 New! Great Railfan Tour: Smoky Mountain Rails
June 21-30, 2009
Tour from $2199.00
Tour Sold-Out. Waitlist is Open.
Early next summer, please consider joining Carl Fowler,
Vice-President/General Manager of Rail Travel Center, for an outstanding
series of train trips and sightseeing through parts of Tennessee, Kentucky
and North Carolina. We explore the Smoky Mountains, the southern
Appalachians and the high peaks of the Blue Ridge Mountains on this
wonderful tour. This is the latest in our series of “great railfan tours”,
but it truly offers something for everyone, as noted below.
We begin in Chattanooga, Tennessee with a
wonderful three-night stay at the famous Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo Choo
hotel, which sets the theme for this program. Rail rides during the tour
include the Tennessee Valley
Railroad, Blue Ridge Scenic
Railroad, TVRR “Hiwassee
River Gorge” line, Big South Fork
Railroad, New River Scenic
Railway’s “Elk Hill Explorer”, Great
Smoky Mountains Railroad Dinner Train, and the GSMRR “Nantahala
Gorge” route. All these lines share great scenery with the experience
of train riding. We also enjoy a dinner cruise on the Southern Belle out
of Chattanooga.
Additional sightseeing includes Ruby Falls and Rock City
(and the Lookout Mountain Inclined Railway) outside Chattanooga; the
spectacular Museum of
Appalachia; a visit to Historic Rugby, Tennessee; a drive through
Great Smoky Mountains National Park over Newfound Gap; touring and lunch
at the famous Biltmore Estate
outside Asheville; a visit to the Blue
Ridge Parkway Folk Art Center; and a great Farewell Dinner at the Grove Park Resort, one of the
loveliest hotels in the south. Great trains, beautiful scenery and lots of
regional foods. What could be better? Please join us. All aboard!
 Day One, Sunday, June 21 Arrivals into
Chattanooga. Participants arrive independently into Chattanooga today.
Our hotel offers a free shuttle service from the airport. Lodging for the
next three nights is at the Holiday Inn
Chattanooga Choo Choo hotel, built around the grand former Southern
Railway Terminal Station. This beautiful property is a mecca for railfans
with a museum, gift shop, gardens and trolley rides. Passenger cars still
line the platforms, as if awaiting the call of “All Aboard”. The
magnificent main building contains the lobby and restaurants.
Day Two, Monday, June 22 (L,D) Lookout Mountain
Inclined Railway; Ruby Falls; Rock City; TVRR Missionary Ridge trip;
Welcome Dinner. We begin this morning with a ride on the remarkable Lookout Mountain Inclined
Railway up to a spectacular  overlook on the heights of the mountain. Nearly a
mile long, this is the steepest cable-powered railway in the United States
and an engineering landmark. Upon arrival at the top, we visit Rock City Gardens (a “city” of
natural sandstone monoliths and tunnels with views over parts of four
states) and Ruby Falls, which
includes a 145-foot waterfall in an underground cavern.
Following our included luncheon at the Mt. Vernon
Restaurant, we board the Tennessee Valley
Railroad on the Missionary Ridge trip. This includes a ride through
the Chattanooga, Harrison, Georgetown & Charleston Railroad Tunnel, a
unique horseshoe tunnel. This line was bitterly contested during the Civil
War. Trains here are powered by historic steam or early diesel engines.
There also is time to explore the exhibits at the Tennessee Railroad
Museum. We return to our hotel for free time before departing for our
Welcome Dinner at the Boathouse, which specializes in Gulf of Mexico food
styles (think seafood and barbeque).
Day Three, Tuesday, June 23 (Box lunch, D) Blue Ridge
Scenic Railroad; dinner cruise on Southern Belle Riverboat. This
morning we drive to Blue Ridge, Georgia and pick up our box lunches before
taking a half-day trip on the Blue
Ridge Scenic RR from Blue Ridge to McCaysville, Georgia and return
through rugged mountain wilderness. This line was the southern portion of
the former Louisville and Nashville RR’s rugged “Hook and Eye” route from
Atlanta to Knoxville. The tracks follow the Toccoa River through a deep
gorge. We return to Chattanooga in late afternoon and again have time to
freshen up before we transfer down to the river for an evening dinner
cruise on the “Southern
Belle” Riverboat. The voyage takes us along the Tennessee River into a
beautiful canyon.
Day Four, Wednesday, June 24 (L) Hiwassee River Gorge
route; into Sweetwater TN. In mid-morning we depart for Etowah,
Tennessee for an included luncheon before boarding the Tennessee Valley Railroad for the
Hiwassee River Gorge ride. This 50-mile round trip takes us to the top
of the famous “Hiwassee Loop” where the tracks cross over themselves as
they corkscrew up the mountain. Once again we’re on the former line of the
L&N’s “Hook and Eye” route over the Appalachians. At the end of our
ride, we make a short drive to Sweetwater, Tennessee and overnight at the
Quality Inn & Suites.
Day Five, Thursday, June 25 (B,D) Museum of Appalachia;
Historic Rugby; drive to Caryville TN. Following breakfast this
morning, we drive to Norris and visit the great Museum of Appalachia, a
living mountain village created in eastern Tennessee by John Rice Irwin.
Mr. Irwin grew up in the area and began collecting “relics” from the
mountain families living here. This collection expanded to include
buildings, musical instruments, folk art, tools, Native American
artifacts, and histories of interesting mountain folk. The museum is a
labor of love by one man who recognized the value of the place he grew up
and determined to share it with the rest of us.
