Bryson City, NC

Bryson City, North Carolina
Population: 1,353
Small Town Treasure: The Great Smoky Mountain Train Museum and Scenic Railroad

          Hidden in the Smoky Mountains of extreme western North Carolina is the small town of Bryson City. Like many small towns, there's only a handful of traffic lights, and the small, family-owned shops that line the brick-paved main street remain closed for church on Sundays. If you were to pass through Bryson City and hear faint blast of a train horn reverberating through the surrounding mountains, you probably wouldn't think twice about it. After all, it's probably just another freight train transporting coal from the mines to the power plant. But there's a very good chance that the train horn you heard echoeing through the trees was that of The Great Smoky Mountain Engine rolling through the scenic valleys surrounding Bryson City. The Great Smoky Mountain Railway was assembled from the remnants of The Murphy Branch, a train route built in the late 1800's that eventually such down in 1948 after passenger traffic declined due to the increasing popularity of automobiles. Today, the railway offers 53 miles of breath-taking views of the American country side. The train departs daily from Bryson City and meanders through the Smoky Mountains, crossing over 25 bridges and carving through 2 mountain tunnels. The winding railway passes through miles of wilderness that remain untouched by civilization.
     The train ride alone is priceless, but perhaps the most fascinating aspect of The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad is the train museum that sits just a few feet off of the tracks in Bryson City. So, if you happen to miss the last train ride of the day, you can still marvel at the largest collection of Lionel model engines in the United States, consisting of over 7,000 model engines. The museum also houses one of the largeset and most intricate model layouts in the world (see picture). The collection of trains dates back to 1918 and contains some of the rarest model trains in existence. When you take into consideration the rural location and modest construction of the museum (see picture), the overwhelming collection seems even more impressive.
     The Great Smoky Mountain Museum and railway is a perfect example of one of America's hidden treasures. The landscapes of the railway and the collections in the museum offer visitors a rare look into the past of America and is simply a feel-good, small-town treasure waiting to be discovered on your next road trip.