Smoke and Steam
Seeing the Mountains by Rail
One hundred years ago, the prime mode of transportation from the Great Smoky Mountains to the big cities was a steam locomotive. Today, riding historical and tourist lines in the area is a connection to that past.
Here are the places to see the area’s tunnels, rivers and mountains at a slower pace.
Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Riding a train is an experience of extremes. My wife and I heard the train we were about to ride at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum before we saw it. We had just pulled up to the museum and saw the rail yard with cars on display when the train’s horn sounded and we looked up to see the 4501 steam locomotive pull smartly into the station, smoke rising from its stacks.
It’s a monolithic thing, rumbling, smelling of sulphur. A toot of its horn goes right through your chest. God forbid if you ever got in its way.
But the sound dampens as we climbed aboard and found our upholstered seats.
We were there to ride the Missionary Ridge local, a three-mile trip one way to the museum’s restoration shop. Though the track be short, those miles were steeped in history dating back to the Civil War.
The movement of the train begins almost imperceptibly at first. Then it builds up steam and power, crossing a road, with the red flashing lights and urgently clanging bell. The beast lumbers, grinding, creaking.
We were off down the raised railroad bed over the Chickamauga Creek; the stress of modern life slipping away under the calm of the rocking of the train and the scenery. On a longer trip, it might be a good place for a nap.
The biggest feature of the trip is the Missionary Ridge Railroad Tunnel, cutting its way 980 feet through Missionary Ridge—ground the Blue and Grey fought over during the Civil War.
It’s a narrow tunnel for the train, with less than 10 inches of clearance in some places, and it was one of the first tunnels ever hewn in Tennessee, according to its nomination for the National Register of Historical Places.
Inside the tunnel, the dark walls blur by and show it craggy surface inches away.
The Missionary Ridge Local is the shortest trip that the Tennessee Valley Rail Museum offers. It runs excursions to nearby Chickamauga and Summerville, Georgia. It also offers a 50-mile trip exploring the Hiwassee River Gorge.
Riders can ride rail cars pulled by diesel or steam locomotives.
For an extra fee on the Missionary Ridge local trip you can sit in the locomotive one-way. It’s a completely different experience sitting within the guts of the beast. As you near the hand-hewn tunnel you hold your hat and brace for the damp air. You feel the rush as you look out the window over Chickamauga Creek and see nothing but water below.
Craggy Mountain Line
Asheville, North Carolina
The Craggy Mountain Line is keeping Asheville’s mass-transportation heritage alive along its 3-mile stretch of track.
Rocky Hollifield, president of the Craggy Mountain Line, said the line got its start with volunteer effort, years of work and lots of prayer. Today, the trolley runs every other Saturday on the last surviving stretch of a network of trolley lines that once ran through Asheville, which at one point in the 20th Century had one of the largest trolley networks in the nation.
Craggy Mountain Line uses a trolley line running along the French Broad River that once linked to the city’s center in the early 1900s.
It took years before Craggy Mountain Line could send its first trolley rolling down its track. It had to navigate federal, state and local regulations. It had to become a bonafide, operating railway, not just a private organization. Teams of volunteers needed to take a motorcar down the abandoned rail bed and cut away vegetation with machetes and chainsaws.
Volunteers run the trolley today.
It takes riders on a trolley ride on a steep, 3.5 percent grade with tight curves along a brook. It flattens out to run by the French Broad River and next to industry—giving riders a different view of Asheville—one that residents from a century ago might recognize.
Craggy’s most popular event is a jingle bell ride around Christmas time, mimicking a sleigh ride with bells and caroling.
The goal of any trip on the track is to let people experience old-fashioned fun, Hollifield said.
“We love to see kids and families come and have a good time,” Hollifield said. “I like to see families put their cell phones up and talk and visit and have a good old time together.”
In its rolling stock, it has New York City subway cars and even some trollies that ran in Asheville.
