Autumn on Old Eastie: Friends of the East Broad Top Fall Reunion 2023

Every October, the Friends of the East Broad Top host their Fall Reunion, an event to celebrate and show off the work the organization has done to help preserve the history of the East Broad Top Railroad. This was the first time in over a decade that the railroad had an operational steam locomotive, and no. 16 was put to work each morning with freight specials to Colgate Grove. On the return journey, these specials ran right through the Rockhill yard to Odd Fellows Cemetery, representing the first few hundred feet of a joint project by the Friends and the railroad to reopen a further eight miles of track to Saltillo. After the freights, no. 16 took point for each day's regular excursions trains while the railroad's two motorcars M1 and M3 were brought out to make their own runs along the line. Meanwhile, the Rockhill Trolley Museum was hosting their Fall Spectacular, giving visitors a chance to ride some of the rarer trolley cars in their collection along a regauged and electrified portion of the EBT's Shade Gap branch. Despite the poor weather the Railroad, Friends, and Trolley Museum came together to put on a wonderful display of railroading in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and I can't wait for my next visit to "Old Eastie."