ALTOONA, Pa. — A group of Penn State Altoona rail transportation engineering (RTE) students attended a field trip to the East Broad Top (EBT) Railroad and the Rockhill Trolley Museum (RTM) in Huntingdon County on Oct. 18.

The tour group, which included Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Peter Hopsicker, RTE faculty member Steve Dillen, and Reference and Instruction Librarian Lori Lysiak, learned the story of the EBT Railroad beyond its locomotives and cars by exploring the buildings, roundhouse, and machine shop. An additional tour inside the “vaults,” led by archivist Julie Fether Rockwell, a former Penn State Altoona history faculty member, allowed for a glimpse of over 5,000 linear feet of maps, drawings, records and artifacts dating back to the earliest days of the EBT Railroad. Fether Rockwell explained how these irreplaceable items are being processed, preserved, and made accessible.

At the RTM, Chip Kraft donned his conductor’s cap and gave each attendee a hands-on experience that included flipping track switches and ringing the trolley bell.

The outing was capped with a 4.5-mile train excursion pulled by a Mikado steam locomotive, “No. 16,” built in 1916 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia. The trip followed the same route once used to transport millions of tons of coal from the mine to the market. At the far end of the route, the train reversed onto a “wye” to turn around completely for the return trip back to the station.