Great Smoky Mountains Railroad
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- This page is about a tourist railroad in North Carolina. For the defunct east Tennessee short line railroad, see Smoky Mountain Railroad.
The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad is a heritage railroad in North Carolina with depots in Dillsboro and Bryson City. The railroad operates over the western leg of the "Murphy Branch", a former branch line of the Southern Railway.
The railroad has an operational steam locomotive, 2-8-0 Consolidation #1702; another steam locomotive, #722 is currently being restored for operational service. There are also 4 diesel-electric locomotives, GP9 #711, #777, #1751 and #1755.
The route of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad passes through fertile valleys, through two tunnels and across river gorges in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina.
In addition to running tourist excursions year-round, the railroad also moves freight on its own tracks between Dillsboro and Andrews. GSMR interchanges with Norfolk Southern Railway in Sylva near Jackson Paper Company.
The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad is owned by American Heritage Railways, which is the parent company of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad.
In 2003, the railroad ran 963 excursions.
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[edit] Towns and Attractions Served
[edit] Popular Culture
The famous 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.
