Society for Industrial Archeology
2026 Fall Tour
September 24-27, 2026
Altoona, Pennsylvania

Make plans to come to Altoona, Pennsylvania, September 24-27 for the 2026 SIA Fall Tour. The tours will be focused on the transportation and industrial history of Huntingdon, Blair and Cambria counties including rail, mining, metal working, and canal heritage. The East Broad Top Railroad will host the first two days for an opportunity to explore America’s oldest operating narrow-gauge railroad, described by the Smithsonian Institution as “an incomparable national treasure.” Sites include the EBT Archives, mining heritage exhibits at the Friends of the East Broad Top Museum, the EBT machine shop complex and roundhouse.

The Fall Tour will showcase the technological achievements devised for crossing the Alleghenies and the Eastern Continental Divide from the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal’s Allegheny Portage Railroad to the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Horseshoe Curve. We’ll also travel to the Cambria Iron National Historic Landmark in Johnstown where the Center for Metal Arts will offer a 3,000 lb. steam hammer demonstration in the 1864 Cambria Iron Co. Blacksmith Shop. The weekend will conclude with an optional tour of the remains of the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal, Juniata Division, led by Pennsylvania Canal Society members. Join us in Altoona – the Railroad City – to explore South Central Pennsylvania’s industrial heritage of railroads, ironworks and canals! 

Registration

Note: Registration opens Monday, August 10 at noon Eastern Time.

Cost for the Fall Tour is $595 per person for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. THIS REGISTRATION FEE IS ALL INCLUSIVE. It covers a half-day tour on Thursday, full day of tours on Friday and Saturday, and breakfast, lunch and dinner for all three days. The Optional Sunday Canal Tour is $95. You must stay at the Wyndham Altoona Hotel to get the free breakfast.

SIA Fall Tour Hotel
Wingate by Wyndham Altoona Downtown/Medical Center
909 Chestnut Avenue
Altoona, PA 16601
(814) 414-3372

The SIA group rate per night is $105/room. The earliest day to check in under the group rate is after 4 pm (eastern) on Wednesday, September 23rd, with checkout by Monday, September 28th. The rate includes complimentary breakfast, parking, internet, and fitness center. A booking link will be provided when registration opens on Monday, August 10.

SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

Thursday, September 24

• ½ Day Tour. Option to bus from hotel or meet group at EBT
• EBT Archives – Rockhill
• Short Speeder and hand car rides
• Opening reception and EBT presentation – Wyndham Altoona Hotel

Friday, September 25

• Friends of EBT Museum – Robertsdale
• Historic mine sites
• EBT Machine Shop complex – Rockhill
• EBT Roundhouse
• Dinner Train – Colgate Grove

Saturday, September 26

• Railroader’s Memorial Museum – Altoona
• Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site – Gallitizin
• Johnstown Flood Memorial – South Fork
• Center for Metal Arts – Johnstown
• Horseshoe Curve
• Dinner and presentation at The Station Inn – Cresson

Sunday, September 27

• Optional Canal Tour with Pennsylvania Canal Society
• Juniata Division – Hollidaysburg to Lewistown
• Pontoon boat rides – Lewistown

2026 SIA Fall Tour Sites

Thursday, September 24

This half-day tour will preview the history of the East Broad Top Railroad at their Rockhill facilities. We’ll meet with Archivist Julie Fether inside the EBT Orbisonia Station and tour the railroad’s original archives and vaults, containing over 5,000 linear feet of blueprints, drawings, company correspondence, and other materials. There will also be opportunities for participants to take short speeder and handcar rides through the EBT rail yard. The bus will then return to downtown Altoona for an opening reception at the Wyndham Altoona Hotel which will feature a presentation by Andrew Greene of the East Broad Top Railroad.

Note: The bus is scheduled to leave Altoona by 11am. Members who are driving Thursday morning have the option of meeting the group between 12-1pm at East Broad Top Railroad, 421 Meadow Street, Rockhill, PA 17249. You may then join the group for lunch and the afternoon tours and then drive to the Wyndham Altoona Hotel to check-in and attend the reception.

Friday, September 25

Friday begins in the former company town of Robertsdale. We’ll explore the Friends of the East Broad Top Museum to learn about the mining heritage of the region and how the railroad moved millions of tons of coal from the mines to market. Then we’ll take a walking tour past mine entrances and ruins before continuing on to Rockhill Furnace, headquarters of the East Broad Top. Here we’ll receive an extended guided tour through the belt-driven machine shop complex and roundhouse. The day concludes onboard a private rail excursion to Colgate Grove, where we’ll enjoy a catered dinner before riding back to Rockhill Furnace and then returning by bus to the Wyndham Altoona Downtown Hotel.

Saturday, September 26

On Saturday we’ll start the day at the Railroader’s Memorial Museum, housed in the former 1882 Master Mechanic’s Office, which showcases the museum’s collection of rolling stock including the K-4 Pacific-class steam locomotive, built by the Pennsy in Altoona in 1918. Next, the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site includes exhibits on Engine House No. 6, artifacts from the Portage Railroad, and demonstrations. After a lunch stop at the Johnstown Flood Memorial, the Center for Metal Arts will offer a 3,000 lb. steam hammer demonstration in the 1864 Blacksmith Shop within the Cambria Iron National Historic Landmark in Johnstown.

We’ll then return east to visit the iconic Horseshoe Curve National Historic Landmark. The tour concludes with dinner trackside at The Station Inn in Cresson, where Michael Froio (SIA) will discuss his exhibition of photographs from From the Main Line, his long-term project documenting the physical and cultural legacy of the former Pennsylvania Railroad.

Sunday, September 27

The Pennsylvania Canal Society is leading this Optional Tour of the remnants of the Pennsylvania Mainline Canal, Juniata Division. Designed and constructed by the Commonwealth from 1827-34, the canal and connecting railroads provided a new transportation link between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. The canal operated until it was sold to the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. in 1857 but was ultimately abandoned after the Johnstown Flood in 1889.

Displays at the Hollidaysburg Canal Park explain how freight and passengers were transferred from canal boats to the Allegheny Portage Railroad to continue westward over the Allegheny Ridge. After driving through the canal town of Alexandria, we will see an 1850 Pennsylvania Railroad stone arch bridge in Huntingdon, and abutment remains of the canal aqueduct over the Juniata River in Mt. Union. We’ll visit The Newton Hamilton Lockhouse and Turning Basin and ruins of a guard lock and lift lock at the Aughwick Falls feeder dam site.

Our lunch stop at the Waterside Campground will offer pontoon boat rides on the watered canal. Then we’ll stop at the restored turnpike bridge over Jacks Creek in Lewistown and view two nearby lift locks accessible from Ammen Farms’ cow pasture.  Our final stop will view the ruins of the Strodes Mill Aqueduct behind the residence of PCS Board Member Terry Hastings, before returning to the Wyndham Altoona Hotel.

The wheel lathe and shop engine of the East Broad Top’s Rockhill Furnace machine shop. Photo credit Matthew Malkiewicz.

Caption for photo at top: East Broad Top steam locomotive #16 pulls upgrade across Douglas Summit in fall of 2023. Photo credit Matthew Malkiewicz.