 We then drive to historic Rugby, Tennessee, nestled in the
hills just south of Big South Fork National Park. Rugby was a utopian
community founded in 1880. It was planned by Thomas Hughes, a British
social reformer and author of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. This was to be a
Christian agricultural community without class distinctions; and for the
first few years the town thrived, with a fine library, social clubs,
stores, boarding houses, dairy, butcher shop, newspaper, and two trains a
day to Cincinnati! A typhoid epidemic and financial troubles brought the
town into decline, although it never was abandoned. Today it is a lovely
little village filled with the history of its era. We have time for
touring and shopping here before enjoying an included dinner at the Harrow Road Café
in the center of the village. We then drive to Caryville, Tennessee, where
we spend two nights at the award-winning Hampton
Inn. Note: Llamas are wandering around this property (but not in your
rooms)!
Day Six, Friday, June 26 (B,L) Big South Fork Scenic
Railway; McCreary County Museum. We depart this morning for Stearns,
where we ride the exceptionally scenic Big South Fork Railroad round-trip to
Blue Heron, with a box lunch (in a bindle!) included. The former Kentucky
and Tennessee Railroad is noted for its extremely steep grades and lovely
river views in the canyon of the Big South Fork. Our stopover is at Blue
Heron, a ghost mining town uniquely interpreted by structural outlines
of some buildings in which hidden speakers re-create life in the lost
town. The McCreary County Museum contains railroad memorabilia, a general
store, a moonshine still, Native American artifacts and replicas of 19th
century kitchens. We then return to Caryville.
 Day Seven, Saturday, June 27(B,L,D) New River
Scenic Railway “Elk Hill Explorer”; Newfound Gap and the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park; Great Smoky Mountains Railroad Dinner Train; into
Dillsboro NC. In mid-morning we drive to Huntsville, Tennessee and
board the “Elk
Hill Explorer” of the New River Scenic Railway. Our route takes us
along the New River in the northeastern Cumberland Plateau. This line was
originally part of the Tennessee Railway Company but was sold at
foreclosure in 1918. Its fate has been tied to the fortunes of the coal
industry in the area. After being part of both the Southern Railway System
and the Norfolk Southern Railway, it escaped several petitions for
abandonment and now is owned by the National Coal Corporation. The line
takes us deep into the Appalachian Mountains, following the waters of the
New River.
Following our ride, we drive into North Carolina to
Dillsboro. Enroute we cross Newfound Gap and traverse the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Here are the highest ranges east of the Rockies. The Smoky Mountains got
their name from the misty haze that sometimes mantles the highest peaks.
At Dillsboro, deep in the wild ridges of the Smoky
Mountains, we board the lovely Great Smoky
Mountains Railroad Dinner Train. Dining in beautifully restored
streamlined dining cars, we follow the Tuckaseegee River through a wild
gorge as we enjoy an elegant dinner cooked on-board the train. We spend
the night at the Best Western River Escape Inn in Dillsboro.
 Day Eight, Sunday, June 28 (CB,L) GSMRR Nantahala
Gorge line; Blue Ridge Parkway; into Asheville NC. At Bryson City we
board the diesel-powered “Nantahala Gorge”
line of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The ride takes us over
long trestles and through the two-thousand-foot-deep canyon of the
Nantahala River. We follow the exceptionally scenic former Southern
Railway Murphy Branch through the heart of the Smokies, traveling in the
First Class Club Car with a light food service in each direction.
Following our ride, we make a leisurely trip down the
famous Blue Ridge Parkway
to our destination of Asheville, North Carolina. This is the “High Peaks”
portion of the Parkway. The route turns from the Smoky Mountain ridges
onto the long spine range of the southeast, the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here
the summits rise to over 6,000 feet. The last two nights of our tour are
spent in Asheville at the Holiday Inn Biltmore East Hotel.
Day Nine, Monday, June 29(L,D) Biltmore touring and
lunch; Folk Art Center; Farewell Dinner at Grove Park Inn. Today we
visit Biltmore House and Gardens, a
 Vanderbilt estate. Constructed (beginning in 1889) by
George Washington Vanderbilt, the residence still is surrounded by 8,000
acres which include a winery and dairy farm. At its completion this was
not only the largest but also the grandest private home on the continent.
We see both the “upstairs” of the Vanderbilt family, with its priceless
artworks and furnishings; and the “downstairs” of the servants, with its
maze of vast kitchens, laundries, boilers and unexpectedly comfortable
rooms. The four-story house and 75 acres of gardens can be toured at our
own pace on a self-guided walk. The azaleas and rhododendrons here bloom
profusely each June on grounds designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead, the
famed designer of Central Park in New York. We have an included luncheon
buffet at the Deerpark
Restaurant before departing.
We drive back to Asheville and travel up another section
of the Blue Ridge Parkway to visit the famous Folk
Art Center, home of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Here we can
admire Appalachian crafts (and maybe purchase an item or two). We return
to our hotel in late afternoon and have time to freshen up before another
short drive to the spectacular Grove Park Inn for our Farewell
Dinner in the Blue
Ridge Dining Room.
Day Ten, Tuesday, June 30 Tour ends. Our exciting
tour ends today with independent departures from our hotel to the
Asheville airport.
TOUR PRICES include all rail, boat and private motorcoach
transportation during the tour; all lodging, meals and sightseeing noted
as included above; baggage handling during the tour; and the services of a
full-time escort. The tour is escorted from departure from our hotel on
Day Two through to departures from our hotel in Asheville on Day Ten. Not
included are transportation to/from the tour, hotel to airport transfers
on Day Ten, meals not shown as included above, alcoholic beverages, and
items of a personal nature.
$2199.00 per person, double occupancy
$2599.00 single occupancy
Conditions and Booking Information (the fine
print)
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