*****Tweetsie Country can be roughly defined as being bound on the north by the Great Depression; on the east by the state of North Carolina; on the west by Tennessee and on the south by hope and determination.

***For his fifth railroad book, author Mallory Hope Ferrell tells the story of this unique little railroad that travelled the Blue Ridge Country and won the hearts of those who lived there.

***The East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad was born in this Blue Ridge Mountain country more than a century ago. In the 1880's it was called the "Stemwinder," and later, the "Eat the "Stemwinder,' and later, the "Eat Taters & Wear No Clothes." But it was the children who rode the swaying cars to numerous summer camps who christened it with the name that lasted: Tweetsie!

***Here is all the color and charm of the Tweetsie, with its broad-gauge aspirations on a narrow-gauge budget; its tobacco "chawing" passengers, sunny picnic trains, sudden disastrous rains; good days and hard times.

---This handsome pictorial history includes 250 outstanding photographs, plus maps, scale drawings and three full color paintings by Mike Pearsall and Casey Holtzinger.