[PRCo] Re: East Broad Top Railroad won't run this summer | News | CentreDaily.com

Bob Rathke bobrathke at comcast.net
Mon May 21 00:58:20 EDT 2012 

The EBT was abandoned in 1956, and after four years it briefly resumed operations in 1960 for a local celebration.  That event was so sucessful that the EBT re-opened for summer operations  starting in  1961 (I was there), an d that continued for many years. The trolley line came around 1965. 



Yes, the EBT is off tourists' beaten path. 



Bob 



----- Original Message -----


From: "Fred Schneider" <fwschneider at comcast.net> 
To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org 
Sent: Sunday, May 20, 2012 11:16:41 AM 
Subject: [PRCo] Re: East Broad Top Railroad won't run this summer | News | CentreDaily.com 

Aren't those operations about a days drive from each other, Herb?   

When the EBT was first recreated in 1956, a lot of the men who were running it were guys who had worked for it before.   Many of them came back after a four year layoff.   Over the years the company trained a lot of new people but I think the EBT staff were mostly guys from the Mt. Union - Orbisonia area. 

The trolley operation was different.   It was begun by a now deceased chap from Allentown and therefore many of the fellows came from the Lehigh Valley.  In fact, their library was housed in empty space in the former Lehigh Valley Transit Company bus garage in Allentown, i.e. the former Fairview Carbarn.   Ownership has changed; it's now Lehigh-Northampton Transit Authority but the museum guys still have their library there.   There was also a second group of fellows from the Harrisburg area that included Dick Steinmetz, his grandson Steve Gurley (both are dead now), Alan Martlew (also departed).   I believe the Rockhill Trolley Museum membership is still strongly from the Allentown - Harrisburg area but they are not the same people who started it any more than any of the museums have the same cadre they did in the 1940s or 1950s.   

The strong point with EBT / RTM is that land is cheap and it's pretty country.   The weak point is that no one goes there to support it.   When the only thing in the area is a railroad or trolley museum, you really do not attract visitors.   When you have millions of visitors a year to the area, then the railroad can easily syphon off a few hundred thousand.   

Examples … Lancaster County, Pennsylvania was a strong tourist destination beginning in the 1960s because people came here to see the Amish / Mennonite farmers.   I don't know why people want to follow a buggy and watch the horse poop but don't knock it.   Those horses dragged in people by the millions.   The result was the Strasburg's peak year was something like 425,000 passengers. By diversifying into Thomas the Tank Engine, they are still in that neighborhood.   

The EBT peaked at around 40,000 in the early 1960s and dropped, I was told, to somewhere around 3000 to 4000 a year in recent years, principally because there is nothing else in the area to draw people.     

There have been others.   A portion of the Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain RR operated as the Everett Railroad in the 1960s.   It's long gone.   That was on US 30 at Everett, east of Bedford … again, nothing else to attract the visitor.   I have doubts that the Middletown and Hummelstown will hang in too much longer.   Remember Sloan Cornell's various operations?  Penn Vue Mountain Scenic Railroad --- gone --- the engine went to Gettysburg?   Knox and Kane … I think the scrapping was finished in 2010.   Gettysburg Railroad …. the boiler explosion resulted in a total rewrite of FRA rules for tourist steam railroads … someone else is running it today as a diesel railroad … the 2012 schedule showed on day in May, nothing scheduled yet for the rest of the year.   Free standing tourist railroads are not a way to make money now that the people who remembered riding the trains are all pushing up daisies. 


On May 20, 2012, at 11:44 AM, Herb Brannon wrote: 

> If anyone who usually participates at East Broad Top wants to continue 
> "railroading" this year come to Northeastern Ohio. The Cuyahoga Valley 
> Scenic Railroad is alive, well, and always looking for volunteers to serve 
> in a variety of ways on the railroad. June begins the Summer season with 
> service between Akron-Cleveland and Akron-Canton. Training (one day in 
> classroom and 100-hours on-board the train for Trainman positions) and a 
> few benefits are provided. The training can be scheduled to fit the 
> individuals schedule. Check out the CVSR website and click on 
> "Volunteer".    Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad Website <http://cvsr.com> 
> Plus, don't forget "Steam In The Valley" for three weeks this September. 
> On Sat, May 19, 2012 at 7:44 AM, Dennis F Cramer <trombone at windstream.net>wrote: 
> 
>> 
>> http://www.centredaily.com/2012/05/19/3201167/east-broad-top-railroad-wont-run.html 
>> 
>> DF Cramer 
>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Herb Brannon 
> In Cuyahoga Valley National Park 
> 
> 
>

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