Ewings Mill

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.

East Broad Top Reunion 2021

 It has been two years since the last fall Reunion of the Friends of the EBT.  I was anxious to see what changes might have occurred since the EBT Foundation took over management of the railroad in February 2021.  So early in October I drove the 500 miles from Cape Cod to the twin boroughs of Orbisonia and Rockhill, Pennsylvania.  I made arrangements to stay at Pogue Station, an old farmhouse about two miles south of Orbisonia used as a general store, post office, and flag stop for the EBT.  From my bedroom window I could see the EBT tracks.  It has been 65 years since a train ran there, but that may soon change!

 

  
               Annual reunions traditionally started on Friday evening in the elementary school across from Orbisonia Station, and lasted through Saturday.  But there was a whiff of change in the air this year.  The reunion was scheduled to start Friday morning in Robertsdale, some 20 miles south of Orbisonia.  There visitors could see the new FEBT museum located in the old Robertsdale post office across the tracks from the depot.  The depot now has a new red standing seam roof, installed this summer thanks to contributions from the FEBT.   

             Several steel hopper cars have been moved to tracks near the station, where they were once weighed before the trip north to Mount Union and the junction with the Pennsylvania Railroad.  Hand car rides were offered all weekend long on a restored section of track. (Those things are harder to pump than you think!)   Here is a photo of me standing on the handcar.

 

 

             The tracks south of Robertsdale led to the mines operated by the Rockhill Iron and Coal Company (RICC).  Coal was transferred to EBT hopper cars from various tipples and truck dumps along the right-of-way.  A high point for me was a guided tour of what is left of the mines conducted by Ric Case and Ron Pearson, both of whom have spent decades exploring and documenting the mines.  Beginning at Mine #1, a hundred yards south of the EBT station and scale, we followed the tracks south for maybe half a mile.  There we explored some of the remnants of mining structures – the foundations of the boiler house, fan house, winch house, mule barn and the small two stall EBT engine house.  Our guides provided a wealth of information on coal mining operations over the 80 history of the EBT as a common carrier.  Here is a photo of Ric Case with a group of intrepid explorers.

 

Before leaving on our tour, we had a surprise visit from Henry Posner, the Chairman of the Board of the EBT Foundation, who praised the FEBT for their faithful work over many years when the future seemed bleak.  Posner told the crowd that other members of the Board were on site for the weekend, and that all of them saw the FEBT as a valuable partner in rebuilding the railroad.  In candid remarks, Posner hinted that plans are in place to reopen the track south of Rockhill, with a long range goal of restoring operations from Orbisonia all the way to Robertsdale.  The Foundation is conferring with bridge and tunnel engineers about the status of the 210-foot-long steel deck trestle over Aughwick Creek, and the two long tunnels at Cooks and Sideling Hill.  Two of the six steam engines that have been stored in the roundhouse at Rockhill are currently being restored, with steam operations planned to resume shortly.  

             On Saturday activities moved to Rockhill, where we were astonished by newly ballasted track and ties!   Together with the FEBT, the railroad is working to upgrade track and switches that have suffered from ten years of neglect after tourist operations shut down in 2011.

 

    The elementary school gymnasium across from the depot was the site for registrations, contests, clinics and the FEBT Company Store.  Ron Pearson and Ric Case brought a six foot long diorama of Mine #9 in exquisite detail.  No one was surprised when the mine scene won first place for structures!  

              That afternoon we heard a powerful presentation by the new EBT Archivist Julie Rockwell, hired by the Foundation to sort through 150 years of documents, maps, operating orders, reports, survey instruments and ephemera that had been stored on the second floor of the station, in the basement, in the old farm house used for the yardmaster’s office, and a raft of other cubbyholes.  Long range plans include digitizing much of this material to make it available for historical research.  There are literally thousands of documents to sort through, an unparalleled treasure of industrial archaeology stretching back over a century and a half.

Although no steam engines were operating this year, there were plenty of other opportunities to ride the rails.  Single cylinder “pop pop” track cars ran continuously to the south end of the yard and back, a distance of over a mile.   

 

 

             Train trips were also available to the picnic area at Colgate Grove, 5 miles north of the depot, where the recently rebuilt wye allows trains to turn.  Some of the track restoration was so recent that the new ties weren’t yet ballasted! Trains of open cars were pulled by the M-7 diesel electric engine.  

