“It has been a long process,” Salone says, “much longer than we thought.” The next step, he says, is hiring an engineering firm to assess the condition of the four-arch concrete bridge over the creek.
Salone says he is arranging private and commercial financing to purchase the rest of the railroad from Aughwick to Alvan, including the section between Orbisonia and Colgate Grove operated as a tourist railroad for many years. He declines to say how long that may take, but hopes it will be soon.
As soon as the weather breaks, track workers will resume inserting ties in the dual-gauge track in the Mount Union yard area and will proceed south to the industrial park near the village of Allenport.
Meanwhile, Salone says, an application is before the federal Surface Transportation Board to set up a new “EBT Connecting Railroad” to operate standard gauge track in Mount Union from a connection with Norfolk Southern at CP Jacks. The trackage serves an industrial park, which currently does not have any active rail customers.
