Hmm... I'll bet if you cut the tree down, counted the number of rings, you'd know roughly how long it's been since the last freight car rolled over these rails.
Stumped? Well, don't get the saw out just yet - The railroad closed as a coal hauler on April 14, 1956, and along with the coal-mining company was sold for scrap to the Kovalchick Salvage Corporation. The good news - great news, actually, is that Nick Kovalchick, president of Kovalchick Salvage, elected not to scrap the railroad right away, instead letting it sit in place. On June 3rd 2013, a group known as the East Broad Top Preservation Association announced that it had purchased the northern end of the East Broad Top Railroad. In two separate transactions they purchased, the old PRR/Conrail spur from the NS mainline to the northern end of the EBT yard from Kovlachick Salvage, and the EBT Mount Union yard south to the US 522 crossing from the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company.
