Just some photos from Railpictures that remind me I live in the wrong time--

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 205&nseq=3

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 209&nseq=2

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 616&nseq=8

How many of us wish we had a time machine, and that one of the places and times we would take it back to would be on the narrow gauge sections of the Tweetsie, before it went to Blowing Rock?

If there were time machines, a ride on the ET&WNC in the late 1930s would top that list for sure.
I have been there three times. Once was in 1980, my family went up the other side and we walked across both bridges. Many years later I leanred that the "Hillbilly World" tourist trap had just quit running a few years before. the rails ended right where the pavement started back then.
Second time was in 2000, my wife and I got a motor car tour when we just drove up there to look around. Mark at the Christian Camp was a very nice host to two very unscheduled visitors!
Third time was in 2005, my whole family was in the area, and my nephew and I went up there. Went up on a motoro car again. Never got to the bridges, though. Haven't been that far since that one time in 1980. The next time I go, I'll be sure to get up there again.
My Mom and Dad grew up relatively close to here, and were teens when the 3-footer quit running. Sadly, neither recalls ever seeing those trains once. They do, howveer, recall seeing the engines that later became SRR 630 and 722 running through Elizabethton into the 60s.
I made this shot from a photo I took at Pardee Point, I later found a 1930s shot from the exact same spot, I dropped it into my own photo...