"Tweetsie" train from Appalachia book. The East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (reporting mark ETWN), affectionately called the "Tweetsie" in reference to the sound of its steam whistles, was primarily a 3 ft (narrow gauge) railroad established in 1866 for the purpose of serving the mines at Cranberry, North Carolina. The narrow gauge portion of the ET&WNC was abandoned in 1950, however the 11-mile, 4 ft 8 1/2 in ((standard gauge) segment of the line from Johnson City to Elizabethton, Tennessee still exists today as the East Tennessee Railway. A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine. Both fuel and water supplies are carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in wagons pulled behind.