Hello,

I prequalify my statements strictly as an observer.

Previous comments on infrastructure is worth noting.

You could compare (in size) the EBT to the Welsh Highland Railway Project which was recently completed. In following the WHR reconstruction, it appeared formal contracts were let for the foundational civil work while volunteer or mostly volunteer track gangs, relaid the line over former roadbed. The civil work at times was very extensive and obvioiusly costly. Whether through donation or appeal. I am constantly amazed at the ability of the rail preservation community in the United Kindom to pull off what they do.

I only had the privilage of visiting the UK once but I did get the strong sense that the majority of society does deal with a very high standard of living and the common man does not have an abundence of luxuries (luxuries that we consider are necessities.) That being said, they seem to come together and accomplish big things....the WHR, a completely new reconstruction of a main line pacific, ala the Tornado and the repeated mircles that came out of the Barry scrap yard to name a few examples.

May I suggest there is a deeper challenge to the EBT....to capture the interest of the next generation Americans to carry it forward. We live in the midst of media/techno over-saturation. This generation needs to be pulled away from Wii's, blue-ray DVD, home theater, sports bars, atv's, new Star Trek, etc. etc. How do you pull them away from all this with a rusty old railroad in the middle of wilds of PA?

I have seen a bit of light at the Rough and Tumble Engineers facility in Kinzer's, PA some years back......a bunch of 20 somethings getting all black running steam traction engines......figure that out.

It is very encouraging to hear of the news at the EBT. The challenge is now to potentially jump start the operation to a different level.

From a marketing perspective, one idea for the new operators to pursue would be tapping the extensive number of retirement communities that exist in PA. These facilities are not what they used to be. They are extremely dynamic and have a large number of residents that are still very active. Marketers could promote bus day trips out of these facilities to the EBT. This is a generation that could still identify with the EBT and the memories of a different time. This could provide near term revenue while marketing efforts to the younger set could be developed.

For the younger set, possibly make a reality show out of a railroad, like the series Extreme Machines, Deadly Catch, Ax Men, Ice Road Truckers. Maybe make a show on the joys of cleaning a fire, being a fireman, the joys of cutting out staybolts, or better yet installing and swaging boiler flues. Some people get off on seeing loud, dirt, huge and something they simply know nothing about. You don't want to scare them off but having young people in these shows that are excited about their work could make a difference.

The above comments are a few brainstorms.

Kudos to the new operators and best wishes to them.

Regards,

Randy

Wow.

I cannot believe that somone, let alone a "railroad preservationist", would use their real name when posting a story in which they were (1) trespassing on an active railroad track and (2) apparently pulling spikes from ties --on a curve over a fill-- in order to see how much "bite" those spikes had left in them.

That post floored me.

--
Chris Webster
http://www.speakeasy.org/~cwebster

Gasp! Someone actually walked down a railroad track! My gawd! And kicked a couple of spikes too. Well I never...

At the time I was on that fill, I was part of a crew doing brush-trimming for a future photo charter, with the supposed permission of the EBT. I was specifically "taking out" the weeds along the top of the fill that otherwise would block views of the wheels in photos from below or the road. And I put any spikes I kicked or pulled loose back into the compost, for what little it was worth.

And I specifically avoided mentioning a few other details about the fills and other places.

Has anyone heard anything about the new EBT operating entity being concerned with; preserving, cataloging and making available all of the original documents & blueprints that are all still at the EBT? The same ones that have been "off limits" for about 60 years now?

Historically, the EBT owners have not let anyone, not even their own friends group (the FEBT) have access to the company documents and blueprints. That is still the case today. I'd join any Freinds org. that could get access to that information and I'd work my butt off every summer to repay that effort.

That collection needs to be high-res scanned and placed into a real long-term library/archive for protection. But, remember this; First everything needs to be scanned at about 400pi before it goes to the chosen archive or a situation will arise just like exists at the Denver Public Library today. The DPL sells us back the same blueprints that were donated by our buddies, for $25.00 per scanned page, when the going commercial rate is always about $3-5. So in order for the info to ever get to any historians, modelers etc.. at a reasonable cost, it has to be scanned before it is donated or it goes into a black-hole forever that no one can afford to retrieve it from.

