The Tallulah Falls Railway, first came to my attention after I moved to North Georgia in 1995.  Something about this abandoned shortline drew my attention, though looking back I'm not sure exactly why I fell in love with this line.  Looking back, I think it was a number of things, not the least of which being the fact that the railroad really didn't have to close.  It served a purpose, and for a time was a major industry in the area.  Sadly, in 1961, the company finally sold the railroad to scrap.



Ever see the Disney movie, "The Great Locomotive Chase?"  Well if you have, then you've seen the TFRR in its heyday.  In 1955, six years before the end and the scrapper's torch would come, Disney came to Georgia and filmed the movie on the TF.  It's said, that Walt loved the railroad so much, that he offered to buy the company outright for tourist purposes. Sadly that was not to be, and the end came six years later.



What IF?  Tallulah Falls asks the question.  What if Disney HAD purchased the railroad, and managed to convert it into something profitable and tourist worthy? What might the railroad look like today?  Would it be changed, or would things be pretty much the same as they were?  With aging 70 tonners plying the limited freight trade and rare passenger service; or perhaps would it be something else?  



In this, the first actual PAYWARE route to be offered on this site, I ask that question and think I have an answer. The time is 2015, and the little railroad is quickly approaching the 60 year anniversary of the day Disney purchased the company.  Though only currently operating passengers as far as Tallulah Gorge, (actually a bit above the Gorge for scenic purposes,) the railroad has found a niche that tourists flock to.  With daily trains pulled by historic steam locomotives making the round trip from Cornelia to Talluhah and back, and freight booming from a completed connection out of Franklin NC to CSX, the company has become something it once dreamed of being.  A bridge line between NS (then Southern) and CSX.  



Keeping with the What IF theme, the line stands out as being one of the few, if not the last, regular operators of steam freight in the country...if not the world.