Locomotives & Equipment of the East Broad Top Railroad

I am deeply indebted to narrow gauge historian, the late Bob Richardson, for finding this image of EBT 2-6-2 No. 11. Bob found it buried in a pile of $2.00 "foreign" locomotive cards at a swap meet in Ohio in July, 2001 and kindly purchased it for me. 

No. 11 is perhaps the most important locomotive that the EBT ever purchased.  She was the railroad's first locomotive with a trailing truck, which allowed for a larger firebox and boiler.  Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, PA in 1908,  No. 11 marked EBT's transition into the modern age of American railroading and featured automatic knuckle couplers and applances for supplying compressed air to Westinghouse automatic braking systems on the cars she pulled.  The absence of a generator in the builder's photo indicates she was delivered with an oil headlight, but later photos of No. 11 in service showed that a generator was added.  Also note that the pilot coupler has a slot to allow for old-style link-and-pin couplers to be used.  At the time the EBT received No. 11, the federal Safety Appliance Act mandating use of automatic knuckle couplers was in effect, but the narrow gauge line continued to use the dangerous link-and-pin couplers for several more years.  

No. 11 was so successful that she became the prototype for three of the six 2-8-2 locomotives the EBT purchased from Baldwin during the next decade. Mikado (2-8-2) No. 12 (see below) was essentially a stretched copy of No. 11.  Unfortunately, No. 11 became a victim of the very modernization program she helped begin.  Rendered redundant by the EBT's larger, more modern locomotives, she was being canabalized for parts by the late 1930s.  Her final disposition is unknown; one report says she was sold for scrap during World War 2, while another suggests she was shipped to an unknown railroad in Central America.  At any rate, No. 11 left the EBT's roster by 1943. 

EBT 2-8-2 No. 12 is the oldest steam engine on the property, delivered from Baldwin Locomotive Works in December 1911. Her maiden voyage on a bitterly cold Sunday in January 1912, nearly ended in disaster. After pulling a string of empty hoppers up the steep grade from Saltillo, the engine and train entered Sidling Hill tunnel. Water seeping through the rock walls of the tunnel had puddled and frozen over the rails inside the tunnel. The wheels of the pilot truck derailed, but the crew didn't notice this until the wheels struck the south switch at Kimmel Siding, just beyond the north portal. No. 12 left the rails and came to rest at a precarious angle.

Despite this ill omen, No. 12 went on to become a favorite of the engine crews, and it operated on the abbreviated 5-mile tourist line from 1960 until 2001. As of 2002, No. 12 is stored inop requiring major repairs to its boiler and drivers. In the picture above, No. 12 was near the coaling bunker at the south end of the EBT's Rockhill yard in the early 1990s -- far removed in place and time from that long-ago winter day, but a timeless image nevertheless.

By the way, the frozen water problem was found to be caused by the almost constant draft of cold air through the tunnels. The EBT installed wooden doors, operated by watchmen, and the problem was fixed. In the late 1940's, EBT management replaced the wooden doors with electrically operated roll-up steel doors. 

The EBT's Rocky Ridge Branch was opened in November, 1905 to serve several privately owned coal mines along Trough Creek.  By 1913 the output of these mines was sufficient to justify the purchase of Mikado No. 15 to handle the increasing coal traffic.  With three new, state-of-the-art 2-8-2's in operation, the EBT retired several of its older 2-6-0, 2-8-0, and 4-6-0 locomotives.

No. 15, Baldwin, February 1914, is a virtual twin sister to No. 14.  In this view No. 15 takes water next to the coaling bunker at the south end of the Rockhill Yard during a Fall Spectacular weekend in the early 1990s.​

In 2002 No. 15 was taken out of service for overhaul to meet new Federal Railway Administration (FRA) safety standards for steam boilers.  She was finally returned to service in 2005 & was the only EBT steam locomotive in service through the end of tourist operations in 2011. 

All of the EBT's six Mikado's are still in the Rockhill roundhouse. But of the three superheated Mikes, only No. 17, Baldwin, March 1918, was operated in tourist service. No. 17 powered the last revenue run of the EBT's common carrier era on April 6, 1956. A regular in annual Winter and Fall Spectaculars for many years, No. 17 suffered major flue leaks during the Fall of 2001. In 2002 the engine was stored, inop. In the scene above she's running north past a string of restored steel hopper cars in the Rockhill Yard during a Fall Spectacular in the early 1990s.No. 15, Baldwin, February 1914, is a virtual twin sister to No. 14.  In this view No. 15 takes water next to the coaling bunker at the south end of the Rockhill Yard during a Fall Spectacular weekend in the early 1990s.​