Smoky Mountain Rail Tour
June, 2009
Part VII - Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, Pisgah Inn, Blue Ridge Parkway
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| This "O" gauge layout is located in a museum across from our boarding station for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, in Bryson City, NC. In addition to several operating layouts, the museum has a collection of over 7,000 (their count) Lionel locomotives, cars, and accessories from all periods. The museum's web page is here. | This "dinosaur" has toppled the road grader, and begun chewing up the operator. Another worker has been severely injured by the tail. Some creative model railroading. | Our car for today's ride up the Nantahala River Gorge is a club car with varied seating patterns. Carl is giving us the history of this car, which he rode in when it was in original revenue service in Florida. | The opposite end of the car has a slightly different seating arrangement. |
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| This was a pretty long train for a tourist railroad. I'm not sure of the exact car count - eight or ten, with two club cars, and two diners. It's long enough you can't see the locomotive as the train heads around this curve. I was able to use an open vestibule to take photographs. | The Nantahala River Gorge is THICK with rafters and kayakers. | A steady stream of rafts float down the river right next to the tracks. The water here is fairly gentle. | |
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| We make a stop at a recreation center where most of the rafters pull out. Below here, there are some more challenging rapids. | David is on holiday from the UK. | Russ and Lonnie (from Michigan) with me watching the rapids. | Some of the rapids below the pull out. |
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| We didn't see any rafts head to the whitewater, but these kayakers were enjoying the rush. | The recreation center is a huge operation. This shows rack after rack of rafting gear that is being dispensed to a never-ending stream of visitors. | The parking lot is jammed with fun seekers on this hot day. | |
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| The train runs right past the recreation center. The railroad offers a combination ticket where you take the train up to the Gorge, then raft back down. | Our train is parked at the rec center while we explore the area. There's about an hour layover here. | Kudzu up the wazoo! This stuff takes over everything. Kudzu blankets both side of the tracks for much of the trip along the river. | After our train ride, we drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway above Asheville for dinner at the Mount Pisgah Inn. |
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| Mountain views from the Inn are spectacular. | On the porch after dinner. | An ultra wide angle view from the Inn. | We make a few photo stops on our drive back down the Blue Ridge Parkway to our hotel for the night. |
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| The pyramid shaped peak in the distance is Mt. Mitchell, which at 6684 feet is the highest peak in the US East of the Rockies. | |||