 

 For those looking for something more historic, the M-1 gas electric motor car was running as well.  The M-1 was constructed by the railroad in 1927 with plans and parts from Westinghouse and Brill.  It was, in effect, a kit-built car designed to carry mail and a few passengers when it was too expensive to fire up a steam engine.  I was lucky enough to get a seat on a rare night trip.  What a treat! As the M-1 backed down the wye, there was a sudden thump-thump from below and the train stopped dead.  The conductor stepped down with his lantern and inspected the trucks, then assured the engineer we were still on the rails.  A good thing, since no one was looking forward to walking back in the dark!  But soon the M-1 was humming south again, arriving safely at the Rockhill Trolley Museum.

 

            I should add that Orbisonia is not only home to the East Broad Top Railroad, but also to the trolley museum.  A variety of historic trolleys and light rail vehicles ran all day Saturday and Sunday.  Returning EBT trains used a short section of dual gauge track to drop off passengers at the museum.  The Foundation is looking for ways to keep visitors interested and on site for more than a quick train ride.  Stopping at the trolley museum is designed to attract visitors to extend their stay.  Another attraction is the newly restored shop complex, which guests are welcome to visit.  The railroad has found that with the combination of trains, trolleys and the shops, guests are now staying an average of four hours.  

             And speaking of the shops, special tours led by EBT General Manager Brad Esposito were offered both Saturday and Sunday.  Additional tours of the FEBT’s restoration work were also offered.  On Sunday there were activities all day at both Rockhill and Robertsdale, making the reunion a three day event!  I opted for the Sunday shop tour.  The tour began in the 8 stall roundhouse, which has been recently upgraded with a new fire suppression system and better lighting.  Fire suppression has been extended to the shops and several other buildings.  Esposito explained that two of the six Baldwins were in relatively good condition for refitting and restoration: Number 14 and number 16.  Locomotive 16 was in the best condition, having just been shopped before the railroad shut down in 1956.  One of three heavyweight engines, it weighs around 80 tons – not what you would expect from a narrow gauge locomotive!  

             After exploring the roundhouse we walked over to the locomotive and machine shops, originally built in the late 19^th century and upgraded in the 1920s.  The massive presses, lathes, punches and other historic machines were powered by an overhead system of pulleys and leather belts, all driven by a large single stroke steam engine in the powerhouse.  Steam was generated by two large coal fired boilers, no longer in use.  But several years ago, members of the FEBT had cleaned and restored the one cylinder engine to run on compressed air.  The engine now runs quietly and smoothly, just as it did in the days of steam.

 

The new owners of the railroad brought in outside specialists to stabilize and level the trusses and shafts in the ceiling, so that the entire antique belt driven system now runs as it did a century ago.  It was incredible to see the steam engine quietly hissing, the governor spinning and the flywheel turning as it did when the shops were operating.  Several machines are now able to operate using the overhead belts for power.  We watched a large planer smoothly move back and forth more quietly than I had expected.  I always assumed that the belt system must have been incredibly noisy, but it is not!  Management is gradually restoring many of these magnificent machines to use in repairing and servicing the locomotives and rolling stock.  The goal is to restore the EBT to it was so many years ago.

 

The 9 hour ride back to Cape Cod that Monday left me with plenty of time to reflect on the changes taking place on the East Broad Top Railroad.  Narrow gauge enthusiasts are familiar with railroads like the Durango and Silverton or the Cumbres and Toltec.  But there is no other narrow gauge road anywhere that has survived intact from end to end like the EBT.  The entire railroad – the right of way, the structures, the locomotives, the rolling stock and the shops – have by a historical fluke survived just as they were on that April day in 1956, when the shop crew went home and never came back!  That the railroad has survived is a miracle. And together the EBT Foundation and the Friends of the EBT are working to ensure that the railroad will be around for a long time yet to come.

 

Looking for Trees in the Backyard

Model railroaders know the challenge of finding suitable trees at a reasonable price.  Trees are abundant in real life, but filling your scenery with believable and affordable trees is difficult. I have tried commercial trees, but they are generally expensive and not very realistic. In an earlier post I described how I make background foliage from large clumps of lichen I pick up along the highway.  The lichen is cleaned, dipped in a solution of hot water and glycerin, dried, sprayed with adhesive and colored with ground foam.  This works well for background, as is seen here.

