Grants
In just its first few years, the EBT Foundation has been honored to receive a variety of public and private grants that quickly made tremendous progress possible.
State Grants
Private donors led the initial effort to acquire the railroad from its longtime owners, the Kovalchick Family, but the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania soon took up the challenge. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission provided a matching grant to begin work on a fire-suppression system, and the Office of the Budget has awarded Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program funds that, once matched, will pay for beginning to reopen parts of the railroad out of service since 1956. The Department of Community and Economic Development has offered Marketing for Tourism grants that also have helped overhaul steam locomotives. And the federal government’s Appalachian Regional Commission made a major contribution toward the railroad’s master plan.
PA Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program 2020 Grant (RACP)
$1.4 Million
Funding Opportunities:
East Broad Top Railroad Phase I Development
PA Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program 2021 Grant (RACP)
$1.1 Million
Funding Opportunities:
East Broad Top Railroad Restoration Milepost 6.5 to Milepost 19.5
PA Department of Community & Economic Development 2021
$900,000
Marketing to Attract Tourism
Funding Opportunities:
Marketing and Locomotive Restoration
PA Department of Community & Economic Development 2022
$630,000
Marketing to Attract Tourism
Funding Opportunities:
Marketing and Locomotive Restoration
Keystone Historic Preservation Grant 2021
$100,000
Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission
Funding Opportunities:
Machine Shop and Roundhouse Fire Suppression InstallationPrivate Grants and Funding
Meanwhile, the Allegheny Foundation, of Pittsburgh, provided a significant grant for work on the Colgate Picnic Grove. The John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust has provided two grants for work on the EBT’s one-of-a-kind 1927 gas-electric unit, the M-1. And a private donor has made several grants to help launch the archives program, while others have contributed equipment — machine tools, a bucket truck, map drawers, and even a vintage standard-gauge boxcar.
Critical to the foundation’s preservation efforts has been the continuing support of members of the all-volunteer Friends of the East Broad Top, which began working on EBT buildings in Rockhill Furnace in 2002 and has been invaluable since. Friends volunteers have stabilized or helped stabilize multiple key buildings, in addition to rebuilding several freight cars and a caboose. In addition, the Friends have proven to be fundraising champions, collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars for various EBT preservation projects.
Allegheny Foundation 2021
$100,000
Funding Opportunities:
Colgate Grove Track and Site Rehabilitation
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John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust 2021
$15,000
Funding Opportunities:
Gas Electric M-1 Roof replacement and painting
Friends of the East Broad Top Railroad 2021
$120,000
Funding Opportunities:
Carpenter Shop and Storehouse Structural Stabilization and Restoration
John H. Emery Rail Heritage Trust 2022
$15,000
Funding Opportunities:
Gas Electric M-1 traction motor and truck work.