June 1989

Old Railroad Grade Road

This is "Big Nance" cut on Old Railroad Grade Road going from Crab Tree towards Blevins. It's the biggest cut on this section of the right-of-way and curved. My car seemed a tight squeeze. Would you run a 7 foot wide steam engine plus long passenger cars through here? I measured the narrowest point and it was only 11 feet wide. Even if it was straight, that would leave only 2 feet on each side of the engine and cars. All in all a very interesting drive. I even ran up on 5 deer in here early one Sunday morning. All they could do was run down the road until they got out of the cut.

Old Railroad Grade Road is probably the easiest to get to section of the old right-of-way available. It's in almost pristine condition and except for being paved is very much the way it was when the ET&WNC railroad ran through here. If you don't get to do anything else while in the area, a drive along the 3-4 mile stretch of Old Railroad Grade Road (which includes one of the old railroad bridges) is not to be missed.