BLOWING ROCK, N.C. — The Tweetsie Railroad, a tourist railroad and theme park in western North Carolina, will be closed for the remainder of its fall season as a result Hurricane Helene, the company announced Friday.
An announcement posted on Facebook reads, “Tweetsie Railroad will remain closed for the rest of the fall season to focus on community recovery efforts. We plan to reopen for Tweetsie Christmas on Nov. 29 and appreciate your continued support and understanding.”
The Raleigh News & Observer reports the Tweetsie is running a matching-fund challenge to support Hurricane relief efforts, after making an initial $10,000 donation to the group Samaritan’s Purse. It will match additional donations to any organization working on hurricane relief, up to another $10,000. More information is available here.
The Tweetsie Railroad is a 30-acre Wild West theme park between the towns of Boone and Blowing Rock. It is approximately 90 miles west of Winston-Salem and about 95 miles northwest of Charlotte. Its rail operations feature rides on a 3-mile route behind two narrow-gauge steam locomotives, a Baldwin 4-6-0 built in 1917 for the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad, and a 2-8-2 built by Baldwin in 1943 for the U.S. Army for use on the White Pass & Yukon.
Floods have played a significant role in Tweetsie history. The eastern end of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina narrow gauge, the Linville River Railroad to Boone, N.C., was abandoned after a 1940 flood. The remaining narrow gauge lasted until 1950. One 4-6-0, No. 12, and two cars, plus a coach from the East Broad Top, began operating on the new Shenandoah Central Railroad, a mile loop at Penn Laird, Va., in 1953. (See October 1953 Trains.) But Hurricane Hazel ended that operation in October 1954. Tweetsie began running at Blowing Rock in 1957 after nearly being moved to California by Gene Autry.
A “length closure”??? David P. Morgan has definitely left the room.