East Tennessee Railway

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East Tennessee Railway
logo
Reporting marks ETRY
Locale upper east Tennessee
Dates of operation 1866 – present
Track gauge ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters Johnson City, Tennessee

The East Rennessee Railway is a short line railroad linking Elizabethton, Tennessee to the CSX and Norfolk Southern railroads in Johnson City, Tennessee, 11 miles away. Since 1996, the railroad has been owned by Genesee and Wyoming Inc., an international operator of short line railroads, as part of its Rail Link group. The railroad serves eight industries using two diesel locomotives; the largest customer is North American Rayon.

The current regular gauge railroad is a remnant of a larger, narrow-gauge railroad, the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, chartered in 1866 to haul iron ore from Cranberry, North Carolina to Johnson City across the Appalachian Mountains. Through an acquisition and track extensions, the railroad grew to serve Boone, North Carolina and Saginaw, North Carolina. ET&WNC used dual gauge tracks between Johnson City and Elizabethton; eventually the railroad ceased all narrow gauge operations and only operated standard gauge service on this one section. Later, with a change in ownership this limited line was reorganized as the East Tennessee Railway.



Current (operating) Class III railroads of the United States (Class I railroad - Class II railroad)
Historic (fallen flag) Class III railroads of the United States

DAKR, DTRR, ESHR, NFD, PSR, TIRL, TXTC