Carter County’s railroad history centers on three trains: the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, better known as Tweetsie, from 1881 to 1951; the Southern Railroad from 1911 to 1940; and the North American Rayon Steam Engine from 1936 to 1992. The glory days of these railroads ended, but their legacy included an original Tweetsie boxcar, a Southern caboose, and the NAR Steam Engine, believed to have been the last active steam locomotive in commercial use in the United States.