Today is Sunday 9/14, we are in Rossville Georgia at the Holiday Travel Park - Chattanooga along with the staff and guests of the Yankee RV Tours Historical Railroads of the Southeast Caravan.
I enjoyed my walk in this park and across the street in the very sterile "big rig" park. It's a very unique location, it is behind the Dollar General, next to a trucking company and surrounded by an industrial park on the other side. Maybe when the trees grow taller, it will help. Right now, it is a big concrete parking lot with hook-ups.
We were invited to enjoy the Yankee pancake breakfast that the staff cooked for their caravanners this morning. We had time to kill, before we drove to the train ride at noon. We visited with Willard and Eileen for a long time. It was great to catch -up with them, it has been a while!
We caravanned to Delano Tennessee in cars to step back in time on a historic railroad journey with The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. We were geared up to enjoy a trip back in time to a slower-paced era when railroad travel was a way of life. To relive the romance of the rails when vintage trains provided an escape from the everyday routine. The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum provides an interactive, historical experience that adds an extra dimension to your visit to Chattanooga’s popular attractions. TVR is the only place in Tennessee where you will find the only regularly scheduled, full-sized train rides.
TVA restored 13 miles of the track in 2003 to transport material to the Appalachia Powerhouse. Tennessee Minerals, a company interested in shipping iron ore abroad, finished restoring the track from there to Copperhill in 2005 but left shortly thereafter when the market dropped.
Our train ride is called the Hiwassee River Loop Train. It is a ride through the famous Hiwassee Loop. Our trip is a 4-hour excursion covering a 50‑mile round trip deep into the Hiwassee River Gorge, where the track ascends via the rare Hiwassee Loop. This route traces the historic rails of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad’s Atlanta Division, originally spanning Etowah, Tennessee, to Marietta, Georgia.
We started our train tour near where Reliance was settled. White settlers came to this mountain farming community shortly after the Cherokee Removal and began to thrive with the coming of the Old Line. In 1891, a frame cottage was built for the railroad watchman whose job was to watch for and extinguish burning embers on the Hiwassee River bridge. Today, the Watchman's House, Joseph Vaughn's Farmhouse, Higdon Hotel, Webb Brothers Store, and Hiwassee Union Church are part of the Historic District of Reliance, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hiwassee Union Church was built around 1899. The bottom floor was used by the Hiwassee Union Baptist Church and the upper floor was used by the Reliance Lodge No. 636, Free and Accepted Masons, which was organized in 1906. The Watchman's House has been restored and is open for vacation rental.
Our conductor told us about every ghost town along the route. In 1908, the Prendergast Lumber Company built headquarters for its massive logging operation at Probst, one mile up river from Reliance on Big Lost Creek. At one time, Probst had more than 25 company buildings, such as the commissary, office buildings, and living quarters for management. Loggers, though, did not live in Probst. Some lived in surrounding communities and walked to work each morning. Others lived in hastily built shanties, scattered up and down Big Lost Creek. The reported population of the town was reported to be 200 in 1911. Most were just marked today by a break in the trees with some open land.
Apalachia Station was built in 1890 and named for the old community of Apalachia. This station served as the maintenance headquarters for the Old Line Railroad between McFarland and Copperhill. Southbound trains used the railroad siding at Apalachia Station as a "doubling track." When a train was too heavy to climb the mountain, the crew would leave part of the train in the siding, take the rest of the train to Farner, and then return to Apalachia to pick up the remainder.
Apalachian Power House was built in 1953 by the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide hydroelectricity to meet the demands of aluminum production during World War II.
Huge pipes called "penstocks" and tunnel system carries water from the reservoir 8.3 miles downriver to the powerhouse to generate electricity.
Construction of Apalachia Dam began in 1941 and was completed in 1943. The dam is 150 feet high and stretches 1,308 feet across the Hiwassee River. Apalachia Dam has two generating units with a summer net dependable capacity of 82 megawatts. Net dependable capacity is the amount of power a hydroelectric dam can produce on an average day, minus the electricity used by the dam itself.
At mile marker 355 along the Old Line Rail marks what is now the ghost town of McFarland. Established in 1890, McFarland was a rail stop between Copperhill and Reliance. The post office was established in 1895. By 1898 a two-story hotel and general store, both operated by Thomas Breen. Over the next ten years, a frame station building was constructed and AR Arp was named the station agent. At the peak of its existence, McFarland boasted about a dozen buildings. With the coming of the Old Line, McFarland served as a section headquarters due, in part, to its proximity to the "W," a series of switchbacks that required additional maintenance. Locals referred to the hotel as the "Government House," as it was often filled with forest service personnel working the newly created Cherokee National Forest. In time, McFarland was abandoned. A few concrete structures remain that date back only to the late 1930s and early 1940s, probably built and used in conjunction with the building of the dam.
The Hiwassee Loop was constructed to manage Bald Mountain’s grade through the Hiwassee River gorge. This route has an engineering marvel as it spirals—crossing over itself—near Farner, Tennessee. One of only six loops in North America and the only one east of the Mississippi. The trestle crosses itself once at 63 feet up, and at other points passengers look down steep hills to a track tail the train navigated minutes earlier. This is the third longest loop configuration in the world. A train has to be longer than 80 cars to catch itself at the bridge.
We "turned around" in Farner, Tennessee. Well, we did not turn around, the two engines unhooked, looped onto another track and went to the other end of the train and hooked-up. The brakes are tested for the downhill trek and the train heads back to Gee Creek, taking us back to the starting point.
So, for the second half of this trip, we were able to go to the back of our train car and watch were we had been!
We did switch seats with our neighbors across the aisle. Since the train cars did not turn around, that was the only way for everyone to have a good view of some of the sights!
Some of us headed to dinner at Champy's Chicken back closer to the campground. What is Champy's?
It's an eclectic place with a family recipe that stretches back 40 years and a love for the food and culture of the Mississippi Delta. Seth and Crissy Champion opened the first Champy's Famous Fried Chicken in Chattanooga in June 2009.
Champy's delivers fried-to-order chicken, hand-rolled Mississippi tamales, homemade sides and desserts, a fun beverage selection, and the best atmosphere in town.
We all had, you guessed it, chicken! Sort of... Debbie W had chicken legs, Debbie D, Jim and Debbie C had chicken tenders, Tim had traditional fried chicken, Charlie had chicken sandwich, I had chicken salad salad and Joe had chicken livers... yuck, is that really chicken?
It was well after 8pm when we got back to the rig. We gave a few tours and called it a night. The caravan heads out tomorrow morning and we head to our campground for the IBMA World of Bluegrass events!
Stay tuned for more #TwoLaneAdventures
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