In cases where the trees are in the background or partially blocked by buildings, this gives a really nice look.  But if you are looking to put trees in the foreground, you need something more than a clump of green.  You need trunks and limbs that look like a tree.  I have purchased trees at train shows that are made from spyrea, a kind of weed commonly found in marshy areas of the east coast.  While they are not bad for trees away from the edge of the layout, they do tend to look like the truffela trees in Dr. Seuss children's books.  Here is an example of truffela trees.

As you can see, these trees have puffy clumps of foliage on long spindly  branches.  The trunks don't look all that realistic either.  So I am always on the lookout for new ideas for making trees.  

Recently I was walking around the yard and spotted something on the ground I had never noticed before.  It was a cluster of small seed pods in a very tree-like configuration.  I picked one up and looked it over.  The branch had the shape and fullness of a tree.  The tiny seed pods were open and flared out, giving it all the appearance of a tree in shape, if not in color.  Was it possible I had stumbled over a new source of trees for the railroad?

It took me some time to figure out where these branches were coming from.  Then I noticed a type of hydrangea next to the patio that was full of broken branches with these empty seed pods hanging from them.  The local wildlife had feasted on them over the winter.  Here is what the branches looked like when the hydrangea was in bloom.

The greenish little berries turn brown and drop their seeds in the fall.  Here is what  they look like when I pick them in the backyard.

And here is the hydrangea that they came from.  In this photo you can see lots of these little tree-like branches broken by squirrels and birds, just ready for me to pick.

The branches are easy to work with.  I trimmed off what was left of the petals and any loose material, then I sprayed them with Aileen's Tacky Spray, and held the stem while shaking green foam over the plant.  I like to use Woodland Scenics medium green blended turf.

After the glue dried, I placed one of these seed pod trees next to a typical tree made from Spyrea. The tree on the left is from the hydrangea.  The tree on the right I bought at a train show some years ago.  To my eyes the tree on the left looks fuller and more solid.  But the nicest part of it all is that I can go out to the backyard in the fall and fill several bags with these seed pod trees.

Scratch Building the Robertsdale Engine House - Conclusion

With the engine house more or less complete, the final touches included super detailing and adding lights in the engine house.  I bought a set of Miniatronix 12 volt bulbs with brass lamp shades that I thought would look cool suspended from the roof trusses.  The plans indicated that the trusses did not go all the way to the peak, so there was adequate room for the wiring above the truss cross beams.  I used a spare wall wart transformer for the 12 vdc.  A hole was bored with a  pin vice in the center of each cross beam, for a total of 4 lights.  

I ran the leads to the end of the structure furthest from the doors, where it is almost impossible to see the wiring.  I drilled a hole in one corner of the engine house floor and the 2" foam base on which it sits large enough for a  piece of plastic tubing.  The wires from the transformer were threaded up the tubing into the engine house and connected to a two prong mini plug. The wires from the lights were similarly connected to the mating plug.  

The four 12 volt bulbs shed an unexpectedly nice amount of light inside the engine house, visible even in daylight, as seen in this photo.  Note the studs visible on the inside wall -- a detail often omitted by modelers.  The light really makes them pop.

At night, with the room lights off, the effect was even more spectacular.  I was really pleased with the result!

I wanted to superdetail the shop area in the addition at the rear of the engine house.   Though I had no interior photographs from when the building was in use, the plans clearly showed that the tracks ended just past the rear wall of the engine house itself.  That left almost 40 feet of space for shop equipment and supplies.  Since the roof was removeable, I decided to set up a small but adequately equipped machine shop for light repairs.  Shelving from Rusty Rail castings was placed against the wall farthest from the aisle, so it would be clearly visible.  I had a small collection of typical machine shop tools, including a sheet metal brake, punch, grinder, lathe, even a small steam hammer.  I placed these around the floor with a variety of workers.  Here is a photo of the finished machine shop.

