Press release
As it celebrates the 50th anniversary of its reopening, the East Broad
Top Railroad is making it easy for fans to contribute to a preservation
fund whose first project will be making critical structural repairs to
the blacksmith shop, a highly visible component of the railroad’s
historic shops complex.
The railroad is selling special $50 “Tickets to Preservation” and
setting the money aside in a dedicated account. The goal of the “$50 for
the 50th” campaign is to raise $50,000 by selling 1,000 of the tickets
this year. The tickets are available at the EBT station, by mail, or by
phone.
The first use of the money will be to hire a contractor to straighten
and stabilize the blacksmith shop. The all-volunteer Friends of the East
Broad Top will then repair rotted walls and doors, fix windows, seal the
roof, and clean up the interior so that the building can be included on
tours of the historic site. Each ticket will entitle the bearer to a
tour of the blacksmith shop with a railroad tour guide as soon as the
repairs are complete. Money left over after the blacksmith shop is
repaired will go to other important preservation projects at the railroad.
The blacksmith shop, like the famous tower in Pisa, leans noticeably to
one side—it’s been sinking for decades into the soft soil beneath the
railroad’s Rockhill Furnace yard, which was once farmland. The structure
dates to the turn of the last century, but its builders apparently never
expected that it would still be standing over 100 years later.
In conjunction with the railroad’s nearby foundry, where the railroad
could cast parts in either iron or brass, the blacksmith shop was an
important part of the EBT shops complex: It was where metal parts were
heated and shaped as necessary. The blacksmith shop is dominated by
forges, anvils, and a huge steam-powered hammer for pounding hot metal
into the desired shape