Fall Train to Copperhill, Tennessee

Last Saturday, my mom and I took a train from Etowah, TN through the Cherokee National Forest to Copperhill, TN. This is one of the many train trips offered by the Tennessee Valley Railroad and makes a perfect fall trip! Even though there wasn’t much color to be seen this year, it was a fun ride. We did it “past season” so it was a little cheaper–$65 vs. $80 when fall color is supposed to be at its peak. This year, I don’t think it really mattered.

ETOWAH, TN

This particular train trip doesn’t depart from Chattanooga but from Etowah, TN, about an hour’s drive north from Chattanooga (at least from our house near Ooltewah.) We left at 8(ish) am to get to the historic Etowah train station by about 9 am.

Ironically, this is not where you board the train. The majority of the parking seems to be here, and you pick your tickets up inside this charmingly historic building, but you end up taking an old Bluebird school bus to where the train actually departs.

BUS RIDE

The school bus is parked across the street and in the end, it didn’t leave until 9:30 am. So don’t think you’re going to be chugging off on a train at the official start time. Step one is the bus. (Except for perhaps some first-class folks. I’ll get to that later.)

We rode the bus 10 minutes down the road to Gee Creek State Park, part of the Hiwassee/Ocoee River park system.

THE TRAIN

As we boarded, a conductor punched our tickets and directed where us to the coach seats anywhere in the first four cars. All seats are configured into “fours” with pairs of seats that face each other. Since it was pretty crowded, we ended up sitting with a friendly couple from Sparta, TN.

Mom and I sat across from each other, figuring we’d rather sit next to a stranger than be knee to knee with one. But this also meant that while she and I both got window seats, our companions didn’t have quite so good a view.

There are men’s and women’s restrooms located on each train car (though on our trip, the last car’s were out of service.) And there’s a small snack bar featuring coffee, hot chocolate, canned sodas, and various Little Debbies, Moon Pies, and other packaged snacks, each for a dollar. But bring cash for your food unless you’ll spend over $25. You can also buy souvenirs like train toys, magnets, hats, and t-shirts at this spot. (And in case you miss the shirts, a volunteer will parade one the length of the train so you don’t miss your chance to spend money.)

TRIP TO COPPERHILL

Once we finally did depart, which was closer to 10 am, we pretty much had a running narration for the majority of the trip to Copperhill. The Conductor told us about the tiny towns we passed by and the ghost towns and stations that used to be there, natural formations, and lots of good-natured humor.

Here’s a tip–we sat on the left side of the train, according to the direction of travel. This is perfect for the narration to match what we were seeing, but terrible for pictures! The sun was in my eyes both going and coming back, and it was very hard to take pictures through the windows with the glare.

At one point, we traveled through the Appalachia Power House, a hydro-electric power plant in the official middle of nowhere. One one side, you can see a long suspension bridge for foot traffic from the River Road. On the other (which I didn’t get a picture of) are two huge pipes that take water from the bottom of the dammed river upstream.

Past the power plant, the wide and shallow Hiwassee becomes more narrow. This part of the river is appropriately called “the narrows.”

There is one section along here where there are mysterious holes or bowls in the largest rocks. They look like swiss cheese!

IN THE LOOP

The most exciting feature of this train journey is the “loop” section as you climb out of the mountains. The train crosses under a trestle, then parallels the lower portion of track before crossing the trestle above. If a train is long enough, it can cross itself! You hardly feel the change in elevation, since it’s only about a 10% grade.

There is a shorter train trip that takes you just to this point, then turns around and goes back. And truly, the most exciting part of the train trip is over at this point. After the loop, you are out of the mountains and passing farmland and rural neighborhoods. The narration also slows down for about 30 minutes before you reach Copperhill. This ended up being a nice chance to chat with our neighbors.

COPPERHILL, TN

We arrived in the small town of Copperhill at a little before 12:30. Our train stopped behind a bank, while just ahead (and almost nose-to-nose) was a train from Blue Ridge, GA. For comparison, The Tennessee Valley Railroad train travels 94 miles round trip. lasts 8 hours, has enclosed vintage train cars, and goes up to 45 mph. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway train travels 26 miles round trip, doesn’t travel over 10 miles an hour, and coach seats are in open-air excursion cars, which I imagine would have been chilly on this particular day! All for only about $10 less than our train. 

