Great Smoky Mountains Railroad
The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad is a heritage railway in the U.S. state of North Carolina with depots in Dillsboro and Bryson City.
The Railroad has one steam and four diesel-electric locomotives. The route goes over fertile valleys, through tunnels and across river gorges in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina. The railroad operates over the western leg of the "Murphy Branch", a former branch line of the Southern Railway.
In addition to running tourist excursions year-round, the railroad also moves freight on its own tracks between Dillsboro and Andrews and along some portions of the Norfolk Southern Railway tracks in Sylva.
In 2003, the railroad ran 963 excursions.
Towns and Attractions Served
Popular Culture
The infamous train wreck scene in the 1993 Warner Brothers blockbuster movie The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones was filmed in Dillsboro along the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. The wreckage set can still be viewed on outbound train excursions from Dillsboro.
The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad was also used in the filming of 1996 Warner Brothers comedy My Fellow Americans starring Jack Lemmon and James Garner when they stumble on to a charter train full of UNC-Chapel Hill fans headed for the NCAA Final Four.
Train scenes in the 1998 DreamWorks SKG film Forces of Nature starring Ben Affleck and Sandra Bullock were also filmed on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.
