Pages

Friday, September 16, 2011

Railfest at the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad

We’ve made it to Bryson City, NC home of one of the many Rail Fest’s held through out the country. YES there are others, and Rail Fans all over the country.

This afternoon we took a ride into town to look around. GSMR was getting ready to depart with the “Special Dinner Train” which was by invitation only. I’m sure there was a mix up. Maybe they lost our address since we didn’t get our invitation… I’m sure they will remember us next year.. :-)…

IMG_0603 This is the “Guest” steam engine we will be riding tomorrow. 126 will be pulling a few cabooses with 15 folks in each. I talked to the owner, John, today and he said that 126 was restored this year and they are still working out some kinks. 126 hold about a ton of coal and can go about 15 miles before needing a reload. We are scheduled to ride at 12:30 pm so there will be more pics then.

IMG_0607 IMG_0608 These are the engineer controls and the view from the engineers seat.

IMG_0612IMG_0614 There are supposed to be Maintenance Of Way cars (MOW’s) available for rides tomorrow. These two belong to GSMR.

Bryson City is in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The town itself is in a gorge area on “Deep Creek”. We stay a little out of town, up the mountain some. This is the view from our room.

IMG_0615 Its really cloudy here today so the mountains are a little hard to see other than a faint outline. Hopefully this will clear up some tomorrow.

NOTE TO LOIS & KJELL, we are planning on a re-visit to Anthony’s tomorrow night. Tonight was the Yumi-Yumi China Buffet. Only So-So.

Grenville

12 comments:

grammie g said...

Hey Grenville..It looks like your having a great time with the Trains, and eating out..lol
Grace

Connie said...

I hope you have a great time tomorrow! Sounds like quite an adventure. :-)

NCmountainwoman said...

Glad you are having fun here in North Carolina. Before we retired to the NC mountains, we used to vacation at the Fryemont Inn in Bryson City. We'd have a big breakfast there and head out to hike the hiking trails. We've never done the train but I hear it is a beautiful ride. Enjoy your stay.

Elaine said...

Interesting to see your MOW's. There is a group that restores and operates these cars that left Fairbanks yesterday on a tour on the Alaska Railroad. They have about 70 people traveling in 29 of the cars. They will certainly get some breathtaking views because there are some pretty spectacular trestles along the railroad. I would be hyperventilating for sure.

ancient one said...

My daughter lived in Bryson City for a short time and we visited her there. Never rode the trains, but enjoyed the singing and playing at the train station that afternoon. Y'all enjoy yourselves.. hope the weather is prettier for you tomorrow.

DeniseinVA said...

I am looking forward to hearing all about your train ride tomorrow, sounds like so much fun.

Anvilcloud said...

Only 15 miles on a load of coal? What a job shoveling must have been in the old days.

possum said...

Have fun! Hope you don't have any rain. We are getting a light rain back here at home - much needed!

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful lokomotive! I would love to go on that ride with You :-) The MOW's looks fine too.

Have a great day!
Christer.

MadSnapper said...

I do sooo wish i were there to ride that train with you.

Carole Barkett said...

looks like fun for sure

Lois Evensen said...

How very cool that you are back there and there is so much going on! Ah, yes, Anthony's. That was great pizza we had there.

We are out here on the ship. We're in Port Canaveral today so I can get on line a little and visit other blogs. I really miss my high speed connection and band width at home, but am grateful to have even email 24/7 while we are out here.

Lois