Eventually Craggy Mountain Line would like to run a full train on the route and more rides. It is in the process of refurbishing rail cars, hoping to turn one into a museum and another a gift shop.
Three Rivers Rambler
Knoxville, Tennessee
All different kinds of people take historic rail rides. Just look at the mix that climbed aboard the train at Three Rivers Rambler in Knoxville, Tennessee.
“In one weekend we had a field trip for preschoolers, an outing for senior groups, a charter for an African-American fraternity, and a steam-punk style wedding,” said Karen C. Bishop, vice president of Gulf & Ohio Railways, a holding company that owns the Three Rivers Rambler.
In a sense, Three Rivers represents beginnings. As part of its trip, the rambler crosses the 3RR bridge, a structure built at the point where the French Broad and Holston rivers meet to make the Tennessee River.
“The Rambler ambles along at 10 miles an hour through countryside riders wouldn’t otherwise see,” said Bishop. “It’s a unique perspective and a deliberate way to slow down and spend time with your guests and companions.”
The ride runs along some of the landmarks of Knoxville, including Neyland Stadium, home of the University of Tennessee’s football team. As it rolls along the river, it passes industry and a farmhouse belonging to an early settler of Knoxville.
In the nearly 20 years that the Rambler has chugged through Knoxville, it’s become a city tradition, Bishop said, where riders board passenger cars manufactured in 1925, pulled buy a steam engine born in 1890.
Recently, Three Rivers Rambler purchased The Mississippi, a locomotive that is said to be one of the earliest locomotives in the United States. It was manufactured in England and pulled cars in Mississippi. During the Civil War, Confederate troops used it during the battle of Vicksburg. Later in the war, Union troops used it to pull supply trains.
Three Rivers is currently working to restore the locomotive that Bishop calls “an American treasure.”
She said the locomotive is “too fragile to operate. We are cosmetically restoring it and plan to put it on eventual public display.”
After riders disembark, Bishop said there is plenty still to do in the area, such as Knoxville’s downtown market square, its zoo and—if a train isn’t enough travel in a day—the Star of Knoxville steamboat.
Tweetsie Railroad
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
While a train chugging along at 25 miles per hour was a heart-throbbing speed demon for our ancestors, today, we see the train as a way to slow down. “Riding in an open-sided train car allows you to not only see the countryside; you can smell the leaves, hear the birds and the steam locomotive, all at a leisurely pace,” said Cathy Robbins, marketing director for Tweetsie Railroad.
The Blowing Rock amusement park not only offers a three-mile loop pulled by steam locomotives on its narrow-gauge track, but also features live shows, the Deer Park zoo, and amusement rides all infused with a Wild West aesthetic plopped in the mountains.
Tweetsie caters mostly to families with small children, and it’s been a place where young rail lovers may have taken their first train ride. “We are seeing third- and fourth-generation visitors at Tweetsie Railroad,” Robbins said.
Tweetsie’s track is a narrow-gauge railroad, meaning the rails are spaced closer together than the standard distance for full-sized rail.
While it might be smaller, it’s no novelty, because engineers relied on these narrower railroads to connect the region.
“Narrow gauge railroads were most often constructed in mountainous terrain, since the tracks - being narrower - required less space to be cut through mountains,” noted Robbins. “Also, narrow-gauge trains can accommodate sharper turns than can standard gauge equipment, which is also an advantage when building a railroad in difficult terrain.”
While Tweetsie’s ride takes visitors through mountain views and over a high wooden trestle on a track it laid down on its property, one of its locomotives spent its career in the area. The No. 12 “Tweetsie,” named so for its whistle, was the steam train that ran between Boone, North Carolina, and Johnson City, Tennessee, on a narrow-gauge track active between 1916 and 1940.
As a result, the little engine that could—and still can—is registered with the National Register of Historic places. While most of Tweetsie’s riders come in summer and fall to experience the cooler temperatures of its mountain elevation, it also offers seasonal rides, such as its Ghost Train around Halloween and a Christmas-themed ride.
