Bringing out into the open what had been a quiet "secret" among certain observant fans of the East Broad Top for a few months:

https://www.altoonamirror.com/news/loca ... -railroad/



Much more at the link, including the point that Joe Kovalchik, son of line savior Nick K., has aligned with the EBTF in this dispute.

There is a county-owned industrial park just south of Mt. Union that has always held promise but not delivered it. So promising that it's what triggered the original deal and also resulted in dual-gauging the new Rt. 522 crossing south of the town, that I don't think has ever been used. It's the only 'modern' dual gauge crossing I've ever seen to allow standard gauge to access that park.

Salone does appear to have STB authority as a Class III carrier there as well, so the Foundation would be obligated to deal with that. So it's not just a matter of the 3' gauge historic connection into Mt. Union. The original master plans certainly included that.

It's not my place to judge Mr. Lane and his ambitions, but this exchange doesn't add up based on what has been observed with Salone's ownership, as well as with the justifications.

1. Number 3, a valuable piece of the sale, was sold off to another group in Alabama, and yet the offer for the property is higher now. That alone is worth concern. Why would a person who would be fair in the selling process and knowing the foundation's ambitions, sell off a valuable part of that agreement in a separate deal?

2. The connecting railroad to the business center has been a topic for the better part of 30 years now. OldEastie.com has posts on the subject going back to 1998. The tracks have been used for car storage, and I don't know to what involvement Mr. Salone had with the railroad, and for how long, but that's a long time for a spur of fewer than 2 miles to have that little done with it, finances being what they are or not.

3. I have doubts with the credibility in its entirety based on this exchange.



"A linear park is a museum. But enough about the details, they're all irrelevant".



This is another portion that doesn't make sense to me.

Talking about Lane specifically here, Lane had been stated earlier in the article to be "a big fan of the EBT" by Salone. And, maybe it's just me speaking here, but wouldn't a supposed fan be in favor of getting tourist trains to the proper terminus of the line if he had the ability to do so? I understand that the Aughwick Bridge is in visibly poor condition, and I know that it would be around 3 miles or so of track between the business center and the bridge that would go unused for freight purposes.

But that to me just doesn't sound like a comment that a fan would make on the subject. A fan, in my opinion, would at least keep it open ended. "we'll see" or something to that nature.

I do not know more about this than what's presented here, I'm not involved in that and I won't claim to be. But based on my observation, I don't really like hearing this.

Honedudes bringing knives to a tank battle here.

If one followed Lane's social media posts, they would discern that he depicted himself as one of the "movers and shakers" that was instrumental to the starting of the East Broad Top Foundation--then he was unceremoniously and quickly eased out of the picture, for whatever reason(s). He decidedly depicted himself as unfairly treated, perhaps even "used," by the EBTF.

I've never followed up with the EBTF back-channel to satisfy my curiosity over what this was about; it's my suspicion that it's possible they won't discuss it on the advice of legal representation. It hardly matters; I trust them for their expertise, diplomacy, and experience more than I trust an "unknown."

So for all we know, there's an element of a "spite match" or "grudge" at work here. The truly cynical question is, is he a closet lottery winner, or whose money is he playing with?

Apparently he's got an anonymous invester...someone else with a grudge against the EBTF?

To better understand how this evolved, here's the wayback machine that's now 25 years old. Wow.
https://oldeastie.com/News/mucrr.html

Last time I was down there (fall '25) it was completely grown up on both sides of the 522 crossing, no crossbucks, no exempt sign either.

It's not known as Mt. Union Connecting, it's East Broad Top Connecting in the NS guide:
https://www.norfolksouthern.com/en/ship ... -directory
and the link takes you to the excursion railroad.....(?)

Original Federal Register notification (2014)
https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... eservation

And according to a 2014 STB filing, the preservation association controls that track:
https://dcms-external.s3.amazonaws.com/ ... 236142.pdf

OK, well, that's interesting....beware of the obvious confusion between the 'preservation association' and the current 'foundation' and the confusion even extends to NS.

