Riddle, Kenneth W.

Charles Grover (Cy) Crumley (1885 - 1978) worked on the East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad (ET & WNC) as a brakeman and conductor for fifty-four years, from 1906 until 1960.

During this time he served as the conductor of the daily passenger train from Johnson City, Tennessee to Boone, North Carolina. Cy Crumley was known to do shopping for mountain residents and allow passengers to ride for free during the Great Depression. The ET & WNC Railroad, nicknamed "Tweetsie" for the shrill whistle that echoed through the mountains, was completed in 1882. The railroad was originally intended to serve the mines in Cranberry, North Carolina, but the rail lines were extended in 1919 to Boone, North Carolina.

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