Re: The Tweetsie RR heritage weekend

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jameswaite
Any advice would be very gratefully appreciated.

I attended the heritage weekend in 2015 and 2016, when my family had season passes. I also attended two or three times in the mid 2000s, back when I was still shooting slides.

Positives include being able to see both engines running and doubleheading. It is also the only place where you can ride in an East Broad Top passenger car and atop EBT flatcars. The park itself is a wonderful, old school amusement park with simple, small rides. There are no roller coasters or water characters, no comic book or other licensed characters, you won't be hearing any crap (the 'c' is silent) music in any of the shows, and the ride up the mountain is an old-school ski lift with just a safety bar to hold riders in place. The Porter and Hopper show is really fun if you have a little kid with you. Best of all, I can't ever recall seeing long lines like you see at modern amusement parks (and we were there multiple times, having season passes for 2 years!)

The 2017 schedule is posted on their website: Railroad Heritage Weekend - 2017 Schedule. In past years, they had offered an opportunity to shoot the morning servicing of the locomotives in the shop area prior to the park opening. That is not being offered this year. The first train leaves at 9:30, so if you enter the park at 9:00, you are probably not going to be seeing much servicing.

Pass holders over 18 used to be allowed to be out along the line during the weekend, but the park no longer allows that, so the Photo Special on Saturday night will be your only opportunity to get shots along the line. Unfortunately, it usually runs during suboptimal light. They wait until regular guests are out of the park (6 pm), which leaves less than two hours before sunset (which will be at 8:01 PM on August 27.)

Hotels in Boone and Blowing Rock can be incredibly expensive on the weekends, especially if App State is playing a home game.

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Chris Webster