This is the third in a four-part series exploring the railways that travel through the Southeast’s mountains and forests. In Part 3, we visit the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, which offers scenic train trips from its Delano location.
By the Backroad Portfolio staff
The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum in Delano runs two scenic rides along the old Hiwassee River corridor through the Cherokee National Forest. The Hiwassee Loop is a continuous 50-mile, roughly 4½-hour round trip that features the famous spiral loop near Farner, where the train climbs Bald Mountain and crosses over its own track.
The Copperhill Special extends this journey to about 94 miles lasting over 8 hours, continuing through Turtletown and Ducktown, all the way to the twin border towns of Copperhill, Tennessee, and McCaysville, Georgia, where passengers enjoy a 90-minute layover.
Ride in a climate-controlled vintage car, with choices from standard coach up to Crown Class, lounge, observation, and dome cars that give you elevated views of the river gorge, forested mountains, rocky bluffs, and historic bridges. Narration covers the line’s days as part of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad’s Atlanta Division, when it hauled copper out of the Copper Basin. The scenery feels remote and untouched—the same lands that our ancestors might have seen from their train windows.