Lane's company was incorporated in 2025, but I don't find any STB filings, at least not yet. He does have a business and rail background.

Always found the name of Salone's organization rather ironic, since they did very little in the way of preservation. Like the treatment of the standard-gauge 0-6-0.

AKA the Railroad Preservation Crime of the Century.

Recently, the few crossing "blue DOT" crossing signs on the ex-EBT in Mount Union were replaced with new ones listing the owner as the "Juniata & Aughwick R.R.", the name for Lane's proposed new operation/business. I've seen several photos of the signs in question, shared by the either curious or outraged.

Somewhat premature, if the newspaper reporting is accurate about this still being a "work in progress."

To be fair, some further context and history is needed.

For a time, Salone was the Executive Director of the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona and was also the designated operator for at least one season on the 3-foot gauge EBT operating steam out of Orbisonia. I believe Salone created the EBTPA during that time period.

Then the Kovalchicks were seeking someone to buy the EBT, so Salone negotiated to puchase that northern portion. He created his own shortline, but couldn't find many customers other than car storage. In the meantime, to recoup the money spent to purchase that portion of the EBT, he also started scrapping select groups of rolling stock which had been left in the EBT Mount Union Yard. That included, but wasn't limited to the WW1 era US Army single-sheathed boxcars and other rolling stock.

Salone's plan was to turn money running the norhtern portion standard gauge and use that money to then buy the rest of the EBT in chunks. That plan never materialized and then Stephen Lane along with other locals started to gather up people to genuinely reopen the 3-foot gauge EBT, which had shutdown after Salone's failed attempts and his operating agreement was not renewed.

Most of the rest of the history of Lane and his preservation and operational successes is in the newpaper article.

Really? That's a little dramatic.

I can start a list, but just to start the ITM/Noblesville situation left much more of a scar on the preservation world.

I didn't like EBT 3 being moved either, but when I look at it.... well....I saw it at Mt. Union 'before'....that was painful.

It's now under roof. It's painted. It's properly identified, not lied to, painted pink, or otherwise vandalized. I've seen a lot worse. Yeah, the main rods are all wonky from being torched and spliced.

https://hawkinsrails.net/preservation/rbrp/rbrp.html

If we're nominating 'preservation' crimes, the one that disturbs me was N&W 917.
Or the sorry remains of CB&Q 1548 in Akron. Lots more where that came from.
I remember SP 794 at San Antonio as the worlds largest squirrel habitat (inside the boiler) in the park, now cosmetically restored and properly displayed at the depot.
EBT 3 got off easy by comparison.

I will preface with something that I've often found true, but is hardly scientific. Perhaps 9 out of 10 railroad enthusiasts and those in management of railroads have an ego to fill a room.

I don't know Mr. Lane, but according to this thread and newspaper reporting, Mr. Lane appears to be the head of this railroad venture and also an EBT enthusiast. I suspect Mr. Lane lurks on this forum, so hopefully he reads this.

I will say this bluntly. Is Mr. Lane's plan to clean up the Mt. Union property and work out an agreement with the EBTF to make the right-of-way whole again with the rest of the system? If not, any involvement Mr. Lane incurs by either allegedly doubling the price of the EBTF's offer or through muddying the waters to keep the EBTF from regaining access to Mt. Union, will both result in a black eye for Mr. Lane in ALL the history books on the EBT to be written. For a railroad preservation story that now has such unwavering public support and fundraising successes, why would Mr. Lane want to be on the wrong side of history?

Bold of you to assume he's not trying to do the right thing for the legacy of the EBT.

The problem in your statement is that there are always two sides to any story. Look at the books about the events leading up to the bankuptcy of the Penn Central. There are two books which thoroughly cover the topic from either side of the story. Also, books can only be written about the stories if someone is around to retell that history from their perspective.

Mr. Lane is 30 years old. By age alone he would drop the median age of users on this forum significantly. Also, not many on this forum were as successfully active in rail operation and preservation as he is.