Tweetsie Railroad
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| Location | Blowing Rock, North Carolina, U.S. |
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| Coordinates | 36°10′15″N 81°38′57″W / 36.170930°N 81.649029°WCoordinates: 36°10′15″N 81°38′57″W / 36.170930°N 81.649029°W |
| Owner | Tweetsie Railroad, Inc. |
| Opened | July 4, 1957 |
| Operating season | April - November |
| Area | 200 acres (81 ha), 30 acres (12 ha) developed |
| Rides | |
| Total | 16 |
| Website | tweetsie.com |
Tweetsie Railroad is a family oriented Wild West theme park located between Boone and Blowing Rock, North Carolina, United States. The centerpiece of the park is a 3-mile (4.8 km) ride on a train pulled by one of Tweetsie Railroad's historic steam locomotives. The park also features a variety of amusement rides, live shows, a zoo and other attractions geared towards families with children. The park also hosts a variety of special events throughout the year.
Opened in 1957, Tweetsie Railroad began as an excursion train ride pulled by steam locomotive #12, the only surviving narrow gauge engine of the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET&WNC). Built in 1917 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, #12 is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge 4-6-0 coal-fired locomotive that was used to haul passengers and freight over the ET&WNC's 66-mile (106.2 km) line running through the Appalachian Mountains from Johnson City to Boone, North Carolina.
Two years after the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge portion of the ET&WNC ceased operations in 1950, the locomotive was purchased by a group of railroad enthusiasts and taken to Penn Laird, Virginia to operate as the Shenandoah Central Railroad, opened in May 1953. Rains from Hurricane Hazel washed out the Shenandoah Central in October 1954, and Locomotive #12 was once again put up for sale. Cowboy actor and singer Gene Autry optioned the locomotive with the intent to move it to California for use in motion pictures. However, Autry ultimately determined that the transportation and restoration costs made his plan impractical.
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