I enjoyed all the comments left on yesterday’s post about the humorous train story.
Here are two that I wanted to share today.
Joe Mode: Here’s a story regarding my 2nd great grandfather Evan T. Davis, as told by Velma Davis Wolfenbarger, daughter of Allan Davis. My Davis clan is out of Big Pine, Madison County North Carolina. “Grandpaw Evan Davis told his sons Jason, Allan, and the others that if they hurried and got the corn cut and hauled in, they could go way on top of the mountain to see a train. Usually they could only hear it. They went up on top and saw the train way down below. One of the boys said, “There it is pap.” When it appeared to be going into a hole (tunnel) he went on to say “Let’s go dig it out, I bet it has a little one.”
Oh goodness the train story from Joe’s family is as good as the one shared by Louisa Duls in the book “Mountain Voices.”
Don Byers: I love trains…when I was a kid in Ivy Log we could hear the train whistle as it went through Culberson..my mother’s first washing machine came from Chicago via Spiegle mail order catalog to the train station in Murphy. Sylvan Owenby picked it up with his new 1947 Ford ton-and-a-half.
I have ridden trains all over Japan, Scotland, Wales and England. Biggest thrill was riding behind the steam engine ole 1702 round trip from Bryson City to Nantahala..Ride that train! Johnny Cash said to!!!
Don lives in my neck of the woods so the train he heard is the same one I’ve heard Granny tell stories about. Her older sisters sometimes road it to Murphy to work and to high school.
Pap once told me a sweet story about the train in Murphy.
They were attending church in Factory Town, which is a little community in the city limits of Murphy. Pap said as they sat on the bench his mother gently poked him in the arm and pointed her head out the window. Pap was only three or four years old and almost had to stand up in the pew to see what she was pointing at. It was the train coming into Murphy.
I always thought Pap’s mother showing him the train was the sweetest image. The memory conveys the feeling of those personal glances and looks we give those we love. You know, when you know someone so well no words are needed to send a message only a nod of the head or a raise of the eyebrow.
Last night’s video: 9 Brides & Granny Hite 5.
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I grew up in Canton N.C. and grandad Childers was an engeneer on a train that hawled pulp wood and logs to the mill . When we were kids dad would get the old merc to catchup with him on the hiway and blow the horn at him and he would blow the whistle and wave at us. Grand dad knew all the trains on the line and knew the engeneers by the patern and number of blows of their whistle. Later in life dad collected recordings of train whistles . Dad’s funeral was at Wells Funeral home near the tracks going through Canton. Right at the end of his funeral. I mean at the last amen, a train came rumbeling past the funeral home and did a long mornfull blow .
Dennis-thank you for sharing the story of your grandad and dad.
I’ve rode small trains in a few amusement parks like Dollywood and back in the day when Ghost Town in the Sky was open, and one in WV, but I’ve forgotten which park it was in. However, I’ve never rode a train that actually goes somewhere other than the park it’s in, or what one calls a public transportation train. It’s one of the things I want to do in my life, but just haven’t done it yet. I’ve heard many stories about trains growing up in WV. We were taught more about the tunnels that were built for the trains to go through. We have a lot of tunnels in WV because of all the big mountains. Growing up I learned from my dad’s people and in school about the legend of John Henry. John Henry was a free black man who took pride in his work of picking/hammering out rock for the explosives to go in to blast out the tunnels through the mountains of WV back in 1870’s. While John Henry was working on a crew with the C &O Railroad company to build what is now called the Big Bend Tunnel in Talcott WV, the company brought in a new new drill machine. It was told John Henry didn’t want the new drill machine to replace the jobs of men like himself to do the same job, so he challenged the machine to see who could do the job better. John Henry finished the job before the machine, but sadly died shortly afterwards from all the stress on his heart from the hard, stressful work of finishing the tunnel. At school we not only learned the history, but also the song written about John Henry the steel driving man. In 1972 when a local club raised money to honor John Henry with a statue of him, 100 