East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad

The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad (reporting mark ETWN), affectionately called the "Tweetsie" in reference to the sound of its steam whistles, was primarily a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad established in 1866 for the purpose of serving the mines at Cranberry, North Carolina.

The 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge portion of the ET&WNC was abandoned in 1950, however the 11-mile (17.7 km) 4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge segment of the line from Johnson City to Elizabethton, Tennessee still exists today as the East Tennessee Railway.

History

The ET&WNC Transportation Company was chartered by the Tennessee General Assembly on May 24, 1866. Lack of financial backing led to the venture's failure, and the railroad was abandoned in 1874. The Cranberry Iron Company acquired the line between 1876 and 1879, and designated the railroad one of its subsidiaries. The initial 14.1-mile (2.25-kilometer) run through the Appalachian Mountains from Johnson City to Hampton, Tennessee via Elizabethton was completed on August 22, 1881 by Pennsylvania-based financier Ario Pardee, and the technical expertise of Thomas Matson (the noted railway engineer); a line extension to Cranberry opened on July 3, 1882. Soon dubbed by mountain residents as the "Railway with a Heart" as railroad personnel often performed errands for the locals (and even allowed passengers to ride for free during the Great Depression), its tickets were even validated with a heart-shaped punch.