Re: Tweetsie Railroad Heritage Weekend 2021
| September 01, 2021 12:35PM |
|
Great shots!
Here's the lowdown on the ET&WNC mainline. A hurricane-induced flood in 1940 washed out much of the track between Cranberry and Boone, and that was abandoned before WW2.
The rest was yanked up in 1951 after being abandoned the previous year.
Much of it was a road (and lot of it still is, the truss bridge at Blevins on the back side of the gorge has a road going over it today and much of the right of way through Elk Park to Roan Mountain has a highway sitting in its place) and the gorge had what must have been a very precarious road over those bridges until in the 60s, when someone bought the area and re-laid track for a tourist operation that never really took off. It went through a few iterations but never was the huge tourist attraction they'd dreamed of. The water tank from Bemberg was moved to the spot and used to water the little tank engine they had.
Once the operation quit running in the 70s, it sat and rusted for many years until the folks who made the Christian camp came in and bought the place. They rehabilitated the tracks and got some equipment to run there. "Rachel" from the defunct Opryland amusement park was used there for a short while but in recent years they had a small diesel and speeders to use there.
Now, the operation has a Crown 4-4-0 that just got steaming again. The Doe River Gorge rivals any of the sights on the old D&RGW, with a lot of green added!
Other than the yard tracks in Johnson City (the East Tennessee RR still apparently uses the old ET&WNC engine house on Legion Street), this is the only spot for the ET&WNC where rails still exist.
"Tweetsie RR" In Blowing Rock is a tourist attraction built in the 50s, but not on any original right of way. Over the years, 4-6-0 has been painted and lettered back to her 1930s green-gold 'anniversary' paint, but not recently.
Jim Crow combine 15 used to sit right next to where trains would leave the station at Tweetsie RR as part of a museum but it was in a slow decline. TRR decided to donate it to a museum where it could be restored and it's in excellent hands now.
There's what remains of an original ET&WNC boxcar not far from the Gorge, near Elizabethton, in a covered display with North American Rayon fireless 0-6-0 and a Southern RR caboose
-Lee
Flickr photo set of my On30 layout
Here's the lowdown on the ET&WNC mainline. A hurricane-induced flood in 1940 washed out much of the track between Cranberry and Boone, and that was abandoned before WW2.
The rest was yanked up in 1951 after being abandoned the previous year.
Much of it was a road (and lot of it still is, the truss bridge at Blevins on the back side of the gorge has a road going over it today and much of the right of way through Elk Park to Roan Mountain has a highway sitting in its place) and the gorge had what must have been a very precarious road over those bridges until in the 60s, when someone bought the area and re-laid track for a tourist operation that never really took off. It went through a few iterations but never was the huge tourist attraction they'd dreamed of. The water tank from Bemberg was moved to the spot and used to water the little tank engine they had.
Once the operation quit running in the 70s, it sat and rusted for many years until the folks who made the Christian camp came in and bought the place. They rehabilitated the tracks and got some equipment to run there. "Rachel" from the defunct Opryland amusement park was used there for a short while but in recent years they had a small diesel and speeders to use there.
Now, the operation has a Crown 4-4-0 that just got steaming again. The Doe River Gorge rivals any of the sights on the old D&RGW, with a lot of green added!
Other than the yard tracks in Johnson City (the East Tennessee RR still apparently uses the old ET&WNC engine house on Legion Street), this is the only spot for the ET&WNC where rails still exist.
"Tweetsie RR" In Blowing Rock is a tourist attraction built in the 50s, but not on any original right of way. Over the years, 4-6-0 has been painted and lettered back to her 1930s green-gold 'anniversary' paint, but not recently.
Jim Crow combine 15 used to sit right next to where trains would leave the station at Tweetsie RR as part of a museum but it was in a slow decline. TRR decided to donate it to a museum where it could be restored and it's in excellent hands now.
There's what remains of an original ET&WNC boxcar not far from the Gorge, near Elizabethton, in a covered display with North American Rayon fireless 0-6-0 and a Southern RR caboose
-Lee
Flickr photo set of my On30 layout
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.