Everett Railroad 2-8-0 Consolidation #38 This is the boiler and cab of steam locomotive No. 38, former Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad. It is seen here in September of 2013 anchored to a flat car in the WMSR's yard behind the shop. The 1927 Alco built locomotive was sent to WMSR in 2008 by Alan Maples, the President of the Everett Railroad, for restoration to operation.
No. 38 was initially acquired for freight service on the H&BT. In the declining years the locomotive was used to pull the railroad's passenger train which made one round trip daily from Huntingdon, PA, to Bedford, PA. The locomotive was in regular service for 27 years until the H&BT abandoned operations in March, 1954. In the mid 1950's, a railfan and resident of NY named Dr. Stanley Groman had begun collecting railroad equipment with an eye towards opening an operating railroad museum. In 1954 he purchased No. 38, along with a coach, RPO and a cabin car and arranged two special excursions on the New York Central Railroad en route to his Rail City Museum in Sandy Pond, NY. The locomotive was moved to the new attraction but was found to be too large to negotiate the loop of track that had been constructed at the site. Consequently, No. 38 was placed on display until it was sold, in 1968, to the Livonia, Avon & Lakeville Railroad in Lakeville, NY. The LA&L overhauled the locomotive at the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad's Hornell, NY shop. Badly leaking, No. 38's tender had to be scrapped. The LA&L thereafter utilized No. 38 in excursion service until 1976. In 1977, the railroad quit the tourist trade and sold No. 38 and its passenger equipment to Sloan Cornell for use on his Gettysburg Railroad in Pennsylvania. The locomotive ran at Gettysburg for several years before Cornell moved it to his new Knox & Kane Railroad in northwestern Pennsylvania, where he operated an excursion train through the Allegheny National Forest and over the famed Kinzua Viaduct. No. 38 was eventually set aside in favor of a larger and much newer steam engine imported from China. Following the demise of the Kinzu Viaduct in a July 2003 tornado, the Knox & Kane Railroad closed and in the Fall of 2008, the remaining rolling stock was sold at auction. Alan Maples, president of the Everett Railroad, purchased locomotive No. 38 and shipped her to the WMSR for restoration to operation as time and resources would permit. Preoccupied with other projects, the locomotive sat here, in storage, until 2016 when it was finally shipped to Everett where the restoration to operation will be completed. In the Winter of 2016, the locomotive was shipped to the Everett Railroad where the restoration will be completed allowing No. 38 to join the railroad's other steam locomotive, 2-6-0 No. 11, in excursion service.
