By Railfan & Railroad Staff

ORBISONIA, Pa. – Steam power officially returned to Pennsylvania’s East Broad Top this week, when 2-8-2 16 moved for the first time under its own power since 1956. 

The locomotive has been under restoration for more than a year and was first steamed up last summer. Built in 1916, the locomotive was one of the last to work for the EBT in the 1950s, but never saw service in the tourist era. When new management took over the dormant railroad in 2020, they found that 16 was in the best shape of any of the railroad’s 2-8-2s and decided to restore it first. Other locomotives are expected to follow. 

The railroad posted a short video of the locomotive moving under its own power on Wednesday. It’s unclear when the locomotive will enter regular service. 

The 33-mile East Broad Top was built in the 1870s to bring coal out of the central Pennsylvania mines, but also carried general freight, mail and passengers. Demand for coal kept the railroad running until 1955, but it fell on hard times and filed for abandonment. In 1956, the assets of the East Broad Top Railroad & Coal Co. were purchased by Nick Kovalchick, a local salvage dealer. In 1960, the twin boroughs of Orbisonia and Rockhill Furnace approached Kovalchick about putting a locomotive on display for the towns’ bicentennial. Successful trips were run and continued for 52 years before the property returned to slumber in 2011. In February 2020, it was announced that the EBT Foundation had purchased the railroad.