Engine House No. 6 was one of ten power plants on the Allegheny Portage Railroad, where stationary steam engines at the tops of inclines used endless ropes to move railroad cars up slopes too steep for locomotives. This engine house had two steam engines, one serving as a backup, with coal-fired boilers supplying steam, and it required a crew of at least four men to keep the boilers fired continuously, tend the engines, lubricate gears and bearings, and hitch and unhitch cars. Firemen frequently stoked the boilers, which consumed 60 bushels of coal per day. The original wood structure protected the machinery and operators from harsh summit weather, and a 2-cylinder, 35-horsepower steam engine drove vertical sheaves that engaged ascending and descending tow ropes. Other features here included a level hitching area where cars were attached to horses or locomotives after being pulled up the incline, a horizontal sheave and weight well that kept the main tow rope under tension, a water brake that controlled descending trains when no ascending trains counterbalanced them, idler pulleys that kept the rope aligned, and a safety car that helped stop runaway trains if the tow rope broke. Nearby, passengers stopped at the Lemon House tavern for refreshment, and canal boats could be carried on flat cars in sections for later reassembly and launching in the canal. The building was demolished in 1900, but portions of its stone foundation remain intact.