Working On The Railroad

Last February the East Broad Top Railroad was sold to a non-profit with plans to restart operations that had been suspended since 2011. This non-profit, the East Broad Top Foundation, Inc, is closely aligned with the Friends of the East Broad Top. The railroad survives today in large part due to the restoration efforts of the FEBT, although their relationship has not always been close. With the formation of the East Broad Top Foundation the FEBT is now an integral part of the future of the railroad.

The FEBT has been doing restoration work at the historic shops complex for many years. I was a part of the crew that was involved in the work done on the car shop many years ago, but it had been a while since my last trip. But when the news came out that the railroad once more had a chance of survival I had to be a part of it. So, on June 11th and 12th I made my first trip back up to Rockhill since the early 2000's to join in the volunteer restoration work .

This is my second foray in as many months to the EBT. Last month I worked with the window crew cutting and installing glass into restored window sashes. At least one of those sashes, for the freight house, was old enough that it was not assembled with nails. The pieces had been fitted and formed to be assembled with wooden pegs instead. All of the window sashes had to be carefully repaired before new glass could be installed, with some of them being completely rebuilt.

The sashes were then primed to prepare them for paint and the outsides of the windows were painted, and that is where we left them at the end of the work session.

This past week was supposed to be the family beach week in Myrtle Beach, but due to covid and the acquisition of a new puppy we opted not to go this year. I did take the week off, but we worked on the house instead of going somewhere for vacation. But then I got a special treat. Sunday, August 2 was my birthday, and for a present my lovely wife paid for the hotel so I could go back to Rockhill for the August 1 and 2 work session.

This session we installed three of those restored sashes into the Freight Office. This is one of the final phases of the restoration on that structure. The windows had been covered with plywood blanks to keep the majority of the weather out. On Saturday the blanks were removed and the newly restored windows test-fitted.

Photo by Matthew Malkiewicz

Once they had been shimmed and adjusted to fit their respective holes they were painted. On Sunday we took the freshly painted windows over and installed them into the two corner windows, but the shutter covered windows needed a bit more work.

The shutters covered a blank frame that had been built to fill a hole in the wall. The original frame had rotted away so badly that it would barely hold the shutters, but during previous restoration work that had been corrected. Properly sized sashes were rebuilt for this purpose, but before we were able to install them sliders had to be built to hold them.

First outer frames had to be built and installed, which wouldn't have been such a difficult thing except that they had to be notched to clear the shutters.

Once that was done slider pieces had to be built to retain the sashes in the frame. The sashes were then test fitted and shimmed. With that complete they were painted in preparation for installation.

The sliders were installed, then the entire window frame was painted. Since the paint was still wet at the close of business Sunday the sashes could not be permanently installed, but everything is ready to be finished up in two weeks when the railroad officially re-opens for business.

Unfortunately I will miss that event, but I am excited at the prospect of the steam engines running again next year. I will certainly be present when that happens.