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East Broad Top—
Smiles Everywhere

The last time I saw the East Broad Top under steam was October 29th, 2011, during a freak pre-winter blizzard fondly referred to as Snowtober. Two months later, the tourist excursion season ended, and the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company suspended operations indefinitely. The railroad has been dormant since, their doors locked.

Fast forward to last Friday, February 14th, 2020. On this day the EBT announced that the Kovalchick family had agreed to sell the railroad in its entirety to the non-profit EBT Foundation, Inc., a newly formed group of prominent railroad industry figures, philanthropists, and longtime EBT enthusiasts. I was there representing the Friends of the EBT in the role of event photographer, recording the day’s events with both candid and posed images.

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Big Boy 
in West Texas

It’s hard to put into words the feeling of being the only person for miles around listening to a steam engine’s whistle echo through the mountains and across the desert plains. The first faint whistle comes nearly forty-five minutes before it passes by, leaving you plenty of time to imagine life on the frontier when the train was your only connection to the outside world. Before long, Big Boy rumbles past and the massive steam engine disappears back into the vast West Texas landscape and all falls silent.

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Big Boy Visits 
Little Rock, Arkansas

Hot Running History

The Union Pacific (UP) Railroad’s Big Boy 4014 made a full day stop at the Union Pacific yard in North Little Rock on Thursday November 14th. This was one stop on its 2019 tour celebrating the 150th anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad. The 4014 then departed Little Rock on the following morning, continuing with many more stops along a multi-state tour.

These mechanical behemoths were ordered by Union Pacific and constructed by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) in Schenectady, New York, during the early 1940’s as America geared up for World War II. Of the twenty such locomotives delivered to UP by ALCO, the 4014 is the only one of the handful of remaining Big Boys which has been restored to operational service.  The rest are reposing in various Railroad Museums across the Western United States.

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Shays on the Mountain

Cass Scenic Railroad State Park

The drive shaft of “Big 6,” the last Shay ever built by Lima, and the largest too. Big 6 is a three truck Shay weighing in at 162 tons!

Nestled way back in the lush mountains of West Virginia is a place time has almost forgotten. There are no big chain supermarkets or restaurants, no massive apartment complexes, no traffic jams, and not even any cell phone service. What there is however, is nothing short of magic. In the air is the faint odor of coal smoke and oil, and if you listen, you may just hear the lonesome cry of a steam locomotive’s whistle!

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Railroad Town: 
McComb, Mississippi

Driving south through Mississippi on Interstate 55. It’s a cool, rainy morning, the kind of spring day you sometimes get in the South before the summer heat and humidity settles in. I pass the signs for Crystal Springs, Hazelhurst, Wesson, Brookhaven, Bogue Chitto, Summit—towns that lie to the east along the tracks. The tracks, and the Interstate, lead me to McComb. In town, I stop for a morning cup of coffee, and make my way to the former Illinois Central depot.

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Station on the Move

Quincy Station today at Norlo Park, Guilford Township, Pennsylvania.
(James Fouchard Photo)

Back in an earlier era of railroading, it was not uncommon to move station buildings from one location to another. It may have been a short procedure necessitated by work on a new track alignment. Or, if a new, larger station was being built in a town, the smaller existing structure might be loaded on a flat car and transported by rail to a new town. Temporary stations were sometimes built specifically to be moved from site to site as needed during construction. Even to this day, it is not uncommon to see depots vacated by the railroads moved from the right-of-way to new sites for historical preservation as museums, or for other commercial uses.

Quincy, Pennsylvania – 1948
(Paul Westhaeffer Photo- James Fouchard Collection)

The small Victorian station originally located in Quincy, Pennsylvania may be a contender for the record number of moves, but this time all in the interest of historical rail preservation.

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