Tweetsie

Adventure awaits at Tweetsie Railroad

BY DAVID ROGERS

Ask folks in the High Country what they missed the most during the COVID-19 pandemic’s economic lockdown and crowd restrictions in 2020, and many will say the toottoot-tooting of Tweetsie Railroad’s train whistle echoing across the valleys and through the hills between Boone and Blowing Rock. And now, hearing that steam locomotive again, those same people will confess to the comfort of things returning to normal.

At least in these parts, North Carolina’s oldest theme park has that effect on young and old alike. Standing in the middle of Tweetsie’s Main Street, at the depot, to hear that train a-comin’ ‘round the bend and seeing the steam bellowing out in all directions, the hearts of young and old alike skip a beat or two. Board the train and adventure awaits in the distance, just around the next curve of the track.

The train is the center of Tweetsie’s universe. It is a ticket to the Wild West of yesteryear. Oh sure, while you wait for a turn on the train’s three-mile journey to and through yet unknown fun, you might sit high atop the Ferris wheel, play video games in the arcade, leave your heart at the top of your forehead on the “Free Fall” thrill ride, or be entertained by Diamond Lil and her cancan girls. But it is the train that stirs the imagination. Through that huffing and puffing train, you walk back several pages in the history books to see cowboys, Indians and maybe the calvary of the Wild West, in America’s frontier of the 1800s.

Will there be a gunfight at the OK Corral? When the conductor cries, “All aboard!,” you can’t help but wonder if bandits lie in wait ahead, preparing for an ambush. The signs say, “Wild West Adventure” of a train ride — and the child in us all starts to remember every scene from every Western movie, trying to imagine what kind of adventure is in store for us.

Ever since the late Grover Robbins purchased the No. 12 narrow-gauge locomotive from Hollywood’s most famous “singin’ cowboy,” Gene Autry, for the price of $1 in 1955 and returned the coal-fired beast to its old Blue Ridge Mountains home — where it was a workhorse engine in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina from 1918 to 1940 — Tweetsie Railroad has sparked imaginations young and old and served as a source of entertainment. Descendants of Robbins still own and operate the park.

While the No. 12 locomotive celebrates its 104th anniversary in 2021, in 1960 the Tweetsie theme park acquired another coal-fired steam engine, No. 190, “The Yukon Queen.” It was originally built for the U.S. Army in 1943, and used in Alaska.

Tweetsie Railroad opens in early April and operates through late October, with special runs for “The Ghost Train” in September and October, as well as “Tweetsie Christmas” on weekends from late November through December.

From the petting zoo and gem mining to the many carnival rides and arcade, Tweetsie Railroad — and especially its Wild West Adventure train rides — is family friendly fun.

PHOTO BY ANDREW COLE Engineer Matt Ernst leans out the window of Tweetsie Railroad’s historic steam locomotive as it makes its 3-mile journey through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

FILE PHOTO COURTESY TWEETSIE RAILROAD Thomas the Tank Engine rolls down Main Street at a previous Day Out With Thomas event at Tweetsie Railroad. FILE PHOTO COURTESY OF TWEETSIE RAILROAD The Tweetsie cowboys provide entertainment for park guests aboard train rides.

IF YOU GO: TWEETSIE RAILROAD

300 Tweetsie Railroad Land,

Blowing Rock, NC 28605 (800) 526-5740, https://tweetsie.com/, info@tweetsie.com

Park open now on limited days and opens seven days per week beginning June 1, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Special events include Day Out with Thomas, Fireworks Extravaganza July 4, K9s in Flight Frisbee Dogs, Riders in the Sky, Railroad Heritage Weekend. Call or visit the website for dates and times.