It would be pretty awesome to see the Doe River Gorge group get some more support to become a real tourist attraction. With many of the interesting save projects (such as 643, and the EBT) now having clear futures, this is what I would put my money into if I got lucky in the powerball.

As a non-profit Christian ministry, I’m not sure if they want to be a “real tourist attraction.” That’s not why they exist.

Yes, not sure how much of the ETWNC would be feasible to rebuild even with $$$, but would be neat for sure. Imagine a tourist line operating from Boone to the Doe River Gorge, would make an almost D&S style ride from a tourism/outdoors hub.

Given this would never happen unless massive financial backers, I'm sure in that situation, other larger NG locomotives could be found to operate on the line.
Ex: https://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocom ... isplay=652
Or even simply build a "new" ETWNC 4-6-0. Probably more akin to the cost of the Leviathon than the T1 or tornado.

There were two 3-foot ten wheelers in Cuba that were of a very similar class as the ET&WNC ones. Once the government realized the Gringos were sniffing around them, out came the torches.
But as for rebuilding anything beyond the Doe River Gorge area toward Boone, it'll never happen. The line from the end of the gorge track down to Blevins is a residential road with houses, using an original ET&WNC steel truss bridge. Almost the entire line to Boone is covered with roads now or inaccessibly rural. To rebuild that, you'd have to start over in a different spot.
Don't forget, the ET&WNC past Cranberry NC was wiped out in massive flooding during a hurricane that parked over the Blue Ridge in 1940. You're hard pressed to find any signs of the ROW through most of that route to Boone today. Though the tunnels through the gorge are in decent shape, the one over the Doe river outside of Hampton in the other direction (the famed covered bridge in Hampton was almost exactly halfway between the first and second tunnels over the Doe River as you were heading to Cranberry/Boone) is almost completely collapsed. One tunnel past the existing track through the gorge was called "the sand tunnel" which has completely collapsed. However, the road now goes around it. If you drive up through Blevins at the other end of the gorge, you can drive right up to the final truss bridge, though neither would be considered safe to walk across today. No trains have been on that since I think about 1977 or so at the very latest.
That's a shame, as the right of way is still there and the tunnel between the two bridges at the top of the gorge (which is on the camp's property as I understand it) was in good condition the last I heard. Going over the truss bridge on a train, then the tunnel and then stopping at another bridge, well, that's be amazing.
I have no idea what condition those bridges are in, as I haven't seen them in about 40 years. They'd have to be re-decked for certain, and I would bet they might be still useable for load-bearing?

Agree 100% it'll never happen. Probably up there on the list of "top abandoned lines that'd have made a great tourist railroad" though.

Wasn't there also a RR in that area that ran from basically Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge to Knoxville?
Another one, in the southeast that would have been a near tourist line.

I would remind anyone how remote Hampton TN really is. Yeah, it's somewhat near the Tri-Cities area and Bristol (with it's NASCAR track), but that's about all the region has going for it.
Other good stuff is in the area as well...
* Tweetsie RR and ET&WNC locomotive # 12, that's only about an hour and a half drive (ironically, much of which is over the ET&WNC's old right of way)
* Dollywood with all the great 3-foot locomotives they have, all former WP&Y locomotives. It's not a short drive, about 4 hours or so
* A 5-hour drive in the opposite direction will get you to TVRM in Chattanooga. They have former standard gauge ET&WNC engines 207 and 210 (each known today as SRR 630 and CofG RS-3 # 109, respectively)
FYI, there's a small section of ET&WNC 3-rail track embedded in someone's front yard in Elizabethton, as well. Not far from there, a ET&WNC boxcar is on display, 'coupled' to the Porter 0-6-0 fireless cooker the North American Rayon mills ran as late as the early 1990s. When that Porter ran in interchange with the ET&WNC and their twin 2-8-0s which lasted into 1967, that was apparently the last place in America where two steam engines of different owners ran interchange.

Who was suggesting the line would be based in Hampton? Boone - Johnson City would be a fantastic line. So would Knoxville to Townsend into the Little River Valley.

What SHOULD be getting attention right now is the line from Asheville to Old Fort. Now that would be an incredible line to see preserved.

Agree, you'd base it near the largest population or tourist center, which is probably boone.

Did either the Little River or Smoky Mtn actually run to what is now pigeon forge/gatlinburg?


Those would be two different directions. Of course all will never happen..... would be neat! shame they were scrapped

Per steamlocomotive.info, they now have 2 additional locomotives.

https://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=3892
https://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=752

Confirmed on ngdiscussion:
http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,405985

Johnson City to somewhere near where the line crosses the Doe River the first time could theoretically be done with a dump truck full of money. But once you get to that first tunnel or try to cross the highway at Hampton, it'd take Bill Gates kind of money. Also, past Blevins, the right of way is used by roads almost all the way.
The coming of the highway through there of course led to the demise of the ET&WNC, so the idea of a D&RGW 'time capsule' style of line that could have survived to become a east coast version of the C&TS is a nice fantasy. It would have taken an EBT-style situation where someone bought the entire line then sat on it for a while, which never could have happened. That right of way was too good to let sit dormant considering how tough it was to build highways in that area.

Sometimes... the correct response is “yes that would be nice” instead of just giving facts of why it’s impossible according to your limited world view.

I’m glad the V&T commission didn’t consult with you before they rebuilt the line up to Virginia City.

Of course, I’m doubtful that crown steamer will ever make one full roundtrip on that grade so maybe I’m the doubtful one! :)

If you want to see a Crown work a grade, check out 119 at the Omaha Zoo. They may not be ideal for grade climbing, but they can do it.

70 years ago today, # 11 took a train from Johnson City to Cranberry for the final time. The ET&WNC was done for their narrow gauge operations for good.And sometimes the correct question is not why we couldn't do something so clearly impossible given your limited knowledge of the area involved.
The new V&T wasn't built over an existing major highway.

When I was younger I said silly things like “you’ll never see steam on the ns Mainline again” and “they’ll never restore a big boy.”

I’ve now learned to never say never. :)

Is that your photo?

Ever seen a major highway torn up to rebuild a 3-foot gauge line that hasn't existed since 1950?
NS steam and a running UP 4000 just needed a company to allow each and to open up their wallets.
Rebuilding the ET&WNC where it ran, in this day and age, if you were even remotely aware of the area, is a total impossibility. It'd cost billions to do that, and would disrupt an entire region in ways you clearly don't understand.
Build a ET&WNC ten wheeler from scratch? Unlikely but it could always happen someday. Truck # 12 to the gorge for a year or two like the rumors I'd heard a few years back? Again, unlikely but it could happen if someone wanted it badly enough and had enough greenbacks.
Rebuilding the entire RR? Not a freaking chance.