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The Cy Crumley Scrapbook ET&WNC Railroad Historical Photo Collection Introduction |
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Your host and narrator for this tour is Ken Riddle, close personal friend of Cy Crumley, legendary conductor of this great railroad. From 1906 until 1960, Cy worked on the ET&WNC as Brakeman and Conductor. This is his scrapbook of those years and his story. |
Charles Grover (Cy) Crumley was born in 1885 in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He spent 54 years of his life, from 1906 until 1960, working on the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad as a brakeman and conductor. He was the conductor of the daily passenger train from Johnson City to Boone for many, many, years. Mr. Crumley was my good friend from my childhood until his death in 1978. I spent many hours with him listening to his tales of his railroad days and looking over his three massive scrapbooks filled with photographs, timetables, and ET&WNC goodies. We were great buddies and later I had the sad duty of being one of his pallbearers. He is buried at Happy Valley Memorial Park in Carter County, Tennessee. After Mr. Crumley passed on I stayed in touch with his baby daughter, Ruth Tupper. She had been her Poppa’s caregiver and constant companion for the last fifteen years or so of his life and she was such a delightful girl. The presentation of these photographs would not be possible without her help. One of the last things that Mr. Crumley did before he passed on was to get with Ruth and try to rearrange the scrapbooks. Unfortunately, many of his items had been taken by “railroad historians” and never returned to him so the later scrapbooks were probably only about half of what they had been in the 1960’s, before the "borrowers" found out how free of heart Mr. Crumley was and stripped the collection. Many of the photographs that have been published in recent years under other names were taken from the Cy Crumley collection by the people who have their names on them now. All is not lost, however. Ruth Tupper passed away in 2003. Before she died, she allowed me to have the remains of the collection to make sure that they would be around for anyone who would like to see them after she was gone. The collection is now in the Archives of Appalachia at ETSU, and now will be available for everybody to see online at Johnson’s Depot.com. This would please Mr. Crumley and Ruth a great deal to know that everybody could see his photographs and hear the story of this great, great, railroad. Plus, even more good news....... I recently found a group of negatives that I shot about 1972-1973 among my scrap pile. Evidently, I took photographic copies of the scrapbooks, page by page, at that time. While they are still not what they were in 1965, they are about twice what is there today and I am working through these page by page and all the results will be both in the Archives of Appalachia and online here. So, light yourself a cigar and sit back and enjoy ol’ Cy’s pictures. He would be tickled to death for you to see them. Feel free to copy them, BUT—AND I MEAN IT—IF YOU PUBLISH THEM YOU BE SURE AND PUT MR. CY CRUMLEY’S NAME ON IT!
Kenneth Riddle Johnson City, Tennessee November 2005 |
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Note: To understand Johnson City, Tennessee and its heritage, you have to understand the railroads. The narrow gauge East Tennessee and Western North Carolina Railroad, completed in 1882, guaranteed Johnson City's location as a strategic rail crossroads for the Appalachian Mountain region. The Johnson Associates are grateful to Ken Riddle, who the Crumley family entrusted to keep this historic collection intact, and who has retold the stories of this small mountain railroad and the men who participated in this fascinating chapter in the developmental history of Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina. Gratitude is also expressed to the Archives of Appalachia at ETSU who have preserved film footage and a vast collection of rail photography and memorabilia that is available for present and future generations. Few, if any, railroads have the "cult following" of the legendary ET&WNC and the Tweetsie Railroad Theme Park, the Doe River Gorge Railway and the ET&WNC Railroad Historical Society ensure the great ET&WNC (Tweetsie) Railroad will not be forgotten. |
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