In its latest incarnation, the East Broad Top Railroad has resumed its excursion trains running out of the Orbisonia Station near Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania. The train runs out a distance of 4.5 miles, then turns on a “wye” and returns. In October of 2023 photographer Matthew Malkiewicz recorded this scene of locomotive #16 heading into a wooded area with its train.

The East Broad Top Railroad was created as a 3-foot narrow-gauge line. Operating from 1871 to 1956, it is one of the United States’ oldest and best preserved narrow-gauge railroads. It was a common carrier, but made its living as a coal-hauling line. When coal traffic diminished to the point of non-profitability, the road was sold to a scrapper. Fortunately the new owner chose not to scrap the entire railroad, but instead ended up creating a tourist line over a portion of the road, operating from 1960 until 2011. The line was maintained by the Friends of the East Broad Top (FEBT) volunteers, who eventually bought a couple segments of the road in 2013. In 2020 it was announced that the EBT Foundation had purchased the railroad and they planned to restart excursions. The East Broad Top reopened for limited operations in May of 2021, and officially reopened for its first full season in May, 2022. EBT locomotive #16 returned to steam in early February, 2023. Wikipedia has a nice summary of the road’s history that you can read here.

Early this year #16 was discovered to have cracks near the center of one of its drivers, so was pulled from service for repairs. Unfortunately after a single trip she was sidelined again for a bearing problem. Hopefully she’ll be back in service before the winter. As of this writing there are plans to start the restoration of locomotive #15 soon, which will help to always have steam available for service during the operating season.