Kelly is being satirical, referencing a furor on here and other places on the internet over who took the photos of #16 when it was being test-fired and put them online.

Wasn't it suspected that Mr. Byers was the one with the pitchfork?

Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering how they were going to handle confiscating everyone's phones and cameras during the upcoming winter spectacular...

Thanks

In them 1980s when visiting EBT from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it was a long enough trip to require an overnight stay to ride both the railroad and the trolleys. While there were 2 Down's Motels in Ft. Littleton, we were able to stay at the Palace Hotel in Saltillo, and about 1990, in a Bed & Breakfast in downtown Orbisonia or Rock Hill Furnace. The nearest diner for lunch and dinner was halfway back to Fr. Littleton. When I returned early in this Century, all that was left in business was 1 of the Down's Motels. The key was left under the door mat for late arrival, and I paid at checkout! The trolley ride now had its own chow hall.
So long ago, the railroad brought income to the local area, but the local facilities for taking money from the tourists no longer exist.

Regarding tourist infrastructure in Orbisonia, the area has always been "challenged".

When Linn and I did our first work there in November 1986, Stanley Hall put us up at the "Hotel" a block or so east of the main drag in Orbisonia. It looked like it may have been a very nice place in the 1940's, but it had more of a haunted house motif when we stayed there. I wouldn't be surprised if we were the last guests it ever hosted. The fact that it had heat, light and running water were the only signs that it wasn't completely abandoned.

Staney gave us directions to it and I guess our room number, as we never saw anyone else there, other than the one other guest there, Kevin the freelance welder at EBT. Nothing was locked, and we were given no keys. Our room had two twin beds, and the one Linn picked sounded like a drunken donkey if he moved so much as a pinky toe during the night.

The one and only bathroom was down the hall, and was appointed with a clawfoot tub with a bottom that looked like a riverbed, no shower (who needs a shower after working under a steam locomotive all day?), and an assortment of slivers of other people's used soap (hair and all) to wash with. I took my baths squatting in the tub, since I'd be damned if I was going to sit in it. Shampooing and rinsing my hair was a treat under the faucet 12" over the bottom of the tub.

When we returned the next spring and thereafter, we were put up in Salvino's very nice B&B in Orbisonia, and no mention of the "Hotel" was ever made again.

Kelly,

That delightful establishment may have actually had a name at one time, I believe it was the 'Hotel Victory' or 'Hotel Liberty' ? For years we called it the "Hotel Sprite" due to the advertising sign which hung on the building. For decades it appeared to survive on an annual pulse of deer hunters. Eventually the Hotel Sprite decayed below the ambiance of a leaky tent, and faded away.

Upon reading the above accounts, I recall an expedition back in the 1990s or early 2000s where a friend of mine and I were roped into assisting with a project at RTY and/or EBT, and my friend somehow found, through word of mouth with RTY, a cheap place to sleep in Mount Union......

.... which, upon reading the accounts above, may well have been the above hostelry relocated to Mount Union. I seem to recall something about flea bites when we woke up in the morning......

I've reiterated the account before of my guiding a savvy and well-to-do rail businessman heavily inclined towards preservation, who wanted to look at the EBT as a project to launch exactly what Posner, Levin, etc. did over a decade later. The sticking point for him was that no matter how wonderful a time capsule with potential the EBT was, it was the complete lack of adequate (or, indeed, ANY) tourism infrastructure that scared him (and his associates) off of the idea. I told him "you can't turn Mt. Union or Huntingdon into Blowing Rock, Branson, or West Yellowstone..... or even Lancaster County Lite."

Left alone the free market always responds to supply/demand. As the EBT enterprise grows and grows and starts to attract the non-foamer STEM fraternity B&B's will sprout up all over Orbisonia/Rockhill like wild spring flowers.

There's already capacity for the camper crowd and plenty of restaurant seating.

Besides, Huntington is a mere 25 minutes away and already has the chain motels and lots of restaurants and other services.

I can easily see a decade from now when the whole thing is back up and running exactly as it was a century ago, it generating 200-300 thousand annual paying visitors.

Ross Rowland

The hotel was officially the Eagle Hotel. Known by some as the Tilton Hilton, since some room doors would open by themselves if someone walked down the hall. We would wedge a chair under the doorknob to keep the door from swinging open in the middle of the night. A few of the rooms had a sink, and I think a couple had a separate half bath, too. What I remember was how thin the walls were, to the point where you could hear people in the next room whispering, so of course they could hear you as well. But what do you expect for $10 a night?

At least in the late 70's, breakfast was available, too. I believe it later became a personal care facility, but I'm not sure of its current status.

There was a fairly decent motel in Mount Union, out along Route 22, but it's no longer in business.

Well so far most of what I have read about infrastructure I think "evil" Ross Roland nailed it. Let nature take its course and, as if by magic things will take care of itself. If a need presents itself commerce will provide a solution. It is hardly EBT mission to supply hotels and restaurants to the area. Locals can either build small business to cater to the tourism we all hope for, put on flea markets, music venues or sell moonshine and meth. Seriously I have often wondered why people don't build a small business catering to the tourism that is being brought in. Maybe it is easier said than done? A local mechanical shop {car garage type place} started renting canoes and kayaks to sail the mighty Baraboo River in North Freedom Wi. Not sure if or how much money it generates but he is trying to get the word of mouth advertising out that "hey while your here why not take a river trip. I suppose someone will say he should invest in a small paddle wheeler steam powered attraction but I wouldn't hold my breath. While so many are talking about what isn't available near EBT, others are thinking "this might be an opportunity".

I love the stories of the "Snake Pit Hotels" of years gone by. I lived in one when I first left the safety net of home in Neenah Wi. After I moved to my first apt, it burned down and 5-6 wino's who lived upstairs of that bar died in the fire {Minnow and Glens bar}. The guy who rented my room before me had killed a guy down the street. He left town with the keys. So I could not lock my door and I had my tools and clothes in the room. And he had left his stuff in my room. Being a young kid out of HS I was concerned he might come back for his porn magazines and disgusting clothes. It was a depressing time. Oh for the good old days of youth how I miss those days. Regards, John.

Part of the fun in going to the EBT was you had to treat it like a camping trip. Not just the EBT, but generally, railfanning central Pa., you bring a cooler full of drinks and sandwiches, and a sleeping bag just in case nothing is available. And as pointed out, sometimes the sleeping bag would have been better.
On my first visit to the EBT, my buddy and I made the mistake of staying at the Burt Cabins Motel, back in 1979. Dirty, creepy, afraid to sit on the bed, let alone sleep in it. Only benefit was the bar up the hill, and two eighteen year olds had no trouble getting a beer. Ordered a pizza and got out while still alive. Had a blast exploring the railroad, and next year the motel was bulldozed to rubble. Nothing since has been as much of an adventure.

brian b

I remember that! Memorable because it was the only sign of any sort on the building. I remember that it had what must have once been a very nice dining room, heavy, varnished dark wood paneling behind locked glass doors, but very dusty, adding to the haunted house atmosphere of the place.

My wife and I have stayed in a couple of places where we wanted to wear our shoes in the shower, and she always looked on it as an adventure, but if we had ever gone there, we would have been checking back out five minutes later.

Does the old Hotel still stand?

From the Facebook page for the Orbisonia-Rockhill Historical Society:



Some other pix at different times:

It also looks like the hotel is still around--it's mentioned in this poster as being used as a sweet shop during the Christmas season of 2021.



Some other holiday photos from 2014 and 2015: