Heritage route
Great Smoky Mountains Railroad
Bryson City → Nantahala Gorge · United States
Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in pictures




Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 71 km
- Fastest time
- 4 h 30 min
- Average speed
- 16 km/h
- Top speed
- 30 km/h
- Operator
- Great Smoky Mountains Railroad
- Train
- EMD diesel · Baldwin 1702 steam
- Countries
- United States
- In service since
- 1988
- Riders per year
- ≈ 200k
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
The spectacular train-wreck scene in The Fugitive (1993) was staged on this line; the wrecked locomotive still sits trackside near Dillsboro.
How this line was checked
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 5 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: Great Smoky Mountains Railroad — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
More heritage routes
- Durango & Silverton
1882 gold-rush narrow gauge: steam-hauled ever since, on the Highline ledge blasted 120 m above the Animas River gorge.
Wikipedia ↗ - La Trochita
Theroux’s Old Patagonian Express: 750 mm gauge, 1922 steam locomotives and wood-stove-heated wooden coaches across the steppe.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sagano Scenic Railway
A retired JR alignment above the Hozugawa rapids: twenty-five slow minutes of maples and gorge that the modern main line skips through tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Gunma
Restored D51 498 “Degoichi” and C61 20 haul retro coaches up the Joetsu Line on weekends: steam echoing off the Tone gorge under Tanigawa’s wall.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗
More train routes in United States.