Tweetsie Railroad #12 5-23-2021

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   / @stevensainerailfanproductions   Tweetsie Railroad #12 5-23-2021.
After a last minute notification, we drove up to Tweetsie Railroad to see their #12, which is my favorite steam locomotive in the entire world.

#12 was built in 1917 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works as a three foot narrow gauge 4-6-0 Ten Wheeler for the "Eastern Tennessee & Western North Carolina" (ET&WNC) Railroad. Betweeen 1918 and 1940, 12 would haul a variety of freight and passenger trains between Johnson City TN and Boone NC. Around 1940, a flood wiped out most of the tracks that went to Boone (the line between Saginaw and Boone was commonly called the "Linville River Railway"), so the line was cut at Cranberry NC, and NC Highway 105 built over most of those tracks. The ET&WNC would later expand it's standard gauge interchange with the Southern Railway with buying several newer standard gauge locomotives. After the end of World War II, the narrow gauge was slowly beginning to wither, and #12 made it's last run in 1949, then it was retired. While all her sisters were scrapped, 12 was sold to a tourist attraction in Virginia (Shenandoah Central Railroad). After it fell under, cowboy Gene Autry bought it to bring it out to California for movie shoots, but this never worked. So he sold it to Grover Robins Jr. who then took it to the Southern Railway's Hickory Shops, restored it, and brought it to Blowing Rock NC for his "Tweetsie Railroad" in 1957 where she still operates to this day. The name "Tweetsie" comes from the locals calling it that by hearing it's whistle echoing through the hills. A sound both familiar and comforting.


Special thanks to the crew of Tweestie Railroad and engineer Tim Smith for putting on a great show.