First Mixed Train ever at the Tweetsie Railroad in NC

A little bit of history was made this weekend at the Tweetsie Railroad near Boone, NC. For the first time since the ET&WNC shut down narrow gauge operations in 1950, a mixed train operated in North Carolina.

For those that don't know the story of North Carolina's narrow gauge, the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina originally operated from Johnson City, TN to Boone, NC. After disastrous flooding in 1940, the Cranberry to Boone segment was abandoned, and then all of the narrow gauge was abandoned in 1950 leaving only about 10 miles of standard gauge tracks from Johnson City to Elizabethton, TN. That too is now gone. In 1957, the Tweetsie Railroad acquired the last surviving ET&WNC narrow gauge 4-6-0, and started operations on a tourist railroad near Boone, although not on the ET right of way. That expanded over the years to what is today's Tweetsie Railroad. Railroad Heritage Weekend usually features something of interest, and has included backdating the engines to correct livery and other things over the years, including a "photo special" with a few runbys for the fans. This year, for the first time ever, a narrow gauge flat car was brought up to be part of the consist. Both ET&WC 12 and WP&Y 190 got a chance to pull the special train over the course of the weekend.