NARCOA Excursion on the Great Smoky Mountains
Railway
31 December 2002 (Tuesday) and 1 January 2003 (Wednesday)
We had a pretty good run on the GMSR over the New Years' holiday.
35 cars participated. The set-on point was Bryson City, North
Carolina. The new Lionel museum, Smoky Mountain Trains, was open
(at a discount!) and many people toured it after set-on. It's
worth a visit. They have a ton of Lionel trains on display and
a huge layout.
New Years' eve we did a night run from Bryson to Wesser (where
the Nantahala Outdoor Center is). The weather cooperated, it
usually stopped raining when we needed to be out of the cars.
We had 2 breakdowns in the first few miles. The first was minor.
Then an A-car broke. The group was spread out and the excursion
coordinator (Tom Falicon) and the first part of the pack were
about 4 miles ahead, but they stopped when they heard of the
trouble. Luckily there was a crossing near the breakdown. Jim
Garner took control and coordinated shoving small cars off the
crossing to get the next A-car up to the disabled one. This was
completed just as the breakdown was repaired. The rest of the
trip to Wesser, and the return, were uneventful except for running
into dense fog in a couple of places. Tom radioed he couldn't
see. I replied that at least he didn't need to steer.
New Years' Day we toured the entire GSMR line. The trip would
take us east to Dillsboro, back to Bryson for lunch, then west
to Andrews, and return. David, the Operations Manager Model RR
Museum, was my passenger for the day. The trip would be fun in
a number of ways, especially as we had a couple of staged photos
planned.
The first oddity happened at the safety meeting. We were treated
to a very nice rainbow. (We endured light showers all morning.)
The stretch between Bryson and Dillsboro is always scenic
as the tracks parallel the Tuckasegee River. Close to Dillsboro
the tracks are sandwiched between river and mountainside. Where
the valley opens up the tracks run through the flats, bisecting
field and farm.
The morning's run was made interesting because of horses.
In one pasture west of Whittier there were 4 or 5 that went completely
nuts (as they usually do). They were not spooked by horn-blowing,
they just didn't like us.
A few miles further east great big roan spooked, ran, and
jumped a fence as I approached, landing in a fenced yard. There
is a gate in the fence for the driveway, and it was open. I thought
the horse was coming through the gate (in which case I would
hit it) and for a few seconds I had the wheels locked up! But
it ignored the gate when I came by and ran in front of the car
behind me instead. That fellow was already braking and the horse
made it across. There were lots of radio warnings about this
crazy horse.
The yard at Dillsboro was full of passenger cars. Maybe it
was because it was a holiday and everything was in the yard,
but they certainly had a lot of cars parked there.
On the return, that big roan was still on the tracks. It took
off westbound as soon as we popped into view, running down the
gauge. We putted along behind it, keeping well back. It kept
running all the way to the first crossing (by the Junkyard),
maybe some 2 miles. Here the horse turned left onto the paved
road. Yea! But 1/4 mile beyond the crossing, where the road comes
back near the tracks, here it comes! It got back into the gauge
and continued toward Whittier. Some mile or two later it left
the tracks (at the retired Sheriff's house) and got caught on
an electric fence. We got ahead if it, but it ran up to a parallel
road and continued to chase us west. Several people caught sight
if it was we kept going. At Whittier, we were finally horseless.
Oh, the 4 or 5 spooked horses in the pasture? There was one
left when we came back by. I think the others got out. This may
explain the horses in the river several people spotted on the
November excursion. Probably the same horses.
In Bryson the good news was Anthony's pizza was open for us.
The bad news was we completely overwhelmed them. It took longer
than expected to get everyone fed.
By now it was later than desired. West of Bryson we were delayed
again by another A-car with a broken throttle linkage. It was
set out at a crossing.
Because we were running late Tom and I modified the plans
for the photo shoot at milepost 78.5. This is at a big curve
above the Nantahala River. Rather than do the big production
we had planned, we went for quick and simple. We had the #3 car
(Brett) stop at the desired location while Tom and I continued
ahead and got the camera ready. When enough motorcars arrived
I started snapping. About a third of the group had not arrived
yet. Still, it looked okay through the viewfinder.
We did not stop at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Instead we
continued straight through to the west end of Nantahala siding.
This is the start of Red Marble grade, a 4.2% (some claim 5.8)
climb for the next 3.6 miles. It's all curves, one as tight as
12 degrees. Tom ran up the hill while I held the rest of the
group and the pop cars were put in tow for the climb. When Tom
reported the way clear we departed. Everybody made it up the
hill okay, despite a traffic jam caused by someone stopping at
the stop board before the crest of the hill.
At Andrews, Tom and I took our cars off the main and set them
on the siding with me in the lead. As soon as the caboose arrived
I threw the switch and proceeded back to Bryson, ahead of the
group. Tom was going to bring the rest after everybody had turned
and visited the facilities. The plan was for me to get to the
big bridge over Fontana Lake and get a group picture of the cars
on the bridge. One minor detail: sunset was at 17:40, I got to
the bridge around 18:00. The clouds made it even darker. It was
just about too dark to see without a flashlight. When Tom came
into radio range we discussed what to do. I was for abandoning
it, and in fact still had my car on the tracks just after the
bridge. Tom talked me into trying some night photos. Luckily
I had a tripod and a cable release. With the excursion some 5
miles out we had to hurry to get into position. David lent a
hand as we ran my car down to the crossing after the bridge,
set it off, hiked back to the bridge, climbed the kudzu-covered
hillside and found the right location just as it got too dark
to see. When Tom was a mile from the bridge he stopped for a
minute to bunch people up, then proceeded on at about 10 mph.
By this time we could see the cars as the tracks are perched
on cuts and high fills above the lake. It was a pretty sight
watching the cars as they worked their way along with their headlights
reflecting off the water. When the excursion reached the bridge
everybody was bunched up nicely. The excursion was long enough
that I tried several exposures. It was really neat watching the
cars go across the bridge. Danny and Brett were the last cars.
As they both had radios, I had them stop in various places and
tried some more shots, hoping Brett's car would illuminate Danny's.
David and I managed to get off the kudzu-covered hill without
trouble. (I did remember to bring a light). By the time we got
the car on the tracks and everything strapped down the group
was long gone. It only took 3 miles to catch them as there was
another breakdown or something. Going around the horseshoe curve
west of Bryson was pretty as you could see the lights of the
cars ahead across the valley.
It was a great excursion. Tom did a fine job of keeping everything
running along, despite the delays caused by breakdowns. Again
having radios scattered amongst the consist proved invaluable.
I am sad to say none of the photos will be ribbon-winners.
The photos from the curve are so-so. The bridge photos are a
little dark. But you can be the judge, as they are presented
here for your viewing. (click NEXT).
|