Railroad Connections

One of the trains owned by the Smoky Mountain Railroad (KS&E)

As a boy, I grew up on two adjacent properties located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains between Knoxville and Sevierville Tennessee. The first property was owned by my Grandfather (Ulis) and “Nannie” Justice (my Mother’s parents), and the second property was owned by my Mother and Dad (Charles and Dorsey Lou Woliver). The property line common to the two properties was the railroad tracks of the Smoky Mountain Railroad.

"The Smoky Mountain Railroad, originally built as the Knoxville, Sevierville & Eastern Railway, or KS&E. Those initials, as well as the trains’ 11 mile per hour speeds, inspired the line’s still-used nickname, “Knoxville, Slow & Easy.” From 1910 until 1961, the “Slow & Easy” linked downtown Knoxville with Sevierville. During the Roaring Twenties, an affiliated line, the Pigeon River Railroad, extended service to Pigeon Forge and McCookville.

In the railroad’s earliest days, South Knoxville and south Knox County were still mostly rural. From Vestal, the KS&E struck out across country, following the lay of the land. Small passenger depots and shelters were named for communities and property owners. The Knox County stops were Kincaid (Martin Mill Pike crossing), Ford (Magazine Road / West Ford Valley Road intersection), Clear Spring (along Dick Ford Lane), Neuberts (Tipton Station Road / Pickens Gap Road intersection) and Klondike (Highland View Road crossing).

Its final train ran in January, 1961, and its rails were removed five years later."

Joe Holloway (email: SmokyMtnRR@gmail.com) is an amateur historian and native South Knoxvillian.

One of my first memories as a very young boy was helping my parents and my Nannie stomp out a brush fire caused by a cinder that belched from the smoke stack of the steam engine pictured above. To have a train pass by our house a couple of times a day was fascinating to me.

After the Smoky Mountain Railroad stopped running in 1961, my brother Kim and I had a wonderful time traveling and exploring the defunct railroad bed along our property and beyond. It became our “secret” passageway to other properties along the route. Our imaginations ran up and down the tracks much faster than the KS&E ever did.

But that connection to a local railroad pales compared to the fact that I grew up in a family of at least two generations of railroad workers on both sides (paternal and maternal). I was surrounded by railroad talk: stories about train wrecks and derailments, labor disputes, and power struggles between workers and administrators.

Ulis Adrian Justice (3/25/1891-11/22/1952), my maternal grandfather

Earnest William Woliver (“Papaw”) (4/8/1903-8/23/1980)

Charles L. Woliver (Dad) (May 21,1927-May 9, 2017)

Dad worked for the L&N (CSX) railroad for 43 years. He was first hired as a fireman (the job included shoveling coal into the furnace that created steam for the steam engine), but with the advent of the diesel engine, he became a locomotive engineer.

I have heard accounts of Dad first noticing Mother in the railroad yards when she and my Nannie came to pick up Ulis after work. It was not long until Dad asked Nannie if he could take Mother for a drive to Gatlinburg. At first Mother said she did not want to go, but she acquiesced and the rest is history. Thanks Mother!

Mother and Dad on their first date to the Smoky Mountains

Dad holding their first born (me) approximately two years later

In conclusion, I offer a poem I wrote for Dad that was printed as part of his funeral arrangements.

Rails

Once on the train, the destination is determined.

Observe all that passes along the way.

Circumstances cause slow-downs, pauses, and stops.

Derails cause chaos.

Know the push and pulls and where tension exists.

Ride the rails, soon you will be home.

I am proud of my railroad connections, and now I take life "slow and easy".

CPW