A typical EBT locomotive would have about 450-500 large sized (very large sized!) blueprints in its drawing set. Multiply that times $25 per page and $100 per page for the few really large ones and you get $12,000,00. For a set of Drawings! This is the same amount that the DPL quotes to everyone that inquires for any of the D&RGW narrow gauge collections that they were given to them, and they agreed to make them available "at a reasonable fee".

Don't let this "organized institutional ransom" happen to the EBT collections. The .org that runs the EBT should get volunteer labor to do a good job of scanning the collections first, then donate the paper to a library with the stipulation that the RR and its employees have unlimited access and reproduction rights, so that the RR always has access to the info if needed in the future. The RR would always have the scans that they made in house by the volunteer labor for the information that they need for day-to-day repair and mntc. questions.

With that, the library would have to charge fair rates or no one would ever buy a copy from them because the RR employees could get what they needed from the EBT scans. If the library tried to gouge us, we could just go to work for the EBT for the summer to get the info we needed. That's better than writing a check for $12,000.00!

Loco112 you hit upon a subject near and dear to me. I deal with steel industry history, and our local archives also charges exhorbanant rates for photo reproductions. They have no way to make copies of drawings, so if you want a copy you're out of luck. I would someday like to write a book on the history of one of the local mills, but at roughly $65.00 per image once the reproduction and usage fees are paid I sense not many of their images will be in the book.

Several years ago our oganization acquired over 15,000 drawings of an integrated steel plant. All original linens dating from 1908 to 1979. We do not have the resources to properly care for the drawings so thy will eventually go to the archives. However before that happens we pulled out and scanned over 2,000 of the best drawings. Those drawings were divided up into six CD ROMs which we sell for $20.00 each. They are scanned as PDFs and the quality is extremely good, and about 200 to 300 will fit on a CD. I think in the future we may combine all of the CDs into a single DVD, a "Steel Mill on a Disk" if you will. I would be glad to talk with anyone considering a similar project about how we did ours.

I would think that many donors of historical materials would be appalled at ridiculous prices that archives charge for copies of information that was freely given to them. They claim that the high rates are to generate money to care for the collections, but I claim that the high rates discourage the use of the collections. There is also the issue of an archives claiming to hold copyrights or reproduction rights to the items in their collections, which in most cases is a scam. There has been quite a bit of debate regarding that issue.

Finally, the secret announcement is out, as disclosed on railpace.com/hotnews:

PRESERVATION SOCIETY TO OPERATE THE EAST BROAD TOP RAILROAD: A new nonprofit organization has signed an agreement to operate the East Broad Top Railroad for three years, and the organization hopes to attract enough grant money during that time to buy the Pennsylvania narrow gauge from its longtime owners, Joe and Judy Kovalchick. The railroad was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964. The new organization, the East Broad Top Railroad Preservation Association, was put together by Larry Salone, who is also executive director of the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum. Mr. Salone announced the preservation association's creation during a May 8 press conference at the railroad that was attended by State Rep. Mike Fleck, who represents Orbisonia and Rockhill Furnace in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives; State Rep. Rick Geist, who represents Altoona and is chairman of the House Transportation Committee; and by representatives of State Sen. John H. Eichelberger, Jr., and Congressman Bill Shuster. Mr. Salone is a restaurant- and engineering-company owner who says he took his first train ride as a kid on the East Broad Top, which the Kovalchick family has operated as a tourist railroad since 1960. Joe Kovalchick's father, Nick, was a salvage dealer who bought the railroad after its last common-carrier runs, in April 1956. Mr. Salone said that the railroad's current employees would remain on the payroll, and that the schedule for the coming year would remain largely unchanged. But he said he hoped that riders would begin to notice small improvements as soon as the EBT opens, on June 6. The railroad will accept credit cards for the first time, he said, and shuttle buses will run between the East Broad Top and the Altoona museum during the museum's annual railfest weekend, June 27-28. He said he planned to begin seeking money to reopen about six miles of track from the current end of operations into Mount Union, where the railroad transferred coal and other freight to the Pennsylvania Railroad in a dual-gauge yard. Mr. Salone also discussed putting a second EBT steam engine back in service — most likely No. 14, a 1912 Baldwin Mikado that is nearly identical to the only engine currently operating, No. 15. In addition, he talked about converting additional freight cars for passenger service so that the line's 19th-century coaches could be reserved for special occasions. (East Broad Top Railroad Preservation Association via Alex Mayes- - posted 5/26)