If you want to see some Southern steam and more. . . .
Start off your trip in Chattanooga, Tennessee at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (TVRM) on a weekend, where you can ride behind Southern 630 or 4501. Then take the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway up Lookout Mountain for a birds-eye view of Chattanooga. Then head to the south side of Chickamauga Dam, at the beginning of the Tennessee Riverwalk, a concrete walkway paralleling the Tennessee River to Ross' Landing in Downtown Chattanooga. The parking lot at the beginning of 'The Riverwalk' is crossed over by Norfolk Southern's bridge over the Tennessee River, a.k.a. 'Tenbridge'. Holtzclaw Ave. has the East Chattanooga Belt Terminal (ECBT) paralleling it. The ECBT is owned by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, so you get to see TVRM excursions heading into northern Georgia, plus the Chattanooga-Attala, Alabama mainline excursions. 23rd street crosses over the leads to both Norfolk Southern's DeButts Yard and the lead to the yard's shops. U.S. highway 11 crosses over both Norfolk Southern and CSX's mainline, plus the ECBT's connection to Norfolk Southern, CSX, and Chattanooga & Chickamauga, which the TVRM's excursions into Georgia travel on. If you want to, spend the night at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo hotel.
Take Interstate 75 north to Knoxville and ride the Three Rivers Rambler, a 'newer' tourist railway which gets it's name from the Three Rivers Bridge, which is a bridge over the Holston River where it meets the French Broad River and forms the Tennessee River, where on weekends they run either Washington & Lincoln 2-8-0 #203 and Southern 2-8-0 #154, whose actually older than 630!
If you want to, take a side trip to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a.k.a. 'The Secret City', which played a critical part in the 'Manhattan Project', which developed the atomic bomb, and take a trip on the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum, which operates the 'Secret City Scenic', which is the only public access to the K-25 facility, where the uranium in the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima was made.
Next, take Interstate 40 east to the Sevierville/Pigeon Forge exit and head to the theme park Dollywood. Take a six-mile ride on the Dollywood Express, which takes you away from the developed areas of the park and into the mountains around the theme park. The train is pulled by one of two narrow gauge ex-White Pass and Yukon 2-8-2s up grades up to 5 percent. The departure from the station is a impressive scene, where the train immediately takes on a 3 percent uphill grade. The track is a loop-to-loop design, with the 'upper loop' over 200 feet above the 'lower loop', where the station is. Finish out your trip to Dollywood by riding their wooden roller coaster Thunderhead, which sits next to the Dollywood Express's route, so you get to see 'The Train' climb uphill while waiting in line to ride this awesome roller coaster.
Enjoy your trip!
