route 475 crossing, a distance of about 0.5 mile. This track had been cleared and regauged in the 2000s for use by light speeders, but was not suitable for any trains. The FEBT Volunteer Track Crew and the EBT Foundation track crew worked together to first install every third tie along the length of the section. As funding became available from the FEBT Annual Campaign, the crew started installing the remaining ties. By the end of 2023, the section had been ballasted, tamped and regulated as far as the crossing of Oddfellows Cemetery Road.
In early 2024, the section of track from Oddfellows Cemetery Road to the PA Route 475 crossing was completed. On March 12, 2024 the next section of track was begun, from the PA Route 475 crossing to the first PA Route 994 crossing, a distance of about 1.5 miles. The track crews went into high gear and relaid track on the entire section by the end of the year. Part of that was the rebuilding of the PA Route 475 crossing and the McCoy Road crossing, and laying of ballast on 1.1 miles of that section, and about 0.6 mile of that fully tamped, regulated and ready for trains.
Track work will continue in 2025, and will include the rebuilding of the first PA Route 994 crossing and the two crossings in front of Southern Huntingdon Count High School, and rebuilding track as far as the Pogue Bridge approach. Additional track work will also take place during 2025, starting at Saltillo and working north.
Details of the Process
- Removal of Brush
- Trees and heavy brush removed by a contractor
- Light and low brush removed by volunteers
- Removal of joint bars connecting rail sections
- Bolts are unbolted or cut as needed
- Rail joint bars are removed, cleaned and evaluated for reuse if in good condition
- Rail sections are picked up and stacked using a grapple truck
- Contractor does heavy grading including stump and root removal and major drainage work
- EBT Track Crew fine-tunes grading and drainage
- FEBT Volunteer Track Crew and EBT Track Crew reassemble track
- New ties are placed on the grade by a grapple truck
- Tie plates are placed on one side of the ties and one spike started to hold plate
- Grapple truck places stick of rail on plates
- Rail stick is bolted to the previous stick with joint bars and bolts
- Crews drive spikes to hold one rail in place, setting any needed curvature
- Second rail is gauged to the first rail
- Crews drive spikes to fix second rail in place
- Ballast train drops crushed limestone ballast over track
- Mechanized ballast tamper tamps the ballast around and under the ties
- Mechanized ballast regulator dresses the ballast to its final form
- Track is inspected prior to re-entering service
Status
As of April 2025, track is in full operation from Rockhill to Jordan Summit, track is under construction from Jordan Summit to Pogue Bridge, brush is cut from Pogue Bridge to Pogue and Saltillo to Three Springs. Current efforts are focused on the Saltillo to Three Springs segment.
