East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad

The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad (reporting mark ET&WNC), affectionately called the "Tweetsie" as a verbal acronym of its initials (ET&WNC) but also in reference to the sound of its steam whistles, was a primarily 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad established in 1866 for the purpose of serving the mines at Cranberry, North Carolina.

The initial 14.1 miles (22.7 km) segment through the Appalachian Mountains from Johnson City to Hampton, Tennessee via Elizabethton was completed on August 22, 1881, by Pennsylvania-based financier Ario Pardee, and the technical expertise of Thomas Matson (the noted railway engineer); a line extension to Cranberry opened on July 3, 1882.

Soon dubbed by mountain residents as the "Railway with a Heart" as railroad personnel often performed errands for the locals (and even allowed passengers to ride for free during the Great Depression), its tickets were even validated with a heart-shaped punch.

The Linville River Railway was then subsequently extended to Boone, North Carolina, but later suffered heavy track damage from a 1940 flood.

The tracks in and around Johnson City (where most of the company's industrial customers were located) were dual gauge to allow for interchange with other railroads.

The ET&WNC Railroad Company's narrow gauge lines officially ceased operations on October 16, 1950, with scrapping commencing the following year.

The train travels over a scenic 3-mile (4.8 kilometers) loop through the mountains near Blowing Rock, close to the original end-of-the-line station in Boone.

In 2012 removal of the remaining ten-mile section of the ET&WNC between Johnson City and Elizabethton began, as part of a Rails to Trail conversion project.

In 2016, Carter County began efforts to "extend" this trail to Roan Mountain by marking existing roads.

As a result, the East Tennessee Railway now operates very little trackage to serve the remaining industries around the Johnson City yard.