The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad
Bryson City, North Carolina
There’s a chance that you’ve already seen a portion of the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad on the silver screen: Its rail line was the scene of the edge-of-your-seat bus and locomotive crash that set the stage for the rest of the 1993 Harrison Ford movie “The Fugitive.”
Who could forget Ford, playing Dr. Richard Kimble in a yellow prison jumpsuit and shackles, shuffling away as a derailed locomotive barrels after him?
Good chance that a trip on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad these days will be less eventful—but no less memorable—than Dr. Kimble’s. Great Smoky Mountain Railroad travels over 53 miles of track that run through two tunnels and over 25 bridges.
Located in Bryson City, North Carolina, Great Smoky Mountain Railroad offers two different trips pulled by both diesel and steam.
The Nantahala Gorge Excursion runs 44 miles and makes a stop at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. The Tuckasegee River route runs 32 miles and stops in Dillsboro. The Tuckasegee route also passes the spot shown in “The Fugitive.”
Great Smoky Mountain Railroad also offers seasonal events, like The Polar Express—a 75-minute ride complete with cocoa and Santa Claus—and a Peanuts-themed “Pumpkin Patch Express” in October that transports riders to a pumpkin patch.
All of this happens on a rail line that reached the area in the 1880s. Before then, Western North Carolina lay landlocked with wagon the go-to transportation of the day. The train changed everything for the dwellers of the mountains. But in order for the train to run, the mountains had to be tied down with track, bored through with blasting and pickaxes.
After passenger rail service through Bryson City ceased in 1948, Great Smoky Mountain Railroad brought rail excursions back in 1988, where it’s been steaming along for 30 years.
Great Smoky Mountain Railroad suggests you book tickets in advance.
Great Smoky Mountain Railroad also has a train museum featuring 7,000 Lionel model trains. For the more outdoor-minded, Bryson City also offers rafting on the rivers and the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians.
Blue Ridge Scenic Railway
Blue Ridge, Georgia
Nestled in the Chattahoochee National Forest, the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway takes its passengers on a trip north for 26 miles that meanders by the Toccoa River and then stops at two towns that straddle the state line: McCaysville, Georgia, and Copperhill, Tennessee.
It’s quite the change of pace from Atlanta, a mere hour-and-a-half drive away.
Blue Ridge became a town to serve the travelers seeking the area’s mineral springs, according to the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce. Those early visitors relied on the rail to the mountains. Today, more people know the area for Springer Mountain which is the terminus of the Appalachian Trail—another route that offers travelers the slow, scenic route.
In 2016, Patriot Rail Company, a Jacksonville, Florida, company that operates a series of short line and regional freight railroads, purchased the rail line that had been staffed by volunteers.
Visitors can disembark and enjoy the two-hour stop in McCaysville and Copperhill to shop for antiques, grab a bite to eat or take in the town.
The rail suggests people buy tickets in advance, pick up their tickets two hours before, and board 45 minutes before the train is scheduled to pull out of the historical train station. Like a good railway, it keeps its schedule.
The Blue Ridge Scenic offers a primer class, where riders can ride in a car with reclining seats and munch on snacks. In addition, Blue Ridge Scenic offers a shorter “Santa Express” around the holidays.
Amtrak
Sometimes, the train isn’t the destination. It’s the journey. While there are several places where you can hop in the car, drive, park, buy the ticket and take a ride, there are fewer places where you can still travel by train to visit the Smokies.
Amtrak, the train system that’s a federally-chartered corporation, doesn’t exactly go through the Smoky Mountains, but it comes close.
The Crescent Train runs from New Orleans to New York, cutting close to the southeastern edge of the Smokies. The train stops in places like Greenville and Clemson, South Carolina, and Gainesville, Georgia.
