East Broad Top Railroad: A New Beginning - Preservation Pennsylvania

In 2022, Preservation Pennsylvania is celebrating its 40th year as Pennsylvania’s only statewide nonprofit dedicated to historic preservation. We are also celebrating the 30th anniversary of our Pennsylvania At Risk, our initiative to draw attention to the commonwealth’s threatened historic place and landscapes.

The East Broad Top Railroad (Rockhill Furnace, Huntingdon County) appeared on our very first Pennsylvania At Risk in 1992, so it gives us great pleasure to host this webinar featuring Linn Moedinger and Jane Sheffield to share the exciting revival of the railroad. Once called “the dormant gem of railway preservation,” the EBT RR is a rare narrow-gauge railway and time capsule of industrial technology. The trains are running again, the remarkable archives are being catalogued for digitization, and a dedicated staff, volunteers and friends are working toward a bright future. Enjoy the recording of the webinar presentation.

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After many years of inactivity, the East Broad Top Railroad has been purchased by a new 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation. The EBT Foundation is working with the volunteers of the Friends of the East Broad Top and the Rockhill Trolley Museum to return its Baldwin-built steam locomotives to operating condition and to continue stabilizing the railroad’s historic buildings.

Speakers

Linn Moedinger has a long history with railroads, starting in 1968 with the Strasburg Railroad (founded 1832) in Lancaster County. After a two and a half year stint in the U.S. Army, he returned to Strasburg where he was Engine messenger on #89 from Bellows Falls Vt. to Strasburg via Wilkes Barre during Agnes in June/July of 1972, promoted to engineer in 1973, and served as engine house foreman from 1976 to 1988. He eventually rose to the position of President and Chief Mechanical Officer, a position he held until his retirement in 2000.

He currently serves on the Colorado Railroad Museum Advisory Board, the EBT Foundation Advisory Board, and the EBT Foundation Board of Directors. He has been a Member of the Engineering Standards Committee for Steam Locomotives since 1991. Linn also serves as the Secretary of ESC and NBIC Subgroup for Steam Locomotives and participated in writing the Federal Railroad Administration’s new steam rule, 49 CFR, Part 230, and the NBIC repair rules for steam locomotive boilers. He was the Chairman of the ASME subgroup on locomotive boilers until 2018, chairman of NBIC Subgroup Locomotives until 2019, member of NBIC Subcommittee on Repairs and Alterations, and member ASME BPV-I and ASME subgroup Locomotives.

Jane Sheffield is the executive director of the Allegheny Ridge Corporation, where she works tirelessly to bring opportunities to rural communities along the Main Line Canal Greenway between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. Prior to joining Allegheny Ridge in 1995, she directed New Hampshire’s statewide historic preservation organization and served as Altoona’s first main street manager.

During her tenure as president of Heritage PA’s association of its twelve heritage areas, the organization has launched branding, advocacy, and communication strategies to educate the public about the impact of heritage area work across the Commonwealth. She also serves on Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Board, Preservation Pennsylvania, and the September 11th National Memorial Trail Alliance helping to facilitate the route across our state.

Sheffield holds a degree in economics and psychology from Duke University and a master’s in landscape architecture from N.C. State School of Design. Jane is the president of the Episcopal Church Women and Vestry member at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Hollidaysburg. She lives across the street in a historic home renovated by her husband Joel Koss and enjoyed immensely by their three dogs.

About the East Broad Top Railroad

The East Broad Top Railroad was listed on Preservation Pennsylvania’s first Pennsylvania At Risk in 1992 and was marked as “Saved” in 2020 at the time of the railroad’s purchase by the EBT Foundation. The railroad is one of the oldest and most intact narrow gauge lines in America. It was established in 1871 and operated until 1956 as East Broadtop Railroad and Coal Company. It was built primarily to haul semi-bituminous coal from East Broadtop area mines in South Huntingdon County to the Pennsylvania Railroad line in Mount Union. In addition to coal, the railroad carried timber, sand, rock, freight and passengers. Today, East Broadtop consists of thirty-three miles of main track, rolling stock, several rail yards with shop buildings, passenger stations, and other buildings. The focal point is Rockhill yard, with a roundhouse with turntable, car barn, paint shop, blacksmith shop, foundry, machine and car shops. These buildings contain original machinery and tools.

Find more information at the National Park Service website. “All National Historic Landmarks are included in the National Register of Historic Places, which is the official list of the nation’s historic properties worthy of preservation. Landmarks constitute more than 2,500 of more than 90,000 entries in the National Register; the others are of state and local significance. The process for listing a property in the National Register is different from that for Landmark designation with different criteria and procedures used. Some properties are recommended as nationally significant when they are nominated to the National Register, but before they can be designated as National Historic Landmarks, they must be evaluated by the National Park Service’s National Historic Landmark Survey, reviewed by the National Park System Advisory Board, and recommended to the Secretary of the Interior. . . . Both the National Historic Landmark and the National Register Programs are administered by the National Park Service under the Secretary of the Interior.”