good news on the JC-Elizabethton 'Tweetsie Trail' (Johnson City, Gray: house, camp)

[kamoshika]

The “Tweetsie Trail” is back on the front burner after a rail company’s recent legal notice signaling its intention to abandon 10 miles of unused rail line between Johnson City and Elizabethton.

More than a year of talks between the railroad’s owners and the city of Johnson City aimed at selling the track right of way for development of a multi-use trail faded late last year over various issues...

“This signals to me a definite break in the impasse and a deadlining of resolutions for negotiation,” said Dan Reese, vice chairman of the Southern Appalachian Greenways Alliance and an advocate of the Tweetsie Trail’s development. “This is probably the best signal we’ve had in the past three years that it is actually going to happen.”
JohnsonCityPress.com - Local News - Johnson City, TN

[NorthernLights]

This is actually really cool news. It's not exactly like riding through the kind of verdant countryside and alongside the Laurel Creek as on the Creeper trail and maybe some people wouldn't flock from far and wide to enjoy it as they do the Creeper trail but it would still be a very enjoyable bicycle ride for a large number of local cyclists, without dealing with automotive traffic to get some fresh air and exercise and it would put the old R/Roadbed to good use. You might also be surprised how many railfans would drag out their bicycles, throw them in the back of the minivan and head to Johnson City though. The ET&WNC is a well respected narrow gauge railroad amongst railfans. So many toy train train companies would not model the ET&WNC engines and railcars if people didn't give a s--t. They don't make model trains of railroads that people don't care about and there are hundreds of forgotten railroads out there. This fact should not be overlooked as much as it is by the folks in Johnson City. The ET&WNC is more famous to folks outside of the area than it is to the people who live in its backyard!!
The section of track they are talking about would take you through some less than scenic areas between JC and Elizabethton, that's true, but it would also pass some very beautiful countryside as well like overlooking Buffalo Valley and down along the Watauga river past Buffalo Creek. I've heard this as a complaint against the rail/trail. "Oh, people will have to ride by trailers and less fancy dwellings. They won't like that." The railline itself use to have excursion trips that were sought out by folks from all around the country before being a "railfan" was even a term. They chose to view the scenery the better part of a century ago and they too had to pass through the very same areas that were inhabited by workin' folks living on modest means that weren't too glamorous back in their day but they cared not. They wanted to ride the Tweetsie and see the rugged, glorious east TN countryside.
The simple fact about why the Virginia Creeper Trail is so 'untouched' is that it was truly in the middle of nowhere with no hope of progress and development. The Virginia Creeper of the Norfolk and Western existed to suck out the riches of that part of the country and then...move on. It's amazing they kept the rail spur running as long as they did because there was less going on along its line than the Tweetsie. But N&W had deeper pockets so they could afford to subsidize a dead rail line longer. That anti-thesis is what works against the ET&WNC, the area was hopeful, it was prospering, it had industrial roots in the rayon industry and other industries related to the local resources that kept it rolling decades longer. It had more promise than just denuding the mountains of their ore and timber. Things were going to happen in Johnson City and Elizabethton and it brought people in from all over the mountains to work in the factories just like in other growing metropolises they bought housing lots that were near the railroad and the industry so they could walk to work and raise their families. This is the way of all prosperous American cities.
I read in a book on the railroad that many of the former railroad employees chose to be buried at Happy Valley Memorial Park so they could 'keep an eye on' the railroad after they passed on. They thought, obviously, that the railroad would continue on as it ever had. I think in lieu of train traffic they might look approvingly on hikers and bicyclists travelling the same route they loved enough to travel 6 and 7 days a week, from before sunup to after sundown for decades of their lives.
The "Eat Taters and Wear No Clothes", [ET&WNC] was a tiny little railroad but it was incredibly important from a historical perspective. It was certainly one of the most successful narrow gauge railroads in the United States. It opened up the mountains to mining and timber exploitation but it also brought civilization up into areas that were not only incredibly beautiful but impossibly inaccessible. indeed at the opening ceremony when the railline made it all the way up to Boone NC, a local dignitary was heard to say; Before the railroad came; "...the only way to get to Boone, was to be born in Boone."
The section from north of Elizabethton up past Hampton along the Doe River gorge is an amazing feat of engineering and it would be great if some day that too could be viewed by people on horseback, bicycles and foot travel. People came from long distances to ride the Tweetsie back "in the day" to enjoy the country that the railroad traversed and maybe someday they will do it again.

[SarahSal]

Thank you NorthernLights for that great historical perspective! Have you met the guy who developed johnsonsdepot.com? (Bet you have!) If not, sounds like you would have much in common! (He's one of JC's real treasures) His website provides such a wistful, exciting and thorough look back at railroading's early days -- along with JC's history.

[NorthernLights]

Sarah,
JohnsonDepot.com is a great website. There are many websites devoted solely to the ET&WNC. It has a fascinating history and in some parts humorous and bittersweet. Tweetsie, I have read, was a name supposedly given the railroad by summer camp kids who rode the line but I understand some of the locals referred to it as the Eat Taters & Wear No Clothes. [Why has no one built a restaurant or pub with that name downtown? It would be a great theme! You'd have no trouble finding memorabilia to fill such a venue for decoration] One of the last steam engines that rode the line was transported up into NC to the Tweetsie railroad park/museum and still runs. It isn't painted correctly but close enough. The folks who worked the line took a good bit of pride in it supposedly, in spite of its narrow gauge stature compared to standard gauge giants like the Clinchfield and the Southern and apparently kept it as shiny as they could for most of its existence. The later colors were similar to the Southern Railroad. The stations were all nearby in Johnson City and all but the Southern Railroad's passenger depot still exist. The Tweetsie's station is still in existence as the Free Service Tire store downtown as is the old engine house a couple of blocks away. It's all right there downtown [Hidden in Plain View, as they say], with the Southern depots and the Clinchfield depots. This was about as serious a railroad town as you could find 'back in the day'.
If people wish to learn more about it I recommend John Waite's book the Blue Ridge Stemwinder, and John Graybeal's books Along the ET&WNC. ETSU also has an extensive collection of local railroad archives.
I'm a big Tweetsie fan and I have a model of #12 and ET&WNC railcars in my G-Scale model railroad collection. Someday I will use them for a garden railway modeled on the section of the Doe River Gorge.
In the fall when the leaves are down you can see the old tunnel alongside rt19 just before you get to hampton and if you use a careful eye you can see the old scars here and there of the road bed that used to go up through the mountains. Further up you can drive on 'Railroad Grade Rd." which is the old roadbed. The old railine has been converted to county roads and in some cases almost completely obliterated so it's probably a lost dream to ever hope for a railtrail all the way up to Cranberry or further still. But it's still there, if you look for it. It must have been a very beautiful route to ride 'back in the day'.
When you study east Tennessee history and try to make sense of why cities and towns sprung up where they did you have to look at routes of transportation for it to make any sense. Early settlements were along trails made by buffaloes and Indians and along the navigable waterways. Later towns sprang up along Stage Roads. Later still, along railroads that were designed to be the easiest routes for steam trains to climb up to get the ore and timber. When you learn where they all were...it all kind of makes sense why people built where they did.