Frank and Eugene McKelvey developed a narrow-gauge railway system to enable the effective transportation of mine props from the forrest to the market.
The brothers’ lumber company commenced operations in Orbisonia, PA, and later in Henry and Shaw. Between 1922 and 1928 the McKelvey Brothers Lumber Company cut mine props, railroad ties, and other lumber using a portable saw mill and small pin and lumber mills in Rockhill Furnace, using two Shay locomotives on their logging railroad.
The East Broad Top (EBT) erected its overhead Timber Transfer gantry crane in Mount Union to handle transshipment of the McKelvey's wood products to standard-gauge railroad cars. The Lumber Compny went out of business in 1933
The ETB railway however remains a focus for enthusiasts, and this information comes from a visit in 2003 by a group of railway enthusiasts to the greater Robertsdale area when they completed a
driving tour along points of the old right of way of the McKelvey brothers logging railroad which began in Robertsdale, and after stops in Plum Run valley, near Fort Littleton, and Locke Valley, concluded at the EBT in Rockhill Furnace.
See photos at: http://www.febt.org/Events/2003re.html
Google East Broad Top for a U Tube visit of theETB railway still in action.
I just walked half the old right of way in the boy scout camp were It went through hollow run and is nice and clear
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