years after the finishing of the Big Bend Tunnel, our family took the trip to visit the memorial. My dad’s people are all from Talcott, WV, so we’ve heard the story passed down from many of them that heard it from their extended people that worked or knew people that worked for or around the tunnel. The story was always told about the same way, so I have no doubt it true. I’ve read many other tunnels throughout WV claimed their tunnel was the one John Henry worked in and died in, but even though John Henry may have worked in their tunnels, theirs wasn’t the tunnels he challenged the drill machine in. There are books and researches who claim that this event never happened and one researcher even claims the only John Henry recorded lived in NJ, never worked on the railroads and died from sickness not related to work stress. Another claimed they found John Henry was a prisoner in VA who never worked for any railroad company and others claim there was no such man and it was all a myth. I don’t believe any of these so called researchers. I believe the historical story I was taught and heard from our people who lived in the area from them days gone by. The C&O Railroad records of the event mysteriously were burned, so even those company records are gone, but that doesn’t mean all the people who lived and witnessed the event lied about what they saw and heard. I personally think the company coved up the story along with the company the drill machine came from so one they wouldn’t be liable for any fault in allowing the challenge and the fact a man could do better work than a new machine the company was trying to sell. The machine company claim there was never a drill machine sent to the building of the Big Bend Tunnel, but how could people describe the machine if one had never been there. None of the so called researchers interviewed any of the living people that was actually there, but one. In 1920 Guy Johnson interviewed the only person living during the building of the tunnel 1870-1872, named Nell Miller who didn’t work in the construction, but was a water carrier to deliver water to the men that did. He was around 17 at the time. He did witness the event and told his story to Guy Johnson. Since he was the only living eyewitness in Talcott and there were no documents from either company to confirm the stories, Johnson wrote it off as it might or might not have been a true event. You can Google and read it all for yourselves, but after hearing it from so many of my dad’s people back when so many of them were still living and being taught in school about John Henry the steel driving man, I for one believe it is true. I’m thankful for the people In Talcott, WV for honoring the memory of a hardworking, dedicated man who proved humans are better than machines. Sorry for the long comment, but just had to share about not just John Henry, but all the hard working men who built the tunnels that trains go through all across WV and all over the USA.
Christine-thank you for sharing the information. So fascinating!!
I rode train to Copperhill Tennessee one time, it’ started in Blue ridge i think it was, no, maybe blairsville Georgia
I love riding the train at Dollywood. Rode the one at Bryson city too. I grew up in Clyde NC and we could hear the train whistle passing through of a night. Used to hear it here in Waynesville but haven’t lately…I don’t know if that has anything to do with the mill closing or not but it might. Seems like things are changing alot lately. I hope hearing trains passing through isn’t part of it
My momma’s family lived close “to the brow” of Sand Mt here in Alabama. The train tracks ran through the valley and towns like Ft Payne and Collinsville going north/south to Chattanooga and B’ham. Sitting on the front porch if we could hear a train six miles away, my grandmother would say “ it’s going to rain”. That meant the wind was out of the east carrying the sound of the train and the usual direction our rain patterns came from.
I have already wrote an earlier comment but didn’t think of this- I have brought both my children and grandchildren to Bryson City and rode the train on their short trips in both directions. I want to ask this question, is the bridge over the river near the train station the same bridge Jim Casada mentions in his story about Catfish Al?
The train tracks and train are right in front of where my husband works. When he calls me on his lunch, I hear the whistle every time. He always says o gosh here comes that old train. And then it blows so loud. There’s alot of trains around where we live , few miles away but lots of em. Tell Granny hi and prayers still going up for her.
