Come on down! We'll be having an exhibit to promote for the museum during the event. See you there. jim

GRAHAM COUNTY SHAY STEAM LOCOMOTIVE TO VISIT
GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS RAILROAD DURING RAILFEST 2003

The Great Smoky Mountains RailroadÂ’s third annual RAILFEST, a weekend of excitement for history and railroad buffs alike, will host a visit from a historic steam locomotive September 12-14th. Graham County Shay No. 1925 will be on loan from the North Carolina Transportation Museum during the festival in Bryson City.
It will carry passengers on the “Kituwah Excursion” to the Homeland of the Cherokee. Shay No. 1925 will make school trips out of the GSMRR depot in Dillsboro on Wednesday, September 10th.

In a sense this is a homecoming for the Shay No. 1925. During the “hay days” of lumbering in Western North Carolina, these geared steam engines carried the harvest out of the mountains. The logging industry created jobs for the mountain residents of Jackson, Swain, Transylvania, Haywood, Macon, Clay and Cherokee counties. The Graham County Shay traveled the 12.6-mile Topton to Robbinsville short line for almost 50 years. The “little engines that could” were a necessity to make the sharp turns and 6% grade.

Saturday and Sunday, September 13th and 14th the Shay No. 1925 will be on display at the Bryson City Depot of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. A limited number of seats are available for some of the Shay excursions those days. Tickets are available by reservation at 1-800-872-4681.

Numbered for the year she was built at Lima Locomotive works in Ohio, the No. 1925 Shay went to work on the Bemis Lumber CompanyÂ’s Graham County Railroad. The fuel capacity for the 53-foot long steam engine is 5 tons of coal and 3,500 gallons of water. Its working weight is 87 tons. On the final run in 1970, North Carolina native, CBS reporter Charles Kuralt, put the Shay No. 1925 in the national television spotlight.

Then in 1988 the Shay was donated to the North Carolina Transportation Museum Foundation. It was in need of a complete restoration. Volunteers and professional craftsmen rebuilt or replaced countless parts as the entire 3-cylinder drive mechanism and gears were overhauled. The boiler was rebuilt; a new water tank and coal bunker fabricated. The family of Ed Collins who was an engineer on the Shay No. 1925 for 37 years donated his personal whistle for the steam locomotive and was honored when the little geared engine was named for him. The Collins family will be in attendance at RAILFEST 2003.

This rare steam locomotive visit to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad is a living reminder of a time when these little engines moved mountains and the short line railroads were small town America’s best friend. RAILFEST 2003 is an opportunity to experience that time again with free entertainment including the Buckingham Lining Bar Gang and The Depot Band, a railroad swap meet, Mountain Craft Fair, and motor car exhibit – all at the GSMRR Bryson City Depot.

For more information on the event, call the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad at
1-800-872-4681. Tickets are available for excursions through the colorful countryside of North Carolina, across Lake Fontana, and into the serene Nantahala Gorge during the RAILFEST 2003 weekend and all year long.



http://nctrans.org
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