Before Amtrak operated today’s Crescent train, the Richmond and Danville Railroad shuttled passengers on “the Washington and Southwestern Vestibuled Limited,” a train that helped passengers ride in style along the same route starting in 1891. Back then, the train included running water, a library and sleeping and dining cars.
Today, the Crescent Train also includes the modern necessity of WiFi. It offers a menu written specifically for this route, and includes a signature dessert—a pecan tart served with whipped cream.
According to the schedule of the train, it pulls into Greenville at 4:54 a.m. and 10:53 p.m.
High-speed rail projects expand tourism options
By Cory Vaillancourt
Progress comes paradoxically slow for high-speed passenger rail projects in the United States, but it does come nonetheless—and once a proposed $9 billion project connects Atlanta to a nearby Tennessee town, it certainly won’t be the Chattanooga Choo-Choo the Andrews Sisters were singing about.
Nine years ago, studies began on the possibility of connecting Atlanta with Chattanooga via high-speed passenger rail. Long a laggard in the implementation of such technology, American rail planners in the 1990s finally began to embrace a model created by the Japanese Shinkansen “bullet train” network established in 1964.
A 1991 Act of Congress ultimately resulted in the creation of Amtrak’s Acela Express, still the country’s fastest train. From Washington, D.C. to Boston—with 14 stops in between—it reaches speeds of up to 150 miles an hour and can make the 457-mile trip in less than seven hours.
A route for the proposed Atlanta-Chattanooga connection was recently selected and measures out to a slightly more manageable 120-mile stretch; next-generation locomotives could almost double the Acela’s top speed, putting Atlanta and its airport within easy reach of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park region—and vice versa—for commuters and tourists alike.
Beginning at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the route would basically parallel Interstate 75, with stops in downtown Atlanta, Cumberland, Town Center, Cartersville, Dalton, Chattanooga’s Lovell Field Airport and downtown Chattanooga some 90 minutes later.
Connecting the two cities opens up a world of options for travelers hoping to explore more of Southern Appalachia’s scenic beauty without resorting to automobile travel.
Those options would help ease congestion at Hartsfield-Jackson—the world’s busiest airport—as well as on Atlanta’s notoriously busy highway system, lowering pollution in the process.
Far from losing business, however, Atlanta could find itself the center of a national hub of high-speed rail connections, thanks to the 2009 U.S. Department of Transportation High-Speed Rail Strategic Plan.
The plan would, among other things, link much of the Eastern Seaboard with the Midwest and the Southeast, in theory beginning at the Acela terminus in Washington, D.C. and skirting the eastern and southern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains from Raleigh, North Carolina, through Charlotte and on to Greenville, South Carolina, before reaching Atlanta.
From Atlanta, the network will head south to Miami, and west to Houston via Birmingham and New Orleans.
The route from Atlanta to Chattanooga was chosen mostly because demand on the regional air and highway transportation system routinely outstrips capacity.
A Georgia Department of Transportation report says that between 7,000 and 11,000 people could ride the new trains daily, which would run hourly or more frequently during peak times.
The trains would also be completely separated from vehicular traffic, meaning no roadway crossings, ever; much of European railroading has been built around this safety-conscious concept, but the U.S. has more than 200,000 at-grade crossings that result in countless accidents and deaths each year. No crossings also allows the train to maintain its higher speed.
Capacity issues, though, weren’t the only reason the Federal Railroad Administration selected the corridor.
Although scenic and excursion railroads—featuring antique hardware and oft-rustic rides—have been all the rage of late and an economic boon to the once-booming communities that rode those rails to prosperity a century ago, the FRA has something far more futuristic in mind.
Among the options for the route’s trainset is a Maglev system that utilizes electricity to power magnets that propel the train over a monorail.
Such systems are currently in regular operation in Shanghai, China and Aichi, Japan, and can reach speeds of over 300 miles per hour, truly making Tennessee, as the old song goes, not very far.