The town of Copperhill is actually two cities–Copperhill, TN, and McCaysville, GA. There’s a painted blue line diagonally down the street indicating the TN/GA line, and it even runs through some shops! The river runs right through town as well, and at the steel bridge, the Toccoa (as it’s called in Georgia) turns into the Ocoee (the name in Tennessee.)

There is some new construction of shops and restaurants past the bridge, but none of it was open, so we stayed on the north side of the river for our visit.

The first item of business was to find lunch! We ended up in the Rum Cake Lady’s Cuban Cafe, featuring tasty food in a small space. It’s all packaged to go, so even if you eat at a table, everything is in takeaway containers. I had a roast pork bowl with black beans and white rice and a beef empanada while mom ate the Arroz con Pollo, chicken with black beans and yellow rice. We split a mini rum cake for dessert.

It was all very tasty–I really liked everything I had. There are several options for lunch in town–BBQ, pizza, a grill serving burgers and fried catfish nuggets, a New York-style deli, and three different Mexican restaurants. If you choose to eat at the Cuban cafe, be mindful there aren’t very many tables. But if you get one, there is a nice street view.

Behind the Cuban Cafe is a Christmas shop selling some really cute stuff, and behind that is a shop selling wreaths, baskets, and other hand-woven items out of kudzu vines! She even makes a kudzu jelly out of the flowers. The state line also happens to run right through her shop and is helpfully painted on the floor.

There are lots of other cute shops, all in about a one-block by 4 block area. It is very manageable to see it all in a couple of hours. Be warned, however–it seems the two hours of Saturday fall traffic from the trains is shopowners’ biggest opportunity to turn a profit, so be prepared for salespeople that are a little pushier than average.

There are a lot of really cute shops here selling everything from cupcakes to cupboards. I saw a nice array of antler chandeliers in the back of a fudge shop at one point. Many things are either handmade or well-curated collections. It feels like a whole town of boutique shopping, but the prices aren’t so high. Definitely don’t miss the olive oil/tea shop.

RETURN TRIP TO ETOWAH

After a solid two hours in town, it was time to climb back aboard the train for home. It’s worth noting that you have to switch which side of the train you sit on for the return journey, so everyone gets a chance to see the view.

There was far less narration on the way back, the sun was going down, and what sun there was shone right in the windows, foiling further photography. I ended up hanging out the vestibule–the open area at the end of our car–with an absolute death grip on my new, and very expensive, phone.

On the trip back, mom and I decided to explore the train a little more. The first car was a normal passenger car, built in the 50’s-60’s like all the cars on this train. The second car is called a commissary car (I think) with passenger seating and the snack bar and gift shop. The conductor narrated from this car over a PA system and there was a little model train that ran around the top! Well, I never saw it run, but it looked like it could.

The third car was another normal passenger car and the one we sat in the majority of the journey. The fourth car was cool, though–instead of bathrooms at each end, there were bathrooms in the middle, coach seating on either side, and a curved stairway up to a domed seating area. The fifth car was an observation car with a curved end and waiting-room style seating with another domed area on top. The Observation car and domed upper levels are all more expensive tickets, $95 and $115 respectively. In fact, you can’t get into these areas without a colored wristband.

PRO TIP–I’ve found on both of my train trips that it’s best to go all the way to the back of your section, i.e.–all the way back in coach. The seats in this fourth car were much more peaceful and less crowded! And it felt more first-class than the rest of the coach cars. We sat in the very last seat in the back of the fourth car for the rest of the return journey. I wish we had sat there the whole time!

Near the end of our return journey, our conductor brought out his banjo, told a few stories and picked a little. He played three songs in each car, and best as I could tell, the same three: I’ll Fly Away, Duelling Banjos, and Rocky Top. There was some singing along, albeit quietly, in car four, but when I went to retrieve our things from car three, the crowd in there was singing much louder! That was fun.

At around 5:30 pm, we pulled back into Gee Creek State Park. The train made two stops to depart, one for cars four and five (basically first class, but another reason to go all the way back in coach!) then another stop for cars 1-3. I swear I saw a few first-class passengers head straight to the Gee Creek parking lot instead of the school buses, so perhaps that is another perk of the more expensive ticket.

For the rest of us, it was back on the buses like schoolchildren for the 10-minute ride back to our cars. For those inclined, Etowah offers plenty of dining options for an evening meal, should you so choose, but we chose to drive home.

All in all, it was a lovely way to spend a Saturday! I love these Tennessee Valley Railroad trips, and I can imagine this one would have been even better had the fall color been a little more present. A seat in the domed cars would have also been really fun!