Pennsylvania Lumber Museum Finds Value in a 1945 Brookville Locomotive

ULYSSES, Pa. (EYT) – The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, located in the wooded mountains of Potter County, is a fun and educational experience for the whole family.

Visitors discover the courageous yet reckless spirit of the state’s historic lumber industry and learn about ongoing forest restoration and management. The museum features lots of activities that create a hands-on learning experience.

The “friends of the museum” purchased a historic Model UD-18, 15-ton (Serial #3038) Brookville Locomotive in 2002. The locomotive went through a multi-year restoration, which was partially funded by the PA Lumber Heritage Region, completed in 2004.

The unit was originally manufactured by Brookville Locomotive Works (Former name of Brookville Equipment Corp.) in 1945 for the Keystone Tanning & Glue Company in Wilcox, Elk County, PA. It was used as a switch engine, transferring railcars of bark, hides, and finished products at the tannery railyard. When the Wilcox tannery closed in 1966, the engine was sold for scrap to Kovalchick Salvage in Sykesville, PA.

During peak years in the early twentieth century, the Elk Tanning Company at Wilcox employed up to 300 men, with 400 more tasked with supplying the nearly 25,000 cords of hemlock bark needed to process the 333,000 buffalo and cow hides the facility received on an annual basis. The locomotive was using in helping with this operation.

Please visit the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum website and Facebook page for more information. The museum is located at:

The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum
5660 US Route 6 West
Ulysses (Township), PA 16948

Bark Peelers’ Festival, the museum’s biggest event of the year, is coming up on July 1 & 2, 2023. It’s a great time to visit the historic and the restored Brookville unit!

Information was provided by the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum.