I am building an ET&WNC-inspired line in Northern California and although i can view plenty of vintage and modern Tweetsie trestle prototype action on youtube, i have also seen a couple of garden layouts that look like someone already has worked out plans for that specific trestle.
I have plenty of land, so i want to stay as close to the original design as possible.
Any ideas where i can find someone’s extant Tweetsie trestle plans, to give to my local builder to fabricate for me?
cat
Cat,
Welcome to Large Scale Central.
I’m not sure that the trestles are that distinctive, but I do know the Blue Ridge Stemwinder had plans for some of the bridges.
You can get all 62 issues on a CD: http://cfordart.com/20yearsofthestemwinder/info.html
This site is good for general knowledge: http://www.johnsonsdepot.com/
What are your plans for rolling stock?
Another resource you might want is:
The Blue Ridge Stemwinder - An Illustrated History Of The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina
Railroad And The Linville River Railway by John Waite
Bruce, thank you for the warm welcome and the great resources! This is exactly the kind of help i have been looking for!
To answer your question:
This is complicated, due to the fact that that the survivig ET&WNC steam locomotive was separated from its (semi-abandoned) railroad line more than 60 years ago. The loco now runs at a nearby theme park called Tweetsie Railroad. The survining ET&WNC track is partially located in a Christian summer camp at Doe River Gorge and has been under volunteer restoration since 1995 or so (a HUGE labour of love on the part of the volunteers).
Bachmann makes two versions of the loco and two sets of accompanying rolling stock –
(1) a 4-6-0 Baldwin loco, ET&WNC-marked, with a logging and gravel-hauler freight train set with caboose (incorporating cars marked with the logo of the Linville River Railroad, which was historically linked to the ET&WNC), plus a separate set of 4 ET&WNC marked passenger, baggage, and excursion cars.
(2) a 4-6-0 Baldwin loco, Tweetsie Railroad marked, and a train set hauling Tweetsie excursion cars, as at the theme park.
I have purchased the Bachmann ET&WNC-marked (as opposed to “Tweestie Railroad” marked) 4-6-0 locomotive, four Bachmann Jackson & Sharp passenger / combo / parlour / baggage cars, a Bachmann Linville River box car, ET&WNC bobber caboose… and am working my way up from there. I think i will end up with two consists – freight and passenger/excursion. I will not run any theme-park marked stock, only ET&WNC / Linville River and maybe a Southern hopper car (the Southern now runs a switching operation with standard-guage diesel engines on part of the old ET&WNC territory, and i happen to have inherited a small block of Norfolk and Southern shares from my grandmother, which i treasure).
I am still in the layout planning stages, and as far as the Garden portion of the program goes, i am combinng features of both the remnant ET&WNC road now operating as Doe River Gorge Railroad (the Christian summer camp that is restoring the physical track, tunnels, and spectacular river gorge bridges, but has no actual “train” and only runs ET&WNC-marked ugly motorcars) and Tweetsie Railroad (the well-known family theme park that operates the original steam-powered ET&WNC loco #12 (plus an Alaskan steam loco) – on a fairly bland 3-mile loop of track laid in the 1950s).
The Tweetsie Railroad theme park trestle – which, yes, is a fairly conventional style – is the one i will be modelling, although i am entertaining the idea of creating the destroyed and abandoned Doe River Gorge Bridge (at the summer camp) along with workers repairing it, which they are doing right now in real time.
The ET&WNC had, at its height, 13 locos, numbered 1 through 12, plus number 14. They skipped number 13. Only #12 survives, and this is the one Bachmann copied.
I am going to customize my Bachman loco to reflect the never-used Number 13.
So what i am looking for is a simple G-scale plan for the 1957-built Tweetsie Railroad theme park trestle in Blowing Rock, NC.
After that, i am looking for help designing the destroyed Doe River Gorge brige of 1901, in the process of being rebuilt.
Dang, that was complicated! Also, forgive me for any errors – and please correct me, anyone! – as i am a gardener with no railroading experience.
Thanks for asking!
Cat,
I highly recommend the Stemwinder collection. #16-1 has a design element for the Doe River Gorge area.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/thejoat/etwnc/DoeRiver.JPG)
It also has drawings of the Doe River truss bridge - not sure if that’s the same one you’re interested or not.
I’ve done a few ET&WNC models myself.
I liked this bobber caboose so much, I built one for my own RR.
(http://www.jbrr.com/assets/images/ETWNC_205_1910w.jpg)
(http://www.jbrr.com/assets/images/P1000766.jpg)
Then I built some hoppers. There was an entire issue of the Stemwinder dedicated to them. This time, I decided to leave them lettered for the ET&WNC.
(http://www.jbrr.com/assets/images/IMG_0032w.JPG)
I’m familiar with the Doe River Gorge area - a bunch of us took a trip through there in 2008.
We got a speeder ride from the camp that was a blast!
(http://www.jbrr.com/assets/images/IMG_4413.JPG)
(http://www.jbrr.com/assets/images/IMG_4471.JPG)
It just doesn’t go as far as it used to:
Welcome Catherine,
Sounds like to have a great project started. Good luck and don’t be afraid to ask any question you need.
They’re running the Doe River train next Sunday!
http://www.doerivergorge.com/excursion.php
I’ll be in Tennessee that weekend, but two hours further away from the Doe River Gorge then if I was at home 
I may go anyway 
Ralph
Is this the trestle you’re interested in?
(http://trainweb.org/vrt/TurnerTweetsieRR/640/2011%20Summer%20Trip%20NC%20160.jpg)
It really is pretty generic, you just need to build a bunch of bents.
Lots of stuff available:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzqZqyr0pmI[/youtube]
Stuff right here as well: http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/aff/9/aft/113143/afv/topic/Default.aspx
And if you’re not into doing it all yourself, there are kits, such as this one: http://spjrr.com/sp/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=51_12
Bruce, Jake, and Ralph –
Thank you all for responding. You have given me a lot of great nformation; following all those links has taken me the whole of Saturday morning, and i now understand the terminology and construction techniques of trestles~
Bruce:
Yes, your photo of the Tweetsie on the “generic” trestle is what i need to have built. I am not a carpenter. I am a gardener. I now know what to ask for and have found excellent scale plans, so THANK YOU.
And yes ( i think) – your great shot of what appears to be the rotting ties on the flat deck of the ruined Doe River Gorge ET&WNC bridge is exactly what i needed for a clean top view. There is some good youtube video of what i think may be the same ruined bridge, shot from from below, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY2SUCHI-dE
There is another ruined bridge, with a truss-like superstructure, on this line, which i will NOT be modeling, shown in another video, here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWYHdbEiGBw
Of the four original tunnels at Doe River Gorge, i will be making just one. Your photos and those of others have made the tunnel prototypes very clear.
By the way, i am tremendously impressed with your railway artistry, Bruce. The Jackson & Burke is impressive. I am particularly taken with your two industrial buildings – lovely work on your part and a superb choice of architectural design.
Thanks. Don’t give up on being a carpenter, though.
Bruce, at 66 years of age, i think my potential carpentering years have passed. My delight will be landscaping and gardening the site. I am a former staff editor at Organic Gardening magazine and have written a book on gardening for my local area, “The California Gardener’s Book of Lists.” I have always loved trains, in an inchoate, sentimental way. I want, need, and desire steam locomotives, but as far as track and trestles go, i just intend to “throw money at the problem until it is solved.” LOL!
Later on i will be returning here to inquire about how a dilettante such as myself goes about hiring good builders – for instance, i need to replicate my own See Rock City farm barn at G-scale, to place it on my garden line.
Pictures of our 1875 barn and 1932 crossing:
(http://www.luckymojo.com/see-rock-city-barn-lucky-mojo-curio-company-forestville-california.jpg)
(http://www.luckymojo.com/see-rock-city-barn-airr-railroad-crossing-sophie-dog.jpg)
Full details about the barn restoration explained here: http://www.luckymojo.com/seerockcity.html
Welcome aboard, Catherine! That’s a great looking barn, and I love the crossing signal.
Don’t despair…sometimes a kit can be easily modified…
This one is pretty close…
(http://spjrr.com/tips/ccb/ccb65.JPG)
http://spjrr.com/sp/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=49&products_id=269
Bruce – Wow! That IS dang close! “Close enough for country music,” if you know what i mean. I’ll take it! You have an amazing head for architecture, you really do.
Ray, Thanks. It was buying and installing the crossing signal (which works, by the way) that has led me inevitably down the garden path to having to add a train layout.
Here’s a video of the crossing signal in action – both lights and bell – with some random chuffing 1945 steam locomotive sound (“the Spirit Train”) added for pseudo-versimilitude.
That’s awesome! I’d love to have one of those in my yard – though I’d have to disable the bell to avoid driving the neighbors nuts.
Ray, we installed a four-position switch – Off, On-Lights, On-Bell, On-Lights-Plus-Bell.That way we can run it silently (with just a click-click as the contacts make and break) and not drive the neighbors nuts.
In fact, in that video, i am hiding in the barn, flipping the switch from Off to On-Lights, On Lights-Plus-Blell, On-Lights, Off.
The train layout (and replicated barn and signal at G-Scale) will go in what is now the vaguely ferny area in the left foreground of this shot, which is on a bit of a slope, hence the need for the trestle.
This next video, a “faux-commercial” for our shop, was made by a local community college student. It gives you some idea of the train layout area, toward the crossing signal side of the path – and there is also a picture of me and my face-licking dog, Sophie, at the end. The music is The Jug Band Waltz, by the Memphis Jug Band. The tiny red building along the path to the shop is the world’s smallest church (6’ x 6’ x 13’) and has its own long story of architectural salvage and reconstruction – another example of my “throwing money at a problem until it is solved.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_r8kURImOo
By the way, your In-Ko-Pah Railroad is superb. I feel really honoured that folks of the caliber of you and Bruce, and the others here, have had time for me and my newbie questions. I have joined the local Redwood Empire Garden Railway Society, so i will start bugging the local hands too, and not be such a bother to y’all, but you folks have really made my day. Thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.
Good luck with your trestle project. I love the barn and crossing lights / bell !
Ray Dunakin said:
That’s awesome! I’d love to have one of those in my yard – though I’d have to disable the bell to avoid driving the neighbors nuts.
Greetings Catherine, I found all the posts in this tread of interest. In an earlier post you mention your enthusiasm for gardening: as you have probably noticed there is a gardening thread on the Forum. I am sure your knowledge can be well portrayed there.
I like the look of your restored barn by the way. I have a barn here, not built to the high standard of that built by Bruce however. You may be able to view it in the train sheds section. I have one or two typically North American structures which I have built; none of which are from plans just from various pictures on and off a Forum. I am at a slight disadvantage of not being actually located In N, America.
Garden railroading is a great hobby and has given me and others a great lot of fun and enjoyment over the last eight years. I know you are just going to enjoy every minute of the hobby. I am sure you will have noticed that there are some great people modeling here: it makes this place well worth a visit.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/great_western/ONFRR2005.jpg)
PS: not the best of pics: my pics are all taken with an older cell 'phone
66??? Yer just getting started…I just taught mom how to use a nail gun…never too old to start…we can teach ya to handlay track too…heheheheheh
