Today, while it was raining outside, my 2 year old and I were watching an old VHS of GSMR's 1702 running the length of the Murphy Branch all the way to Murphy in June 1992. It made me wonder when did GSMR quit regularly running on the lower end of the Branch. In my 1992 brochures, they advertised summer trips out of Andrews and Murphy both. Sometime after that, they dropped the Murphy trips but I rode out of Andrews in the Summer 1999. According to old versions of their website (see http://www.archive.org/) they were running out of Andrews on weekends only in June, July, & August 1999. In 2000, they only ran on weekends in July. By 2001, the only trips even mentioning Andrews are Special trips.

Speaking of the Special trips, when did the "Ride the entire line" special trips quit going all he way to Murphy? I remember 10 years ago when we rode that trip out of Andrews, we drove in via Murphy. It didn't look like GSMR had run into Murphy in a long time. Are their no freight customers beyond Andrews?

Just curious.

Matt

AFAIK, their only freight customer is located in Andrews. As part of this year's Railfest, they're running a "Sunday Photo Special" from Bryson City to Andrews on Sept. 20th.
http://www.gsmr.com/

Jim Tatum.

The big issue with the Murphy trips was a wooden trestle out near Maltby or Marble behind some factory building that needed repairs. Without digging out some of the old brochures, I would hazard a guess to say the last entire-line trips stopped around '93-94. When they started, they were running Murphy to Andrews trips also, but I think those stopped around 1994 also.

I'm not 100% sure on the date of the last run to Murphy, but I believe it was late '95 or early '96. It was after Steve Webb hired on, as he was on the trip. They had to turn the engine, so apparently it was turned to face east somewhere after July/August 1995...and turned again before the 1996 season started. Hopefully, Jim Wrinn, John Bohon, or someone else will chime in here with a few more details.

The last freight customer is in Andrews, right after the highway overpass.
Kevin

I am afraid I can not add much to what has been said. All of this took place during my years of not being able to travel much. Around 1990 the railroad contractor I worked for did some mudsill work to the trestle that has the line out of service. The trestle is in poor condition but I am not aware of any particular defect that caused the railroad to stop running. Of course, after all these years there probably are more than one such defect. I know the owner at the time was not happy with the lack of support he got from the town of Murphy, especially compared to that he received from the other towns. The lack of support from the town was at least partially the reason trains out of Murphy were not seeing the passenger counts of the other towns. I suspect this may have had as much to do with ceasing operations on that portion of the line as the condition of the track or bridges.

Jim Wrinn was riding the tender of 1702 on a trip from Dillsboro to Murphy when the engine was turned on the wye at Murphy. Hopefully he can recall the date.

The freight customer in Andrews is a grain company that is, or possibly was, called Parker Wrightman if I recall correctly. Georgia Pacific was loading logs in Bryson in the early years and was still doing so the last time I was in that town. That was a long time ago and I do not think I knew they were not still loading.

The only time I ever saw 1702 it was running a long trip from Dillsboro to Andrews in mid 1999. The line was out of service beyond to Murphy by then.

John Bohon

I know Wrinn was riding the first steam trip to Murphy, which was June 1992. Riding the tender in either direction over Red Marble is a wonderful experience, not to be easily forgotten, so I'm sure he was having the time of his life on that trip.
Kevin

Jim Wrinn is shown several times in the video that I was watching. He was all smile from ear to ear. He is also mentioned in the credits as a producer or assistant producer of the video.

I was on the last train to Murphy. We delivered a caboose to the old depot right at the very end of the line, turned the dining car on the wye just outside of town and came back. I have never been much for taking pictures, but at the time I figured this would be the last trip to Murphy for a while (I was right) so I picked up a disposable and snapped a few just in case. Unfortunately, the pictures are not high quality. If I get a chance to scan them, I'll post a couple of the good ones.

Cheers,
Mike MacLean
Director, Steam Operations
New Hope Valley Railway

**EDIT** Corrected a typo

The length of the line trips sponsored by NCTMF as fundraisers for Graham Co. RR Shay No. 1925 began in 1989 with a diesel powered trip from Dillsboro to Murphy that June. The following year we started in Murphy and ran one way to Dillsboro. In 1991, the originating depot returned to Dillsboro with geeps 777 and 711.

In 1992, we took 1702 (and a diesel helper for the grades) facing west to Murphy, wyed it, and the locomotive ran facing east until the following year when we took it to Murphy again, but this time tender first in both directions as management decided the engine "looked right" departing Dillsboro face forward.

Those were fun trips and the 1992 first run with steam over Red Marble Gap was an incredible opportunity as was the following year when 1702 had to double the hill westbound between Nantahala and Topton!

Jim

Found the pictures and scanned them in. There were so many that I added them to our own website instead of posting them all here. You can click on the thumbnails to see larger versions.

http://www.engine17.org/GSMR_Murphy/index.htm

I look forward to any feedback. Enjoy!

Thanks,
Mike MacLean
Director, Steam Operations
New Hope Valley Railway

The GSMR owns from MP49 to MP100.1. (Dillsboro to West side of Andrews). The track from the 100.1 to the 114 is owned by the state, and not operated. The only consistant freight customer while I was there was the Parker & Reichman feed mill in Andrews. The Georgia Pacific yard in Bryson still had logs in it last time I went by, but they had not interest in shipping by rail. The pallet factory in Bryson (Manness)went out of business in about 2005. Last shipment out of there was around 2000, give or take. They do pull rock out of Nantahala Talc and Limestone at MP 85 for MOW use, but no through shipments.

The track west of Andrews is not fit for anything more than a speeder, perhaps a light highrailer. There is a large wooden trestle just west of a cinder block manufacture that was subject to many cab conversations about condition. It was the tallest wooden structure on the branch West of Sylva. The east leg of the wye in Murphy is also now half buried by a mini storage.

Ryan