The East Broad Top was a short narrow gauge line that extended from a junction with the Pennsylvania Railroad at Mount Union to the mines on the east slope of Broad Top Mountain some 32 miles to the south. Thirty-two miles is still a lot of railroad to model. I only know of one EBT modeler who has tried to do the whole thing. His layout fills his entire basement! I was working with an available space between 500 and 600 square feet.
Since I clearly could not model everything, I decided to model three or four well-known scenes, starting with a dual gauge yard designed to resemble Mount Union. A second scene includes the shop complex, Orbisonia Station and the roundhouse. The end of the line at Robertsdale was another obvious choice. I have thoroughly enjoyed modeling these three scenes, which are detailed in earlier posts.
The problem I had not thought about is how to connect these scenes, which in real life are located miles from each other. Specifically, I had to figure out what to do with a short section that links the Mount Union yards with Orbisonia and Rockhill. The track exits the dual gauge yard and curves around to Orbisonia Station and the shops. The connecting track is concave to the aisle, so the viewer would see a blank area bordered by the tracks.
I had gone round and round what to put in that space. After working with EBT historian Lee Rainey on an article about the old mill that still stands in Shade Gap, south of Orbisonia, I thought I would build a model of the mill. But it was a large structure and I kept putting off starting the project.
In October 2021 I attended the annual EBT Reunion in Rockhill and Robertsdale, Pennsylvania. During the reunion the Friends of the EBT held a silent auction. One of the items up for bid was the model of another old mill -- Ewings Mill -- that once stood just south of Mount Union on old route 522. It was torn down in the 1950's to make way for the widening of the highway, but it was just such a neat structure I couldn't resist bidding on it -- and I won!
The mill was built by Douglas Taylor based on an article by Lee Rainey that appeared in the spring 2020 issue of the FEBT journal, the Timber Transfer. Rainey's photos and historical information were just what I needed to start the project. As soon as I got back from Pennsylvania, I took the mill up to the train room and started moving it around to see where it would best fit without blocking the scenery behind it.
Photos of the mill over the first half of the 20th century showed that one opened to a slope down to a nearby road, with a rough stone retaining wall that ran from the mill to the road. I cut and sanded down a chunk of 2 inch extruded foam insulation to form the hillside. The rock wall was cut from a sheet of "Dolomit" rock wall by Noch (57710) that I have used in other places on the layout.
Ground foam was used for the grassy slope and other places in the scene (medium green, burnt grass, yellow grass). The road was made from drywall joint compound applied with a wide spatula, sanded and painted a light gray. Trees were made from local weeds sprayed with adhesive and shaken with ground foam. The scene was completed with a Grey Street Company House by Conowingo Models. The result is a perfect transition from the Mount Union yards to the shops at Rockhill.
