Sunday, August 3, 2014

Day 2, part 1, Blue Ridge Railroad

My night stay was less than an hour drive to Blue Ridge, GA, all I needed this morning. An early start arrived me in Blue Ridge well ahead of the scheduled excursion. I got some picture of along side the railroad with some added structures to the old station. There wasn't much beyond the excursion train at the station. So I begin with slides of the area:

Now, I took a look in the gift shop. It was typical of scenic railroad gifts. There is the required Engineers caps with RR logo. A variety of tee and sweat shirts are everywhere. Glassware like shot glasses tumblers and mugs become a staple. We find various toy trains, Brio and the like, with the most popular being Thomas the Tank Engine. Of course we find patches for the railroad. I got my patch for the RR shirt and one for my display wall. There was a mug that I had to have. Here I found the railroad patches for those that I don't have, the ones that are sewn to my RR shirt. I use to collect 4 from each excursion and museum. I have most of the large railroads, including the heritage.

I had not planned on chasing the train to Copperhill. The first route, according to Google, did not even come close to the tracks. One of the suggested routes did cross the tracks at one point. Google indicates that the drive would take 20 minutes. According to the website, the excursion to Copperhill would take an hour. So, could easily make the crossing and be in Copperhill in plenty of time for the train to arrive there.

I set up in a parking lot just north of the station, waiting for the first runby. After the train had passed I made my way to the crossing. I was doing well for in less than a mile, I had almost passed the train. I had plenty of time at the crossing. I set my camcorder on a fence post and stood back to watch for the train. The next runby came by chance. My planning through Google street view, found a nice side road which ran beside the railroad, with time, I followed about a mile and found a Church yard over looking the tracks and up hill.

So here is the chase:


No comments:

Post a Comment