Thanks! A perfect before and after comparison…
And your bonus pic is Price’s Bridge, our goal for this section.
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Love your photos, Jon.
Who does the re-grading of the road, the county? And will that take awhile?
Yes, I know. I believe it’s called that because of the Price family cemetery just up the road.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/190359659/samuel-amon_merriman-price
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Thanks Cliff -
It is done buy contractors hired by and paid for by the Friends group using the generous donations we have received from members and the public. There are three stages. 1st a land clearing contractor removes the trees from the roadbed. 2nd the Friends cut the remaining small brush and assist the railroads track department in breaking apart the rail joints. The rail is then moved to the side of the ROW. 3rd a grading contractor comes in and smooths the roadbed fixing any washouts, adding stone where needed and digging out the drainage ditches. Then we start laying track! The board just approved contracts to do this work between Prices Bridge and Three Springs.
I expect the latest section to be cleared will be ready for track work sometime next spring or summer.
The railroad provides a speeder and operator for the Three Springs carnival each year in early summer. In previous years they have used a section of old track that runs through town. Rumor has it that the ride may be extended to Saltillo if the final section gets cleared and the existing track can made ready using gauge bars.
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Thanks for explaining the steps, Jon.
By “road” though, I meant the asphalt road covering the ROW. Will contractors deal with that as well?
Sorry, I read grading and missed road! This is a town road. They have little to no regulations. The railroad’s contractor will cut and level the opening. The combined track crew will lay the rails and tamp them. The railroads contractor will pave. This is a long way off. The Pogue bridge needs to be completed first before rails can be laid to cross the road. When we cross state roads there is a permitting process.
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Again, you taught me something. I didn’t know that cemetery existed. Now I need to check it out.
Cool,
Now you need to search out the old water tower on the east side bend at Coles coming south . Just run north on Rt T340 passing the https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/2214075/coles-valley-cemetery. It’s rough but there to my understanding have not ventured there but myself yet.
I have photographed the Coles tank back in 2004 during a spring exploration. The railroad is trying to discourage people from exploring without permission. They have installed cameras with Starlink nodes at sensitive sites.
Coles tank in 2004…
While looking through my Spring Exploration 2004 pictures, I found a bunch of great before shots like these of the original Saltillo Station…
The roadbed at Saltillo. Today, fresh track has been laid for the station siding and main line for about a half mile…
McMullen’s Summit. The bridge deck was removed by Pendot and in-service track runs beneath today…
Fun to look back 22 years!
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How anyone cannot love historic pics is beyond me.
Jon, you are probably the only person here who has access to the tools to make one of these coffee tables.
From Germany to the L&N: The Story Beneath the Glass - Rail Yard Studios
Bill;
I suppose anyone who builds a coffee table such as that must pray that they never have to move it (unless they can also build forklifts)!
Happy lifting, David Meashey
No coffee table plans, but the artifacts in my rust garden (now residing the the Ken Brunt Memorial Planters) has grown exponentially with old hardware found in the shmutz while laying track. I even was gifted a 1 foot cut-off of rail 
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So named because they were built to hold plants rescued from Ken’s layout when we disassembled it for Bev. This miniature Hosta plant originated in CT but never bloomed until here…
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Dave here’s how it’s done.
The railroad press (Trains.com) is reporting that the grant for the Pogue Bridge repair has final approvals and is going out for bid anticipating work to start this winter.
It baffles me that the railroad itself has not made any announcement on social media or their websites since this is the most asked question on every post. I sourced the following Trains.Com article at Yahoo News as Trains.Com is behind a pay wall.
A Save America’s Treasures combined state and federal grant of $1.6 million to cover work to repair the 275-foot-long steel truss bridge over Aughwick Creek at Pogue and another plate girder bridge at Three Springs. The project on Wednesday received final federal approval of the bid scope, according to EBT General Manager Brad Esposito, and EBT is now free to seek contractor bids. Work - which can proceed through winter once a contract is awarded - will include concrete repairs to the piers and their caps, and new bearings.
There is lots of other good news as well. A private donation will fund the balance of clearing and grading between Pogue and Three Springs. The same from Three Springs to Saltillo has just been funded by the FEBT. A state grant will fund the recreation of the Three Springs station.
A court ruled that EBTF’s right of first refusal to purchase the railroad from Aughwick Bridge through Mt. Union is valid for a short window. The EBTF board met yesterday to vote on the purchase. I don’t know the outcome yet.
There has been some political friction between the EBTF and the Rockhill Trolley Museum resulting in the EBTF failing to extend their lease yet again. It appears that that will be resolved due to some personnel change on the museum board.
In a related development, the Rockhill Trolley Museum on Saturday (Sept. 19) held a stockholders’ meeting, voting to change the composition of its board in a bid to seek agreement with the EBT Foundation over terms of the museum’s tenancy on EBT property. RTM has constructed two carbarns and other support buildings, enabling it to house all of its 30-some-car collection under roof. But the agreement under which RTM uses the land and track dates from the 1980s, and in the past few years, the two sides have been unable to agree on an updated document. In the impasse, RTM faced several unattractive choices, including relocating or dissolving, but those may be less likely now.
The Coal Dock is once again in service.
Stabilzation has begun on the historic Crotsley’s Mill, a grist mill adjacent to the railroad’s Saltillo wye. Like EBT’s locomotive and car shop complex in Rockhill, the mill retains much of its vintage mechanical equipment. EBTF is leasing the mill from the Three Springs Historical Society who recently purchased the property.
Power assisted rail bike rides are operating every weekend over the standard gauge Shade Gap branch.
And more! Read the full article here
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Thanks for the thorough report, Jon.
It was my understanding that the rebuilt station will also house the borough hall or something to that nature.