East Broad Top

Company History: The 3 foot gauge EBT opened in 1883 to move coal from mines in the Robertsdale area through Orbisonia to a connection with the Pennsylvania Railroad in Mount Union, Pennsylvania. Total length was 51 miles. EBT’s unique position meant they never had the usual pressures to standard gauge the line. Raw coal loads were hauled to a coal cleaning and sizing plant in Mount Union where it was processed before loading into standard gauge hoppers on the PRR. In addition to coal, EBT moved a considerable amount of ganister rock from a quarry on the line to three different refractory operations (making fire brick) located in Mount Union. For other traffic, standard gauge cars were retrucked in Mount Union (four men could do it in about half an hour) and pulled between the narrow gauge locomotives and the narrow gauge cars. A great deal of asphalt and cement moved this way for highway construction through the county.

Since most of the coal along the EBT was destined for home heating, the general move to oil and gas for home heating in the years after the Korean War spelled doom for the EBT. The last coal train ran in 1956 and the railroad was sold to Kovalchik Salvage for scrap. However, Kovalchik didn’t scrap the EBT. It reopened for the bicentennial celebration of Orbisonia, carrying tourists – and then just kept hauling tourists! In 2012, the lease held by the group operating the tourist trains ended and as of this writing a new agreement with the Kovalchik family is not in place.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.