Running out of steam

East Broad Top Railroad is last of its kind operating east of Mississippi River.

By Dan Lewerenz ~ The Associated Press

ROCKHILL FURNACE, Pa. -- Clouds of white steam change to thick gray smoke, filling the air with the greasy smell of burning coal as the East Broad Top Railroad's Locomotive No. 14 chugs and churns into motion.

Hundreds of rail enthusiasts come to this tiny central Pennsylvania town for the railroad's annual Fall Spectacular. They ride in red velvet seats on the same passenger cars that once carried people from towns like Robertsdale and Orbisonia to Mount Union, where they could meet up with the mighty Pennsylvania Rail Road.

The visitors inspect the engines in the roundhouse that are undergoing renovations. They examine tools that were left in the shop when the East Broad Top stopped operating almost 50 years ago.

"What's really great about this place is it's not just a ride on a train. There's lots of places you can ride a train," said Fred Cox, 56, of Newark, Del., who attended the Fall Spectacular with his son, Stephen. "Here, you can get a real feel for what the railroad was like. It's all here."

The East Broad Top is more than just a tourist train -- it's a living piece of railroad history, the last original narrow-gauge railroad operating east of the Mississippi River.

But while visitors revel in the past, the site's future is less certain. Tourist traffic is falling off at this out-of-the-way junction about 60 miles southeast of Altoona in Huntingdon County, and recent talks between the owner and potential buyers have broken off.

Rarity in the industry

Although owner Joe Kovalchick, of Indiana, Pa., talks in loving terms about the railroad, he refuses to say whether it will even operate next season.

Chartered in 1856 to move coal from the mines on Broad Top Mountain, near the spot where Huntingdon, Bedford and Fulton counties meet, the East Broad Top carried both passengers and freight for more than 80 years.

And it went its whole life as a narrow-gauge railroad -- a rarity in the industry. Several railroads began as narrow-gauge lines because it reduced startup costs. But when short lines met up with major carriers, they had to transfer their cargo to standard-gauge cars, adding to operating costs. Most successful narrow-gauge carriers switched to standard gauge. Unsuccessful carriers went out of business and were sold for scrap.

But the East Broad Top didn't just survive, it thrived for several decades.

During its heyday in the 1920s, the railroad shipped coal to Mount Union, where it was cleaned and shipped to points along the East Coast; rock to Mount Union, which was home to some of the largest brick factories in the world, and hundreds of thousands of passengers rode the line each year, according to Lee Rainey, author of "East Broad Top," a history of the railroad.

By World War II, the railroad was falling victim to greater economic forces. Roads were replacing rail for carrying both passengers and cargo, and oil and natural gas were replacing coal. When Mount Union's brick industry began to flag, the East Broad Top, too, felt the strain. The last passengers rode in 1954, and the railroad went out of business in 1956.

That's when Nick Kovalchick, Joe's father, stepped in, buying the railroad, mines and 20,000 acres of property. Although the elder Kovalchick owned and operated a scrap business, Joe Kovalchick says his father never intended to scrap the railroad.

"It was his model train set that he was unable to obtain when he was a child," Joe Kovalchick says.

Going back in time

In 1960, officials in Orbisonia asked Nick Kovalchick if he would take one of the engines out of retirement for the borough's bicentennial. Kovalchick did one better -- he called out some of the old train crews and ran a train from Orbisonia Station north a few miles to Colgate Grove. That tourist train has been operating every June through October ever since.

It's popular among rail enthusiasts. From U.S. Highway 522, which runs parallel to the track, one can see dozens of photographers lined up to capture images of the historic train and to hear the scream of the whistle.

"We come down here about every other year," says Keith Hopkin, 55, of Toronto, who carpooled with seven other Canadian rail enthusiasts to the Fall Spectacular. "It's like going back in time. The rail, the trains, the cars -- there's nothing else like it. All the tools are in the shop. It's like a time warp."

That's because unlike most rail museums, the East Broad Top isn't a collection of artifacts brought together to a central location.

"Everything that's there now has been there continuously, in some cases for 100 years or more," Rainey says. "The Kovalchick family purchased the properties of the East Broad Top Railroad and what at that time was Rockhill Coal Company. They got a complete turn-of-the-last-century railroad out of it -- a steam railroad with all the original equipment, the original cars, and a lot of the cars were built right there in Rockhill Furnace.

"It's exactly, to an amazing degree, like it was in 1950 or 1920. They were able to preserve and use that to create a very unique museum-like experience there."

What they'll be able to preserve in the future, though, is in doubt.

Joe Kovalchick says the line is losing money as visitation has dropped from some 20,000 riders per year in the 1960s to around 10,000 in recent years. Several attempts to sell the railroad have failed in the past 20 years. Kovalchick rejected the most recent offer, saying it was millions of dollars below what the railroad was worth.

The last trains of the season ran Oct. 27, and Kovalchick won't say whether the East Broad Top will operate next year.

"To give you specifics on the future, I don't have any," he says. "Under the right circumstances to the right people, it could be sold."

Fans of the East Broad Top are encouraged by the Kovalchick family's decades-long commitment to the line, including the current renovation of three locomotives in the roundhouse.

But Henry Inman, president of the nonprofit Friends of the East Broad Top, says his organization's 900 members will feel better when more permanent arrangements are made.

"The railroad could be scrapped -- that's something that we all have to understand," Inman says. "But I don't think anyone at the moment takes that seriously simply because the Kovalchick family has maintained it up to now, and Mr. Kovalchick seems committed to that in the near term.

If you go ...

East Broad Top Railroad

GETTING THERE: The train leaves from Orbisonia Station in Rockhill Furnace. Take U.S. 522 to the borough of Orbisonia, then go west on state Route 994 over the creek and into Rockhill Furnace.

HOURS: Trains leave Orbisonia Station at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, beginning the first weekend in June and ending the last weekend in October. The last trains of the 2002 season ran Sunday, Oct. 27.

FARE: Admission is $9 for adults, $6 for children ages 2-11; rides in special cars, such as the caboose or a parlor car, are $1 extra. Reservations are not needed, and special group rates may apply.

PARKING: Free parking is available in an on-site lot and along side streets.

INFORMATION For more information: Call (814) 447-3011.

ON THE NET:

East Broad Top Railroad: www.spikesys.com/EBT/

Friends of the East Broad Top: www.febt.org/