Can FEBT "bring 18 and 29 home"? - PART II

[Anonymous]

In the month since FEBT announced our intent to find the funds needed to bid on one or both of these unique pieces of the EBT's heritage, we have received over $10,500 provided by 67 donors to "bring 18 and 29 home." (In the same period we have also received over $3,750 from 51 other donors to support our general restoration program.) If your contribution was among the 118 donations we received since early May or among the several hundred previous donations we received since we launched our fund-raising campaign last August, please accept our thanks for the important support you have provided to Friends of the East Broad Top.

However, the funds we now have on hand are not yet enough to support a realistic effort to acquire one or both of the EBT passenger cars in Colorado and to continue our progress on the other projects now incorporated in our restoration program. If you have not already contributed to our current fund-raising campaign, we need your financial support now to "bring 18 & 29 home." We will also welcome additional contributions if you have already given a donation to our ongoing fund-raising campaign. Since the resources in our hands before July 20 will determine how seriously we will participate in the auction of EBT 18 & 29, we do not have much more time. And, unfortunately, we cannot now state a dollar amount that will assure our success. We simply cannot know until the actual sale what each former EBT passenger car will cost the winning bidder.

On the other hand, we do know that the additional expenditures required to transport and store one or both cars now in Colorado will not be cheap. The most recent estimate for transporting one of these cars from Fort Lupton to Rockhill Furnace, Pennsylvania, is $6,500. (The East Broad Top Railroad has agreed in principle to provide space on an outdoor yard track if we successfully acquire EBT 18 or 29-or both.) Since one end platform was removed from each car for the trip to its present location, we expect to incur immediate costs of at least $1,000 per car to repair the missing end platform-and its coupler-so the car can be moved once it is at Rockhill Furnace. Recent information indicates that the two cars are in extremely fragile condition. This not only complicates transportation, it also reinforces our need to come up with a realistic plan for storing any passenger cars we move to the EBT under shelter. We are now exploring with the EBT a proposal to erect a FEBT storage building on railroad property that could accommodate any cars we successfully purchase in July-as well as passenger-baggage car no. 16 (which we already hold under 99-year lease). At this stage we do not have any firm estimate for the cost of such a building, but it could easily exceed $15,000.

Our decision to request your support for the effort to "bring 18 & 29 home" was not made lightly. We are well aware of the financial demands of our other current restoration projects: our rehabilitation of the railroad depot and old post office buildings in Robertsdale, the reproduction trucks needed to restore combine no. 16 to operating condition, our assessment of the Saltillo station building, and the new work we are undertaking this year at Rockhill Furnace. But we believe this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Bringing 18 or 29-or both historic passenger cars-back to the EBT is a challenge our mission to preserve and restore the East Broad Top Railroad does not permit us to ignore. Combine no. 18 is probably the oldest surviving piece of EBT rolling stock. Baggage car no. 29 is the sole surviving example of its type of EBT passenger equipment. Since we do not wi***o jeopardize our ability to move forward on our other projects, we must rely on you to provide the additional funding necessary for us to bid on the two EBT passenger cars in Colorado.

All directors of Friends of the East Broad Top are encouraged by the response we have so far obtained to support our attempt to bid in the July auction. We continue to explore possible strategies to find additional funds for this endeavor. For example, we may be able to borrow temporarily from contingency funds held in our Life Member Account or negotiate short-term loans from interested lenders. But as a practical matter, the donations we receive between now and July 20 will decide what we can accomplish.

And that's where you come in. Only you can provide the actual cash in hand we will need not only to bid on 18 & 29, but also to transport any cars we successfully acquire to Pennsylvania, to make any immediate repairs required, and to assure secure storage at the East Broad Top Railroad. The directors of Friends of the East Broad Top join me in urging you to commit your resources to this project. Only with your active participation and financial support can we proceed.

Once more, please accept our thanks if you have previously contributed to our fund-raising campaign or if you have already mailed us your donation to "bring 18 and 29 home." If you have not previously decided whether to assist us, I again ask you to send your donations to FEBT restoration fund treasurer Nancy E. Jacqmin at the following address:

Friends of the East Broad Top
Restoration Fund Treasurer
513 Shady Avenue, No. 12
Pittsburgh PA 15206-4447


Mark your check (or indicate on the return envelope) that your donation is to be used to "bring 18 and 29 home." Note that contributions to support our effort to acquire these EBT passenger cars will be treated as part of our current fund-raising campaign. Thus each donor who contributes a donation of $50.00 or more will receive one of our art reproductions of Ted Rose's Mount Union Train.

For more details, visit http://www.febt.org/1829.html - Can FEBT "bring 18 and 29 home"?