Fire Destroys Tweetsie RR Gift Shop & Museum

K.R. Bell · **Joined:** Sun Aug 22, 2004 7:37 pm **Posts:** 298

See this link:

http://www.charlotte.com/news/story/539923.html

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:26 pm

NOT just the gift shop--THE MUSEUM!!!!!!!

EEEEEK!

I hope we didn't just lost half of the extant Tweetsie artifacts..........

Dave Crosby · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:08 pm

When I visited there a few years ago, there were a lot of neat old relics on display, most from the early days of the tourist operation (in of itself a big loss). I don't remember all that much from the ET&WNC, though there were some items. Most of the building was dedicated to the keychain and coffe mug department and a model railroad.

Too bad about the depot, as I think it was one of (if not the) first building on site and could be considered historic in of itself.

Of course I'd be happy to loan them any one of my old Tweetsie items from my early tourist railroad memorbilia collection.

Dave Crosby

Matt Bumgarner · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:39 pm

From my sources within Tweetsie, the most valuable "railroad" collectible, the #11 Baldwin builders plate, is fine and in nearly pristine shape. The famous "swivel coupler" did survive just fine, as did *most* of the photograph collection, which was at least copied last year. Unfortunately, some of the ET&WNC locks have yet to be found, and most likely the Johnson City depot sign (off the SR depot) was lost or heavily damaged at the very least. There were some other collectibles, mostly not Tweetsie, such as some N&W torches and SR lanterns, which did not survive well, but they are nothing particularly rare or ET-related.

Could have been worse. Under normal circumstances, the train of open air coaches would have been parked next to the depot and suffered heavy fire damage, as did the restrooms and passenger platform roofing. In this case, the cars were moved a few days ago for some pre-season maintenance and sprucing.

The saddest loss of all was the Fred Kirby, aka, the "Yodeling Cowboy" collection. This included some rare photos, records, saddle, shirts, etc. Fred was mainly a minor celebrity on TV station WBTV in the Charlotte area broadcast range, but most families in this region grew up watching him and Uncle Jim Patterson's Little Rascal show on Sunday afternoons, just before NFL games.

His shows always signed off this ditty:

"How we love the little rascals, little rascals, little rascals,
how we love the little rascals, little rascals all day,
There's Spanky and Buckwheat,
Alfalfa and Porky,
How we love the little rascals, little rascals all day."

Matt Bumgarner

p51 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:32 pm

Dave Crosby wrote:

When I visited there a few years ago, there were a lot of neat old relics on display, most from the early days of the tourist operation (in of itself a big loss). I don't remember all that much from the ET&WNC, though there were some items. Most of the building was dedicated to the keychain and coffee mug department and a model railroad.

Matt Bumgarner wrote:

From my sources within Tweetsie, the most valuable "railroad" collectible, the #11 Baldwin builders plate, is fine and in nearly pristine shape. The famous "swivel coupler" did survive just fine…

Funny you'd both mention this. I keep my ear to the ground on the news of the old ET&WNC. From what I've heard so far, most (maybe just some) of the metal stuff in the museum end of the building may have made it, but all the combustible stuff is ashes now. As for ET&WNC # 11's number plate and the original dual gauge coupler off of #12, I too never saw either of these items (or much at all from the original ET) when we were last there in 2005 (I wish it had been as I'd have loved to see that!). Apparently, I missed these items on display because when I visited, nothing like that was in the building. I just went back through the photos I took then just to be sure about that. When were these items ever on display?
They still plan to open in May on time. When you consider people really didn't use the station to board the trains anyway, it shouldn't hinder them too much. Still, I too think it was one of the very first structures they built there, and what a shame that all their historical stuff was stored there. I would have thought that they would have had a sprinkler system in the building, but I guess they'll be looking into that for sure on the other buildings soon. The ET fans are really torn up over this, as some of them loaned stuff to the park out of their collections, and now everything that could burn is gone. At least it wasn't the shop building (or even worse, the shed they keep the engine that is not running in). More info is here: http://www.wbtv.com/news/topstories/16733481.html

p51 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:33 pm

Dave Crosby wrote:

When I visited there a few years ago, there were a lot of neat old relics on display, most from the early days of the tourist operation (in of itself a big loss). I don't remember all that much from the ET&WNC, though there were some items. Most of the building was dedicated to the keychain and coffee mug department and a model railroad.

Matt Bumgarner wrote:

From my sources within Tweetsie, the most valuable "railroad" collectible, the #11 Baldwin builders plate, is fine and in nearly pristine shape. The famous "swivel coupler" did survive just fine…

Funny you'd both mention this. I keep my ear to the ground on the news of the old ET&WNC. From what I've heard so far, most (maybe just some) of the metal stuff in the museum end of the building may have made it, but all the combustible stuff is ashes now. As for ET&WNC # 11's number plate and the original dual gauge coupler off of #12, I too never saw either of these items (or much at all from the original ET) when we were last there in 2005 (I wish it had been as I'd have loved to see that!). Apparently, I missed these items on display because when I visited, nothing like that was in the building. I just went back through the photos I took then just to be sure about that. When were these items ever on display?
They still plan to open in May on time. When you consider people really didn't use the station to board the trains anyway, it shouldn't hinder them too much. Still, I too think it was one of the very first structures they built there, and what a shame that all their historical stuff was stored there. I would have thought that they would have had a sprinkler system in the building, but I guess they'll be looking into that for sure on the other buildings soon. The ET fans are really torn up over this, as some of them loaned stuff to the park out of their collections, and now everything that could burn is gone. At least it wasn't the shop building (or even worse, the shed they keep the engine that is not running in). More info is here: http://www.wbtv.com/news/topstories/16733481.html

Holtskee · **Joined:** Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:26 am **Posts:** 4

Very sad news. All the old stuff in there is gone forever now. Glad to read that #11's plate survived though...from the ET&WNC fans' perspective that was probably the most significant piece they had in there. (Though the Fred Kirby stuff was priceless too)

However like said above it is great that the locomotives or coaches weren't in that area at the time.

Matt Bumgarner · **Posted:** Wed Mar 19, 2008 8:31 pm

P51 wrote: [Apparently, I missed these items on display because when I visited, nothing like that was in the building. I just went back through the photos I took then just to be sure about that. When were these items ever on display?]

They have been on display as long as I remember. They were over in the old museum location behind the Dancing Bear attraction (next to where the combine was parked) for years, until moving into the building that just burned two or three years ago. The builders plate and locks were in a display case along the back wall (towards the shop) of the depot, and the swivel coupler was on the floor along the same wall. All of the Fred Kirby material was on the wall that is trackside, and it appears that the fire might have started in that wall from what my Tweetsie sources say. Definitely appears to be of an accidental nature.[/quote]