Hello BigBoy4014, sorry I haven't been on the forums in awhile or I would have posted this before. Happy to see some interest in this old ng rr. I think CascaderRailroad mentioned I was working on an ETB route early on in this thread. I've kind of taken a rest from trainz for the last year or so. Been working on some real life projects that are consuming most of my time but I still am determined to complete it. But not in the near future.
I am a life member of the Friends of the East Broad Top RR and I've accumulated lots of reference marteial about the RR and area around that part of PA. I have a complete dem map of the area in 10m resolution. Several maps actually as once you have the necessary data you can kind of spew them out in "minutes" so to speak. The trackage is in various stages of completion and includes all the main track, sidings, switch locations and the same for all the branches except the NARCO branch that was built in the 40's to replace the inclined rr to the ganister rock quarry on Jack's Moutain. The track is graded based on the actual grade profiles from the EBT ICC maps produced for valuation purposes back in 1919. Most people only see the set that shows the horizontal plan with all the curves, switches and other track side features dimensioned and located but there is a 2nd set that shows the verticle profile with track elevations, start, end and transitions for each section of grade. The one i have are copies of the maps in the Library of Congress not the set that the EBT maintained and corrected over the years. That set is now kept by the FEBT at the Robertsdale museum. So there are differences but I'm modeling 1920-30's period so it's a good resource for me.
The McKelvey Brothers had a ng logging operation for several years in the 1920's that ran south from Rockhill Furnace to the Fort Littleton area. They ran 2 3'ng shays and interfaced with the EBT just east of Orbisonia on the Shade Gap branch end of the the yard wye. There's a 4 part article in the FEBT Timber Transfers that describes it in some detail and has sketches of the main route at several locations so it could be recreated with some realism. Local tracks came and went of course but parts of the grade for the trunk line can still be seen if you hike thru the area. I intend to include it in my EBT route - sometime. There may have been a small mill there as I think they shipped both logs and cut lumber. Some more research is req'd before I do add it.
Speaking of resource material I don't know if this has been mentioned but the maps detatiling the horz profile I mentioned above (ones maintained by EBT over the years and now by the FEBT at the Robertsdale museum) are available on the internet. FEBT members (Vagil Keller IIRC was instrumental in accomplishing this) scanned the copies and posted then as pdf files. They are basically the files I worked from showing the RR as it was 1919 but they have some corrections and updates the RR made to them over the years. What's missing is the 2nd set of maps with the vertical profile and grade info. I assumed the RR maintained copies but I've never seen them.
Here's the link:
http://www.railsandtrails.com/EBT/index.html
For my own EBT route I need to start making scenery models of just about everything unique to the EBT. Shop complex at Rockhill Furnace, all the stations, enclosed water towers, steel truss deck bridge at Progue, EBT's coal prep plant, timber transfer and the NARRCO brick refactory (primary EBT customer) at Mt Union, at least 1 ganister rock quarry and deep coal mines at Alvan, Woods and Robertsdale and tunnel openings for the Sideling Hill and Wrays Hill tunnels to name the 1st few that come to mind. I have a crude model of the concrete bridge over Aughwick creek that should be redone. Ben mentioned he made a few things - the roundhouse and turn table, the M-1 models and iirc the Ronks rd "bridge". There's a tourist era model of Orbisonia station. Whitepass made the 3 bay steel coal hopper Also my 4 repaints of a Whitepass ng coach for No 8-11. Still a lot of rolling stock to model and tons of scenery specific to the local towns and industries. Like with most maps there's a lot on the DLS that can be used to fill in temporally and premantly for much of the missing. I made my own ng track plus the std and dualgauge track required in Mt Union (EBT no 3 & 6 were sg 0-6-0 switch locos & leeferr's generic 0-6-0 when repainted is a close stand-in for no 3). The M-3, made from Nash (did they even survive into the 1950's?) auto parts, would be a nice addition to the list (it was just recently restored to running condition by FEBT members).
Currently I view this is a lifelong project for me and I get back to it from time to time. I work by myself on this route and I'll probably keep it that way. I'm not in a postion to help anyone as I mentioned. I do have a lot of info though such as scale/dimensioned drawings of most of my to do list abv.
Bob Pearson
