Track Cars
Throughout the years, the East Broad Top operated, built, and maintained its own freight cars. Early coal hoppers were wooden until the first steel cars arrived in 1913. In fact, the EBT operated the only fleet of steel narrow gauge coal hoppers. To this day, several other railroads who have purchased EBT hoppers in the past still operate their EBT cars for maintenance purposes. The East Broad Top was a modern railroad for its time.
Scale Test Car 30
Built 1916
East Broad Top
This 30,000 lb. scale test car was home-built by the EBT shops in 1916 to calibrate the three narrow gauge scales on the railroad.
Flatcar 108
Built 1923
East Broad Top
This is the flatcar that once had several pine trees growing through it at the south end of the Rockhill Yard. It was one of three cars removed from a cut of out-of-service cars in Rockhill Yard. It is now our only true flatcar, as the others have been converted to open passenger cars in the 1990s. This flatcar was restored in July 2006 and is used for track maintenance and photographer’s specials.
Tank car 116
Built 1925
East Broad Top
This tank car was originally built as a flatcar in the EBT shops in 1925. Sometime after 1936 the 6000 gallon tank was installed, making it the only EBT tank car. For lack of a working water column in early tourist years, this was filled with water, pushed up a steep track near the coal tipple, and used to fill the steam locomotive tenders.
Boxcars 170 and 181
Built 1913-1920
East Broad Top
These two are our only operating examples of our home-built boxcars, although there are several others sitting around the yard. On the left is a wooden-body steel-frame transition boxcar built 1913 and is one of the oldest freight cars on the property. On the right is an example of the many all-steel boxcars built between 1914 and 1920.
Side-Dump Hopper 802
Built 1913
Pressed Steel Car Co.
This is one of the original 10 steel cars ordered from the Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1913. Four of these were later converted by the EBT shops from standard hoppers to side-dump hoppers. This photo shows the car just after its rebuild was completed by Friends of the East Broad Top in June 2008.
3-Bay Hoppers
Built 1913
Pressed Steel Car Co. and East Broad Top
The East Broad Top’s fleet of modern steel hoppers was made up largely of standard 3-bay cars. The first of these were purchased from the Pressed Steel Car Co. in 1913-1914. The remainder, a total of about 239 cars, were built by the East Broad Top shops.
4-Bay Hoppers
Built 1928
East Broad Top
This is the newest operating freight car on the East Broad Top. This car is one of two 4-bay hoppers on the EBT. The other, hopper 1063 was returned to a 3-bay hopper and given high sides.