It's not hard to have a love affair with a narrow gauge railroad. The 3 foot gauge was often necessary to handle the tight curves and steep inclines associated with mountain railroading. Such prototypical settings lend themselves to some great modeling possibilities. Such a railroad was the East Broad Top located in the mountains of South-Central  Pennsylvania. The EBT was a 32 mile line connecting mines that extracted good quality bituminous coal from Broad Top Mountain to an interchange with the PRR at Mt. Union, PA. While almost all of the NG railroads are long gone, the EBT survives today as a tourist line.  

I'm fortunate to live a half hour from the East Broad Top. When I moved to my present house in 1996, my original design of the PW didn't include narrow gauge. Some trips to the EBT convinced me that it would be nice to include it in my layout. There was one thing that stood in the way. Sn3 was well represented with Colorado narrow gauge models, but had almost nothing available for the EBT. Then B.T.S. announced that it would be making locomotives, rolling stock and structures for the EBT in Sn3. I decided to go ahead and make some room for it. The initial EBT section had a 35 foot point-to-point run. I've since extended it another 12 feet.

The EBT ended its operations in 1956 and started tourist operations in 1960. Since my model railroad is based on the steam-to-diesel era to the present, it seemed logical to model the EBT as a tourist line. As far as operations is concerned, I simulate the annual "Fall Spectacular" weekend and conduct rides with #12 pulling a passenger train and the M-1 gas-electric also giving rides.

There are a few anomalies to deal with. My EBT shares layout space with my standard gauge railroad, so occasionally we'll see some of those trains and tracks in the pictures. Also, I'm depicting a fully restored 32 mile version of the EBT. EBT's fans have long dreamt of its being extended to other parts of the original railroad some day. Also, some of the structures like the station at Saltillo are represented in a restored state and some of the sites aren't in proper geographical order.
 
So, we'll begin our tour of the EBT on a beautiful early autumn day as we prepare for the annual Fall Spectacular.
 
 
#12 ("Millie") is loading up on coal and water at the restored coal tipple. We can also take on sand here if needed.
                                   

                                   
The passenger cars sit on a siding ready to be hauled to the station. Some of the freight cars are also made ready for the days festivities.
 
Some eager railfans are already gathering at the Orbisonia Depot.
 

 
The first train arrives with #12 at the helm.
 
Running along side the PWRR main line in coal country.

 
We'll pick up some more passengers at Saltillo.

Our excursion train passes over the Aughwick Creek.

In Part 2, we'll be running the M-1 and a special freight train for the railbuffs collected along the right of way.