"Great Smokey Montain RR"

[NW Mailing List]

Accord to it's web site http://www.gsmr.com/about/history.php this was on the 
Murphy Branch of the Western North Carolina Railroad:

<snip>


The Murphy Branch experienced its heaviest business in the early  1940s when the 
massive Fontana Dam was constructed during World War II.  Thousands of carloads 
of cement, equipment, and other materials reached  the construction site by rail 
on a spur line built from Bushnell to  Fontana. Huge shipments of copper ore 
from mines in the western end of  North Carolina and Copperhill, Tennessee, 
increased the line's tonnage.  In the 1920s, ribbons of concrete crawled through 
the mountains, linking  towns together.

Passenger traffic on the Murphy Branch, then owned by the  sprawling Southern 
Railway System, began to decline as a result of the  introduction of automobile 
and bus travel. Southern discontinued all  passenger traffic on the Murphy 
Branch on July 16th, 1948, ending 64  years of service that opened Western North 
Carolina to the outside  world. When freight traffic dropped off by 1985, 
Norfolk Southern closed  the Andrews to Murphy leg of the Murphy Branch and the 
State of North  Carolina purchased the Dillsboro to Murphy tracks to keep them 
from  being destroyed.

By 1988, many entities had come  together to form the Great Smoky Mountains 
Railway, which then began  running excursions. Rolling stock for the GSMR was 
purchased from  various railroads around the nation. The Dillsboro to Nantahala 
route  was one of the most scenic on the Murphy Branch and the excursion trains  
caught on right away. Upward of 200,000 passengers enjoy the scenery  each year 
aboard the excursion trains. American Heritage Railways  purchased the GSMR in 
December of 1999. The Great Smoky Mountains  Railway operates today as the newly 
organized Great Smoky Mountains  Railroad.
<snip>

Dominic
London

 Having successfully completed this with a few piractical companions see 
http://tinyurl.com/22uaypo , please support our 12 mile Walk Like a Pirate on 
Saturday September 18th and help fund the Pirates new fully accessible broadbeam 
boat http://www.thepiratecastle.org/


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________________________________
From: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, 4 December, 2010 16:00:19
Subject: "Great Smokey Montain RR"

Are the tracks that are now being used by the "Great Smokey Mountain RR" any 
part of these branches?
I was told by a GSM employ that he thought that the tracks were part of the old 
N&W system.
Thanks;
Gene A.


----- Original Message ----- From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2010 5:42 PM
Subject: North Carolina Branch map..To Mt Airy..



> I posted this earlier, evidently it was over looked!

> 

> http://spec.lib.vt.edu/imagebase/08MAPS/screen/HM200705291009.jpg

> 

> If you go to the south side of Galax, you can see where the ROW was graded, and 

>some box culverts where installed.

> 

> You can trace MUCH of the ROW from Mt Airy, to the state line near Lambsburg 

>NC.

> 

> Here is a link to a google streetview of part of that ROW, that is now a public 

>road, named, "Old Railroad Road"... No rails where ever laid.

> 

>http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=36.540132,-80.667484&spn=0,0.006856&z=17&layer=c&cbll=36.540132,-80.667484&panoid=bkIxeIMmisdg_lD8D9oshQ&cbp=12,102.44,,0,15.99

>9

> 

> Andy Jennings

> Blt 4-74/CN 3

<snip>
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