 New!
Great Railfan Tour: Smoky Mountain Rails
June 21-30, 2009
Tour from $2199.00
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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