By Aaron Isaacs, HRA editor
The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad played host to 80 attendees at the HRA Spring conference. I was last there in 2001 for a pre-conference trip before ARM and TRAIN’s joint Fall conference. As with all return visits, it’s interesting to see what has changed.
GSMR is an American Heritage Railways property, along with Durango & Silverton and new acquisition Mount Ranier Scenic. American Heritage is also Rail Events, the Polar Express people now branching out into other themed events. Owner Al Harper was there with some of his family and staff and they delivered an excellent tourist railroad experience.
I’ve been on plenty of impoverished tourist trains where the equipment is run down, the track is in poor condition and they would be kaput if the crew didn’t work for free. This was just the opposite. The train was in excellent shape. By that I mean all the seats appeared to have been recently reupholstered, the exterior paint was bright with no visible rust, the a/c worked just fine and the windows were all clear (no fog). We watched the staff washing them at the end of the first day.
I have never experienced a friendlier, more customer-oriented crew. To a person they were hospitality incarnate. They are all paid employees, no volunteers, and the staff to customer ratio was high.
Although the shop is located near the east end of the line in Dillsboro, operations are centered at Bryson City, roughly the midpoint.
The Bryson City depot. Tim Crain photo.
The Nantahala train prepares to leave Bryson City.
From there the Nantahala Gorge trip runs 22 miles west. It follows the Nantahala River and skirts the edge of the Francona Lake reservoir. There’s a memorable horseshoe cure atop a high fill. Most trips end at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, where the river passes over white water rapids. There’s a store, an outfitting center and restaurant. The 13 miles beyond it to Andrews is seldom used. One major reason is the 5 percent grade. Our train included 12 passenger cars and two cabooses, not practical on that kind of hill. A post-conference trip covered it by motorcar.
The trips in the other direction travel 16 miles along the Tuckasegee River to Dillsboro. Both trips feature almost continuous sharp curvature, and speeds in the 15-20 mph range are the norm.
The Dillsboro trip has more scenic variety, including periodic open fields and an 800-foot tunnel.
The Tuckasegee River bridge on the way to Dillsboro. Tim Crain photo.
Just before passing the shops is the train wreck set from the movie The Fugitive. Dillsboro is a town of 232 with a shops and restaurants that cater to the train passengers.
The locomotive runs around the train in Dillsboro.
It should be noted that Bryson City (population 1424) is also tourist oriented. Several people told me that the railroad has spurred the hospitality industry in both towns.
The village of Whittier, 10 miles east of Bryson City, is the destination for the Polar Express trips. Because American Heritage owns the franchise, the 2017 schedule featured 93 Polar Express trips over 34 days in November and December. In addition to its own North Pole site, the railroad decorates all the other buildings in town with Christmas lights and pays the owners’ electric bill for the two months.
Although Polar is the biggest licensed event, the railroad also runs Peanuts The Great Pumpkin Express and the newest product, The Wizard of Oz Train Ride. Dinosaur Train and Chuggington appear to be on the back burner these days.
The consist is a mixture of air conditioned and open window coaches, plus open air cars. as has been widely reported, steam returned in 2016. Ex-Army 2-8-0 1702 (Baldwin 1942) had been purchased by GSMR in 1991 and entered service the next year. It was removed from service in 2004. It was rebuilt in the railroad’s new steam shop when that building opened in 2014.
2-8-0 1702 at Bryson City. Tim Crain photo.
GSMR owner Al Harper with 1702 outside the steam shop.
It gets used plenty, running on 19 percent of the scheduled 2017 trips. In most cases it pulls the Nantahala trips. There are currently no turning facilities at the Outdoor Center, so diesels pull the consist back to Bryson City. A new turntable has been installed there. There are plans to install two more at the Outdoor Center and Bryson City.
Parked outside the shop and separated from each other are the boiler and running gear of Southern 2-8-0 722. With the 1702 done, we were told work on 722 would begin soon.
The running gear of Southern 2-8-0 722, the next steam restoration project.
Back in Bryson City, the railroad has a store in a building next to the depot. In the big back room of the store is a very large O scale tinplate layout. In display cases around the wall is a spectacular collection of tinplate rolling stock, 7000 pieces in all. A side room is a separate collection of much older tinplate, O scale and larger. It was truly impressive and well worth visiting.
Compared my visit in 2001, there’s no question that the railroad has matured, added attractions and moved to a higher level of professionalism and customer service.