Sevierville

Sevierville's first train was the Knoxville, Sevierville, and Eastern Railway (KS&E). It was notoriously behind schedule and quickly earned the nickname “Old Slow and Easy” because the train averaged only 11 miles an hour, due to many stops along its route., After several aborted attempts to acquire railroad service between Knoxville and Sevierville, the first train, greeted by joyous fanfare of over 600 people, arrived in Sevierville in 1910. Initially, the tracks stopped west of the river, but in 1916 a trestle was constructed and the tracks continued along and beyond Bruce Street. The line ran past Pigeon Forge and south to McCookville, about halfway to Gatlinburg. Originally planned to reach Newfound Gap, the railway Throughout a financially rocky history, the line operated under four different names: Knoxville, Sevierville, and Eastern (1909-1921), Knoxville and Carolina (1921-1926), Tennessee and North Carolina (1926-1938) and Smoky Mountain (1938-1961). Founder William J. Oliver envisioned selling his new railroad to the growing Southern Railway System, but the sale never happened. Undaunted, Oliver built his line anyway, anticipating a future over-mountain link with another railroad in North Carolina., For economy's sake, the KS&E was routed through a pre-existing rock cut at Shooks Gap in Bays Mountain, just south of Knoxville. The county line cut was originally made in the 1880s for a previously failed railway project. The railway's Sevier County stations were Shooks, Pitner, Seymour, Oak City, McMahan, Boyds Creek, Revilo (founder Oliver's name spelled backward), and Ewing and Sevierville. Beyond Sevierville there were stations at Middle Creek, Pigeon Forge, and finally, McCookville., During its era, the Smoky Mountain Railroad operated unique steam locomotives and wooden passenger and freight cars. The line aided the economic growth of Sevier County and proved essential to the construction of the Douglas Dam during World War II. A branch line was constructed to the dam site and the railroad hauled most of the materials and equipment used to construct the dam., In its final years, the railroad's track and trestles deteriorated making derailments commonplace. The rise in personal motor vehicle use would seal the line's fate. The final train ran in January 1961, and its rails were removed five years later., Captions , [Left, top] K.S. and E. arriving in Sevierville , [Left, bottom] Railroad trestle bridge crossing Little Pigeon River , [Right, top] Sevierville railroad depot 1916 , [Right, bottom] Old Slow and Easy chugging towards Sevierville