Duncansville Pennsylvania USA - The Everett Railroad has remained, in all its forms dating back "close to the invention of railroading itself", an independent shortline railroad of "purely local character," according to owner Alan Maples.
 
While the railroad continues to haul freight, the local character Maples referenced comes to life during special excursion trains, currently featuring the popular Santa Express.
 
These excursions, from ice cream and pumpkin patch stops to the fall foliage and Santa trains, draw thousands of visitors who find joy and family fun in riding in the 1920s era passenger cars pulled by the railroad's "star" steam engine 11.
 
How Maples found success with the railroad is a legend of sorts, much like Santa himself.
 
The story goes that Maples went to his parents and asked if he could use his college fund to buy the beleaguered rail line from Bedford County.
 
"They allowed him," said Michelle Moyer, Everett Railroad's passenger excursions manager.
 
"So, he took his college fund and bought the railroad instead of going to college."
 
During a brief interview in 2022, Maples, with a smile, said, "I don't remember what I was thinking," although he admitted he was always interested in railroading as a child.
 
His current railroad "set" includes about 23 miles of track covering southern Blair County, Maples said.
 
In 1985, the Everett Railroad also leased a 7 mile section called the Morrisons Cove Railroad, which served Cove communities such as Roaring Spring, Martinsburg, and Curryville.
 
With this additional expansion, the railroad served three feed mills and a paper mill, becoming a vital part of the area's agriculture and dairy production.
 
"Over time, he bought more sections," Moyer said.
 
"The way it works for railroads is companies own the railroad in sections. So we own from Duncansville out to Martinsburg and then in the other direction out to Sproul."
 
Over time he also bought and refurbished vintage passenger cars, some of which were used in movies such as "Water for Elephants."
 
Honouring the Past
 
A look into the past is required to understand Maples' passion for trains and the painstaking work that went into saving the once defunct railroad that originated in Bedford County.
 
Like its predecessor, the Huntingdon & Broad Top Mountain Railroad, known as the H&BT, the Everett Railroad defied multiple attempts to be acquired by, or absorbed into, larger carriers, Maples wrote in his story of the railroad.
 
"While today's company bears little resemblance to its earlier incarnations, it remains proud of its heritage and connections to the past," Maples said.
 
Today, Everett Railroad's office, crew base, and locomotive shop, are located near the Wye switches in Duncansville, while its bulk transload conveyor facility and passenger train depot are in Hollidaysburg.
 
But Everett, about 41 miles south of Altoona, is the town for which the railroad is named.
 
The H&BT was founded in 1852 to connect Huntingdon to Bedford, transporting premium coal from the Broad Top region to broader markets, said Larry Foor, Bloody Run Historical Society president.
 
Maples said the H&BT "had every intention of continuing to Bedford and beyond to Maryland" itself, without needing the Pennsylvania Railroad, but they would have needed to construct a "substantial" bridge across the Raystown branch of the Juniata River just past Everett, which was "beyond the company's means."
 
When the H&BT reached Bedford in 1871, it was via a Pennsylvania Railroad bridge.
 
After the H&BT refused its offer of consolidation, the PRR created a through-route from Altoona to Cumberland, bypassing the H&BT.
 
Combined with the Pittsburgh steel industry rendering the iron foundries along the H&BT obsolete, passenger cars hurting train revenue, and outstanding debt, the company "ran its last train on 31 Mar 1954, closing the books over US$5 million in debt," Maples wrote of the H&BT demise.
 
Modest Enterprise
 
Unlike its predecessor, Maples said the Everett Railroad started as a "modest enterprise" with only 4.3 miles of track and a single locomotive as its essential possessions.
 
Its founding stockholders were Pittsburgh Silica Co. owners and brothers David and Robert Jones, who supplied sand to glass manufacturers and would account for almost two-thirds of the railroad's freight traffic.
 
Everett Hardwood Lumber Co. owners Oscar and Lawrence Foor were also significant investors.
 
The railroad moved about 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of freight a year, including sand, lumber, feed, fertilizer, food products, furniture, telephone poles, and baling twine, Maples said.
 
When Pittsburgh Silica abruptly ceased operations in 1960, the Everett Railroad had to pivot and opened to the excursion trade on Memorial Day weekend in 1965.
 
Advertising itself as the "Historic Everett Railroad," more than 700 people rode the passenger train in its first three days.
 
In its first year, the railroad counted about 13,334 tickets sold, Maples said.
 
"The new excursion venture added modestly to revenues but more substantially to costs, resulting in a deficit of US$15,226 for the year," Maples said.
 
"In 1966, the loss doubled and it became obvious that the steam engine was not going to be the Everett Railroad's savior."
 
The railroad carried on for two more years before leasing out the excursion operations for two more seasons to volunteers, who formed the South Penn Historical Railway Museum.
 
Its last run was made in October 1970.
 
By 1971, Foor said the old rolling stock was sold to Williams Grove Amusement Park in Dillsburg.
 
By 1982, the Everett Railroad was defunct.
 
That's when Maples stepped in, and in 1983, at 21 years of age, became the youngest person in history to hold the title of president of a railroad.
 
Finding New Life
 
By August 1984, the Everett Railroad was back up and running at Claysburg, as Everett Railroad GE 80-Ton No. 4 made a delivery of bauxite ore to the General Refractories Co., according to the railroad's website.
 
The purchase, relocation, and the restart of operations has allowed Maples to share his love and enthusiasm for locomotive history, first through freight operations, and now enhanced through the addition of passenger excursions.
 
The Blair County excursions began in 2015 after people began showing up at the station to see if they could take a ride, Moyer said.
 
"It's nostalgic for everyone when we use the steam engine," Moyer said.
 
"They see the steam and people would just show up down at our station that didn't even know we existed until they heard the whistle and they saw the train."
 
Maples said the railroad's goal was to have events that appealed to families and children.
 
Their most popular train rides include the "Easter Eggspress," the "Pumpkin Patch Train" and the "Santa Express."
 
Its first excursion, the Pumpkin Patch Train, carried more than 7,200 people between Hollidaysburg and Kladder that season.
 
Since then, a superhero train, a princess train with Miss Pennsylvania, and an ice cream train to Roaring Spring have been added.
 
Running from March to December each year, the railroad had about 35,000 passengers in 2023, Moyer said.
 
"We will probably see about 16,000 people riding our trains for Christmas," Moyer said.
 
"We get a lot of business from the Pittsburgh area, probably about 35 percent of our business comes from Pittsburgh."
 
While train enthusiasts do make up a portion of their fan base, Moyer said, "it's more about the families" who keep the interest alive.
 
"Families come back and they make it a yearly tradition," Moyer said.
 
"Maybe the first year it was just their immediate family, and the next year they bring, other groups and our groups get bigger and bigger."
 
In February, Moyer said they're planning a Valentine's train as a date night, and they're hoping to "do a train robbery" in the upcoming year.
 
"That'd be like a historical reenactment, but just more of a fun event," Moyer said.
 
It isn't all about making money, she said, instead noting "This is all about Maples' love for trains, especially passenger cars."
 
Rachel Foor.