I didn’t get to read yesterday’s post until late, but I thought it was such a cute story and I enjoyed the comments. I’ve always loved trains. My son loved them as a child and still does. There is a little town about six miles from here that the train goes right through the middle. We would go get hotdogs and I would park in a parking place right in front of the tracks so we would sit and eat and watch for the train to come by. Sweet thing is, he’ll be 40 in April and sometimes if he gets a chance he’ll call and ask, ” mama, let’s go get hotdogs and park at the train tracks.” Now, he’s the one driving me. 🙂
I thought Gene’s comment was funny, that was a new one for me. I wonder if the same principle applies to standing under an airplane when it flies over. There is something about trains that fascinates me, every time I see one I feel an urge to hope on and see where it is going. I saw and had to wait on a train back on Wednesday of this week and felt the “urge”. I reckon I have some “hobo” blood in me. Back when trains came through Honea Path, SC , I would sometimes hear them blowing their whistles when they came through town during the summer nights back before air conditioning and we still raised the windows. This small town is 13 miles away.
“I always thought Pap’s mother showing him the train was the sweetest image. The memory conveys the feeling of those personal glances and looks we give those we love. You know, when you know someone so well no words are needed to send a message only a nod of the head or a raise of the eyebrow.”
Beautiful.
Thank you, Tipper.
Thanks Tipper! I have always loved trains too, hopped one when I was foolish just for the fun of it. And it was fun, until it got going too fast to jump off, ha ha. As a Civil War reenactor, we rode what was called the Longstreet Train into the Battle of Chickamauga, as some of the Confederate troops had done back then. People were at every railroad cheering us. We rode the flat cars, and must have ran over a yellow jacket’s nest because I got stung five or six times, they stayed with the train for way too long. I was wounded before the battle ever started, ha ha. My ancestor fought at that battle too.
Sorry folks, my mistake. Hiawassee Excursion train website says Hiawassee Loop is one of 6 in US but only one in the east.
I have ridden a short trip excursion train but I’d like (I think) to take a long train trip. Somehow trains just have a something that buses, cars and planes do not. Up on the Hiawassee River just barely inside TN is the Hiawassee Loop, one of only two places in the US where the tracks circle a knob and cross back over themselves enroute to NC. I believe there is an excursion train that runs that route.
The toilets were open on the trains of my youth. We had to watch where we stepped on the way to school…. hence the song “We encourage constipation while the train is in the station,” sung to the tune of Humoresque.
When I was a young girl, I went to a Christian summer camp somewhere around Asheville, Camp Greystone, which they now say is located in Zirconia, NC, but back then it was addressed to Asheville. I took a train from Cincinnati, Ohio to Asheville, arriving at a wonderful old station back when Asheville was a much smaller and more country town. That was the only time I rode a train, but I remember the sleeping cars and the gentle rocking and mesmerizing sounds of the wheels on the rails.
Great stories, I have to admit. There is a train that goes from Blue Ridge to McCaysville daily, unless notified. It is a 13 mile long track that has both open-air cars and enclosed cars. The passengers can chose either and enjoy the breeze or climate controlled enclosed cars. It takes one hour to travel that 13 miles and a one hour layover to do some shopping and/or lunch at a local restaurant. You then can travel back and do a little more shopping at the stores there in Blue Ridge. The trip is narrated, that is what I used to do, to point out interesting sites along the way. I bet ‘if tracks could talk’ some of the stores you could hear. Thanks for sharing Tipper and God Bless you guys.
Glad you liked my story about trains! My friend the talented Gove Scrivenor does a super job on the Jack Clement song “I’ve Got A Thing About Trains”. I always requested it when we had a gig together. Cash did the song too I think. I spend quite a bit of time in Bryson City and always stop what I am doing when I hear ole 1702’s stem whistle or one of the diesel’s air horns blowing. Wishing everyone a good weekend!
I rode the train from Bryson City to Nantahala and back a couple of times but had I known it was recommended by Johnny Crash I wouldn’t have.
I walked various portions of the track back when it was still part of Southern Railway. I even walked across the trestle above the Little Tennessee River. I am afraid of heights anyway and the lake was down to it’s lowest level. That and the fact that there isn’t much of a place to step aside when the train comes along is a frightening experience. And the fact that I had to walk back made it twice as worse.