There were a few small details left to add  to the main building.  I cut the smoke vents from 5/16 square styrene tube, with a small square cap on top, and painted the vents black.  The vents were located in the front of the engne house, near the doors, indicating that locomotives would have had to back into the building.  The plans also clearly showed three brick chimneys along the peak of the roof.  I used castings from Tyche for the chimneys, then added metallic flashing from B.E.S.T. around the base of each vent and chimney.

All that remained was to add scenery.  I had painted the immediate area around the structure black.  I brushed on matte medium, then sprinkled finely sifted cinders that I collected on previous trips to the East Broad Top.  This gave a typically grimy appearance to the surrounding area and along the two sets of tracks.  Since I model late summer on my railroad, beyond the the cinders I used a light yellow static field grass, along with various kinds of ground cover and trees.  Steps were consructed from ties soaked in brown Hunterline weathering mix and placed at the two side doors.  I added a variety of weeds from Noch, trees, old ties, barrels of grease and oil and trash cans here and there.  The result was, I might say, satisfying.

I hope you enjoyed my little scratch building project.  If you are ever in the neighborhood, you are welcome to drop over and see the rest of the layout, which is about 75% complete. 

Scratchbuilding the Robertsdale Engine House - Part 3

 With the roof trusses in place, I constructed the roof panels using laser cut sheets of variable width shake shingles from Bollinger Edgerly Scale Trains (B.E.S.T.).  The sheets come in 4x12 and 6x12 sizes, which meant I had to cut and paste sections together to shingle the 60 foot long engine house and the 40 long extension and shop.  I made one side of the roof 1/16 inch less from eave to peak, and butted the shorter panel to the panel facing the aisle, eliminating the need for a roof cap.  I really liked the appearance of the shakes, and began to think about what color to make them.  Here is a shot of the engine house from the front.  

And here is a photo from the rear.  The roof is not yet on the extension.  The holes in the roof are for the smoke vents, which I made from 5/16" square styrene tubing

With the roof sections cut and assembled, my next thought was what color to make them.  I had painted the sides with a red primer from Home Depot, and liked the look.  I first tested a spray can of roof primer from Home Depot -- the color was designed to color flashing and roof pipes in an aged brown.  But when I sprayed a scrap of leftover roofing, the spray paint came out too thick and dark.  So I tried various weathering mixes from Hunterline, including brown, gray and driftwood.  I liked them all, but decided to go with a light gray that resembled the weathered color of shake shingles one sees here on Cape Cod.  The label said the dye was mixed with alcohol, so I felt safe brushing it on the wood shingles.  I brushed it on both sides just in case, to prevent any warping.

At first it looked great, but then I noticed that the wood was starting to warp anyway.  I quickly laid the panels flat on a sheet of glass with lead weights.  But then I noticed that the warp was more severe along the eaves than the peaks, giving each longitudinal roof section a fan shape.  The eaves were expanding lengthwise more than the peak!  I attributed the difference to the laser cuts that made the bottom of the roof thinner than the top. I quickly checked the bottle of weathering mix and found that the mix  was only 70% rubbing alcohol!  It pays to read the label carefully.  The mixture was 30% water!   I thought the shingles -- which were not cheap -- were ruined.  I left the roof panels on my workbench and went to bed.

To my amazement, when I lifted the weights off the next day, the warp had largely disappeared!  As the water content evaporated, the wood returned to its original shape.  There is still a subtle warp, so that the bottom of the roof sections sag slightly in the middle -- a nice touch, as it turns out, making the roof look a bit aged and sagging slightly like a wood passenger car.  The light gray stain turned out rather nice.  Here you can see the engine house on the layout with the roof in place.  The smoke vents have been painted and installed.  The styrene foundation is also visible.

And here is a photo of the entire structure with all roof panels in place.  This is the view seen by visitors, since the left side of the building faces the aisle and there is no really good view of the opposite side.

In my next post I will show how I wired the engine house for lights and added additional roof detail along with shop equipment and workers in the rear extension.

Scratch Building the Robertsdale Engine House - Part 2

 As I explained in part 1 of this series, I wanted to build the EBT two stall backwoods engine house in Robertsdale, Pennsylvania, at the southern end of the railroad.  The main shop facilities were in Rockhill, where the railroad had an eight stall round house and turntable, a car shop, locomotive shop, machine shop, foundry, blacksmith shop, and just about anything you might need to build, repair or service the railroad.  

