FEBT Timber Transfer
Vol 12, No. 1-2
Summer-Fall, 1995
Contents:
- Consultants' Report on Preserving & Restoring East Broad Top Railroad is Released by Deane Mellander, p. 6
- 3,000 Attend East Broad Top Fall Spectacular by Phil Padgett, p. 10
- Planning for Railroad's Future Discussed at F.E.B.T.'s 13th Reunion by Phil Padgett, p. 12
- 1995 Reunion Contest Winners, p. 13
- As I Recall..., A Boiler Shop Remembrance of Life On the East Broad Top - Part II by Fred Laird and George Cook and Craig Williams, p. 14
- From the Library - The Roy Wilburn Story, the Man Behind the EBT by Phil Padgett, p. 19
- From the Library - Tommy Varner's Red Rooster - A History of the Tuscarora Valley Railroad by Deane Mellander, p. 19
- The E.B.T. Modeler - Large Scale: Bachmann's E.B.T. Caboose by Barry Moore, p. 20
- F.E.B.T.'s New Riders Ticket Program Strong '95 Finish, Well Positioned for '96 - Volunteers Needed Now to Distribute Tickets for 1996, p. 21
- As I Recall..., Remembering the E.B.T. In Mount Union - Part II: An Interview with Mike Dimoff by Craig Williams and Richard Keller and Glenn Christensen, p. 22
- From the Pressroom by Phil Padgett, p. 27
- A Wedding On the Narrow Gauge by Jeanette B. Wolff, p. 28
- E.B.T. Boomers: East Broad Top Hoppers at Dollywood by Glenn Christensen, p. 30
- F.E.B.T. 13th Reunion 1995 Contest Models, p. 32
TT 12-1 Mixed Freight:
New or Due at the F.E.B.T. Company Store
The new all-color book on the EBT by Deane Mellander has been received and
shipped to fill prepaid orders at long last. Deane searched collections
across the U.S. coming up with nearly 175 color views never before published
in book form. Full retail is $48.00 and the FEBT member price is $41.00.
Please add $3.00 per order for shipping. Also available now is the HOn3 EBT
stockcar kit at $26.00 retail or $22.10 for FEBT members. However, store
manager Mike Kandolf reports that he can see the bottom of the barrel on On3
EBT steel boxcar kits. There are only six kits on hand at the store and he's
not sure if there are any more in Robertsdale. If your fleet needs On3 steel
boxcars, best order now. Mike also is down to 10 HOn3 Laconia coach kits.
However, this kit is being upgraded. The new HOn3 super kit for Coaches 8-11,
that will include Dave Hoffman brass detail parts, should be available around
March. No decision yet on how to handle trucks for the car. The store may
stock both friction and roller bearing Hoffman brass trucks and insert them
in the kits per buyer requests.
N-Scale Collectors Run Special EBT-FEBT Boxcars and Donate $1,000 to Friends
of the EBT
A limited run, two-car set of N-scale Micro-Trains boxcars has been issued by
the N-Scale Car Collectors with $1,000 from the profit donated to Friends of
the EBT to assist with efforts to restore the prototype East Broad Top. The
set includes a wood-sheathed boxcar lettered for the East Broad Top Railroad
itself and a steel boxcar decorated with the logo of Friends of the EBT. The
cars are the initial issue in the group's new Historical Society Series begun
to help the non-profit organizations that are working to preserve railway
heritage while also offering N-scale collectors unique, limited edition
models. Board Chairman Deane Mellander accepted the $1,000 check on behalf of
FEBT at the N-Scale Collectors 1995 convention in Baltimore and provided
attendees with an update on progress toward a new future for the EBT. A very
limited number of the two-car sets are available at $36.00 per set, plus
$4.00 for shipping and handling. California residents add 7% sales tax.
Contact the N-Scale Collector, 3535 Stine Road #108, Bakersfield, CA
93309-6352. Telephone/FAX number: (805)398-9246.
Berg Electronics Renews EBT Track at Grade Crossing
ALLENPORT: Berg Electronics, which is building a new plant just south of
Mount Union, has renewed a short length of the East Broad Top Railroad's main
line. The new plant is being built in the Riverview Business Center, on the
east side of Route 522 in Allenport. Access to the plant site requires
crossing the EBT at grade. The company needed to negotiate an agreement with
the railroad to install a crossing. In August, contractors placed new 7-foot
crossties with tie plates and were getting ready to re-lay the rail to
install the grade crossing. Approximately 100 feet of track is involved in
the project that was complete before a revisit to the site in October. This
is the third segment of EBT track to be re-newed in recent years. About 100
yards of main line track were rebuilt following completion of the bridge that
crosses the EBT and Aughwick Creek north of Shirleysburg. An additional
length of track at Three Springs was rebuilt as part of a new sewer project
for Three Springs and Saltillo. The new Berg plant will employ 500 people.
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, the company is a world leader in
manufacturing connectors and cable assemblies. The new plant is expected to
open in mid-1996. -Deane Mellander
The Aughwick Valley's Early Industrial Heritage (Really Early)
Industry in the area that, from 1873, has been served by the East Broad Top
Railroad did not start with the 18th century arrival of European settlers.
The charcoal iron works they founded followed other industry in the Aughwick
Valley. According to Dr. Paul Raber, archeological testing at Aughwick Valley
sites near Mount Union indicate continuous human habitation for 10,000 years.
Assessment of artifacts and debitage (the chips and bits) at these sites and
smaller camps in Blacklog Narrows suggest the gathering of raw materials from
a distance and making of tools and weapons at the larger, more permanent
settlements in the valley for distribution through exchange. The preferred
material was rhyolite which is not native to the Aughwick Valley. The
rhyolite was quarried on South Mountain on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border,
53 miles away, and brought to the Aughwick Valley sites to be fashioned into
tools that were taken farther north and west to exchange in barter.
The gaps in the region's long north-south mountain ridges, that are followed
by highways today (notably US 522), and that were so important to the East
Broad Top's dreams of expansion via connection to the South Penn R.R., also
defined movement by prehistoric humans for what amounted to industry and
commerce. Cowans Gap, Shade Gap, and Blacklog Narrows offer a relatively easy
path from south and east to the north and west via connection with the
Juniata River at Mount Union. Archeologists have found this to be one of the
principal routes for the movement of rhyolite tools from the material's
source to the north and west that appears to have begun in the Early Archaic
Period and extended through the Late Woodland Period, according to Dr. Raber.
Dr. Raber's article, "Prehistoric Settlement and Resource Use in the Aughwick
Creek Valley and Adjoining Areas of Central Pennsylvania," can be found in
the March 1995 issue of Pennsylvania Archeologist. -Phil Padgett
