Mr. Bennett Levin presented to the Upper Makefield Business Association Members at the Washington Crossing Inn for the General Meeting on October 12, 2022.
Bennett spoke about East Broad Top Foundation and the restoration of their trains and buildings as well as the Army-Navy "America's Railroads Salute America's Heroes".
Mr. Bennett Levin is a graduate of Penn State’s College of Liberal Arts (A&L 1961) and College of Engineering (IE 1965) he is a retired Professional Engineer. In 1967 he formed his own engineering firm and had a nationwide practice providing what was then traditional Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Services to Architects, Corporate Clients, and Developers. He was a founding board member of the Leonhard Center for Engineering Education and taught at Penn State, Temple University, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1992 he became the City of Philadelphia’s Commissioner of Licenses and Inspections after having served as a member of the City’s Board of Building Standards for twenty years, the last seven as its Chairman. He has also served as a member of the City of Philadelphia’s Historical Commission and its Zoning Board of Adjustment.
Fascinated by trains and railroads since a child, he has bought and restored antique railroad cars and locomotives. He has served as a member of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Safety Advisory Committee (RSAC) and its Passenger Service Safety Standards Committee. He was President of the American Association of Private Railroad Car owners in the early 1990’s and also was President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society. He currently serves on the Board of the Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum and the Advisory Board of the Friends of the Railroad Museum of the State of Pennsylvania.
His Juniata Terminal Company, located in Philadelphia is in the business of leasing locomotives and restoring railroad equipment from a bygone era. He has also served as a Trustee of the Army War College Foundation in Carlisle, Pa.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE EAST BROAD TOP RAILROAD
The East Broad Top Railroad National Historic Landmark in Orbisonia, Pennsylvania, (hereafter referred to as the EBT) is the oldest surviving narrow-gauge railroad east of the Rocky Mountains. It has been described as an “incomparable national treasure, comprising a site, a set of historic buildings and facilities, a community and a spirit that are – taken together – unique in this country. . . Nowhere in North America does such a complete and original industrial historic site exist.” The EBT was designated as a national historic landmark in 1964 and is nationally significant in the fields of commerce and transportation. The EBT is the best remaining example in the nation of a regional narrow-gauge railroad system. The EBT system probably offers the only opportunity in the nation to tell a comprehensive railroad industry story. The railroad is also a nationally significant, historic industrial workplace where relics from the technological age of steam can still be seen, heard, and smelled.
- United States Department of the Interior National Park Service
See the presentations below:
East Broad Top Railroad Presentation
Army Navy 15th Anniversary
Andrew Gamble Video
TNT