But Rockhill was more than 20 miles north of Robertsdale and the coal mines on Broadtop Mountain.  If one of the EBT's fleet of 2-8-2 steamers needed repairs, it made sense to have a small service facility available at the southern end of the line.  The board and batten engine house was built around 1875, at the same time that the EBT was building the Robertsdale depot and company store.  

There are very few photos of the engine house when it was still standing, but I was blessed with  a set of drawings based on field notes made in 1973 when the building was still standing.  The set of 7 drawings was a godsend.  They were extremely well detailed, and included the floor plan, wall plans, the site plan and roof plan, front and rear elevations,side elevations, main door and vent stack detail. And best of all, they were drawn in HO scale!  This vastly simplified construction of the model.  After cutting out and assembling the walls, I was able to set my model directly on the plan, as seen here:

Since the engine house was built before the EBT bought its fleet of modern 2-8-2 locomotives, the tolerances between the engine and doors were extremely tight.  Being able to set the building on the floor plan helped keep the tracks within the proper clearances.

I decided for the sake of structural integrity I would set the sills on a concrete foundation -- in this case a 1/8 inch sheet of styrene painted a weathered gray.  Using the plans for a guide, I carefully marked out the stalls, then cut out the spaces for the tracks.  I tested the fit on a flat surface to make sure the tolerances were correct, then glued the walls to the foundation with ACC cement.

The plans indicated that the roof of the main building was supported by a series of 6 trusses.  I followed the plans and constructed four trusses that were then placed where the plans indicated they were located.  The front and rear trusses were continued up to the peak of both ends to strengthen the assembly.

At this point I was able to place the structure on the layout where it would go when finished.  The laser cut shake shingle roof panels from B.E.S.T. would rest on the trusses leaving enough space above for wiring the lights and for a roof beam to run from one end of the building to the other.  I will continue the construction in part 3.

Scratch Building the Robertsdale Engine House

The East Broad Top Railroad runs south from its junction with the Pennsylvania Railroad in Mount Union, to Robertsdale and the coal mines on Broad Top Mountain.  Robertsdale was a bustling little town in its heyday, with a large and well stocked company store, a concrete block depot, another concrete block structure that once held the coal company offices, and an impressive new office building across the street.  Robertsdale also boasted a wye for turning the coal trains, an enclosed water tank, and an engine house.  The engine house was the most enigmatic structure, having fallen into ruin in the early 1990's, about the same time that the company store was razed.  

I was hard put to find any photos of the engine house, which was a two stall board and batten structure just south of company square.  At the EBT Fall Reunion in 2014 I walked what was left of the roadbed with Ric Case and Ron Pearson, who took me on  a short tour of where the engine house once stood.  There was virtually nothing left of the building except some of the concrete foundation.  Later I ran across some old photos from the 1990's that were all I could find of what the structure looked like.  Here is a picture taken in 1992 of the front foundation looking out at the approach track.

The best photos I found of the actual structure were low resolution and very grainy. Here is a shot of the front and side of the building.It's hard to make out much detail.

And here is a shot lookng up at the front of the building.

I had reserved a special place, right on the aisle, for the Robertsdale engine house on my EBT railroad, but the information I had to go one was pretty sparse.  Then a friend and fellow EBT modeler shared a set of plans made in 1973 by William J. Karl, when the building was still standing.  What a find!  The drawings showed all sides of the structure, as well as the interior, roof trusses, the works!

I decided to model the engine house using scribed board and batten siding -- which I happened to have a lot of in my stash of modeling supplies.  The drawings specified that the roof was made of wood shake shingles, so for the sake of realism I purchased several sheets of laser cut cedar shake shingles from B.E.S.T. modeling supplies.  By Christmas 2020 I was ready to start work.  During the week between Christmas and New Year's Day I cut all the sides and  punched out holes for the windows and doors. I ordered several sets of Tichy 6/6 frame windows 36" wide by 64" high, item TTG8024, which were just about the exact size of the engine house windows.  After cutting out the sides, I spray painted the exterior with red primer from the local Home Depot.  I installed the windows, and began to assemble the building, which measures out to about 100 feet long incluiding the rear extension.  In the next post I will continue with how I constructed the roof trusses, foundation, and interior.