The Stone Mountain Railroad was a great place... once upon a time.
I started working there in 1983 as a 17 year old high schooler and stayed there full time until after the intrusion of the Silver Dollar City thieves in 1998.

The railroad was a privately owned operation from 1961 until 1981 when the Stone Mountain Memorial Association (SMMA, the state's authority over the park) FORCED the operation to sell out to them.
That was the beginning of the end of steam operations at Stone Mountain.
The SMMA found that they would actually have to spend money to maintain the railroad so the steam locomotives fell one by one.
First the ex-Cliffside 2-6-2 "Yonah II" in 1983, the "Texas II" in 1984 and finally the "General II" in the spring of 1986.
I was fortunate to have operated the last 3 or 4 years of steam at Stone Mountain and was the last to run the General II at Stone Mountain in 1986.

The darkest days of the SMRR were from 1986 until 1991.
The only bright spot was the routine visit by the New Georgia RR tourist and dinner trains sometimes powered by S&A 4-6-2 #750.
These visits were facilitated by a $10 million connecting track built from the CSX mainline in the City of Stone Mountain into the park.
The GP7 and GP9 diesels came along in 1990 and were a considerable improvement upon the horribly underpowered GE industrial locomotives.

In 1991 the Federal Railroad Administration took notice and forced the otherwise do nothing SMMA management to upgrade the railroad to FRA standards. This came about because of the before mentioned connecting track connecting the SMRR to the general railway system.

Things improved and rocked on albeit with diesels (ocassionally pushing the steam locomotives).
In 1994 we recieved 2 ex SouRy FP7 diesels from the defunct state run New Georgia RR which died just as it was born.... of politics.

It was in 1996 that we started hearing rumblings of a private company operating the park under contract with the state.
Finally, I thought we might get a company to bring back steam.
When the bidders came to the table, they included Silver Dollar City Inc. known for their Dollywood and other steam operations.
They even PUBLICLY announced their intentions to revive steam operations!!!!!!! I think I still have a newspaper article somewhere where it was specifically stated as such.
Those of us looking forward to a revival in steam smiled. Maybe our prayers had been answered.

It was not to be.

Silver dollar City got the contract......
Then they came in with their hatchet men. Out of about 15 shop guys, we were left with 5.
I was the shop foreman but did not have much to operate with.
When I was trying to figure out a budget for the railroad operation and tried to discuss just the basic operating expenditures, I was told that I didn't need to know the budget.
Almost every former Stone Mountain Park employee was regarded as nothing with these people.

I finally tired of this sorry excuse for a business model and left full time employment with SDC in late 1998 and pursued work with a local shortline.
The one respectful SDC manager had asked me to return a year and a half later because the diesels were falling apart.
I did so and ended up helping build the horrorible flat car passenger equipment they use now.
A few months later, I received a call from CSX Transportation with an offer to work for them as a locomotive electrician.
Again I left the SMRR. I worked for them part time until about 2003.
I will never regret leaving Stone Mountain for the improvement in pay, working conditions and general attitude.

I visit the guys I know at Stone Mountain periodically. Things are not getting any better.
In the last couple of years, the thieves at Silver Dollar let the Dollywood people come down and take every steam part that wasn't nailed down.
They still regard the railroad as a stepchild and abuse everything about it.
In addition, the connecting track that allowed connection to CSX was severed a few years ago to try and get out of federal jurisdiction.

The steam locomotives at Stone Mountain would require extensive rebuilding. I know... I did research before the SDC people proved they didn't give crap.
The Texas II has a boiler that would require complete replacement. Unholy experiments with its flexible staybols in the early 80's made sure of that. Otherwise the running gear isnt too bad.
The General II has some running gear issues and needs lots of boiler work.
The Yonah II has a nearly basket case running gear, including horribly thin driver tires. Its boiler is probably the best of the bunch.
Both 4-4-0s have superheaters while the 2-6-2 is saturated.

By the way, the Texas lost its fake stack because it was rotting! My friend at SMRR cut it off a few years ago. It certainly looks better without it.

I took the General's "falsie" off in the early 1990s while we filmed a section of "Fried Green Tomatos" at Stone Mountain. Its a beautiful locomotive without that hideous stack on it!

I will cherish the memories of the good times working the "General II" or "Texas II" with 4 passenger cars up the 2% grade on the backside of the mountain. I made great friends and had a great time at the SMRR. Even in the dark days we made it a fun place to work when we could.

The General II was (and is) always my favorite.
Its beautiful 6" Baldwin 3 chime whistle sits on my fireplace except the rare occasion when I run it on the steam locomotives at the Southeastern Railway Museum at Duluth,GA.

Feel free to e-mail me regarding other SMRR info. I think I can supply almost any info on the operation.

Regards
Kevin Wood
Asst Gen Foreman
CSX Transportation
Atlanta Loco Ops.

(Formerly with the Stone Mountain RR in most capacities)

Wow, very informative post, kq4le! Thanks for the detailed text.

Thanks, Kevin! I was kinda hoping that you would read my post and respond. You know better than anyone what all has gone on at the SMRR. You and I would probably recognize each other since I was always hanging out at the Stone Mountain Scenic Railroad - when the steam trains were running!

Like you, I was full of hope that Silver Dollar would live up to their promise to re-start the steam program at the park. I even offered to do a video documentary on the rehab of the engines. You won't be surprised to learn that no one ever replied to my offer.

About 6 years ago, I was out at the park doing another project and asked a staffer if they were ever going to get steam back on the rails. He repied that they had tried, but to no avail. Apprently, they tried to steam one of the engines without doing any rehab on it. It seems that it promptly sent a fire plume up the stack and caught some of the woods on fire!

Oh well, I keep hoping...particularly with SFoG dieselization of their "Texas"....

To answer Locoboy's question, most of the passenger on the train I was on last summer did not seem to enjoy the experience at all. The flat cars are uncomfortable, the diesel engine is loud and sounds like it is going to break down any minute, the sound system in the cars is full of static and distortion, and the music show was lame. Passengers getting off the train had an attitude that it was a waste of time/money for them to ride.

Atlanta is too big now to have community concern about steam operations at either Stone Mountain or Six Flags. As we have discussed on here before, most people don't understand the difference to rally to a cause to re-start steam at either park. My personal sense is that if steam were running - people would enjoy the ride more.

What is really sad is that we have a great railroad museum/historical society in town - Southeastern Railroad Museum ([url]http://www.srmduluth.org[/url]). They could easily keep one steam engine at each park operational and run them on special occasions. Yet, the management at both parks have refused the offers/suggestions. They rather let the engines sit outside and rot.

Ultimately, economics are driving this issue. In the papers it has been reported that Silver Dollar has not been sucessful running the attractions at Stone Mountain. They did all this build-out and now can't make their contractual rent payments to the State of Georgia. They don't get that the attractions they built are rather cheesey and come off as "poor man's Disney".

It is ironic that with two large theme parks here in Atlanta, I choose to take my family to Walt Disney World.

I was there at that time, I think, and know of NO attempt to EVER refire the Stone Mountain locomotives.
To do so in their state of disrepair would be folly at the very best.
The only thing those idiots might burn the woods down with now might be some inbreed throwing a lit cigarette off the train... believe me, it has happened before! I once ran a hayride where some moron threw a cigar butt in the last car..... woosh!

As for the current "attractions" that SDC has brought to Stone Mountain, some of them are more like a sick stereotype of people in the "old south". Some of the other things, I admit, are educational. Those blacksmithing guys are genious with metal.

Kevin

Man. If I ran Stone Mountain, I'd make alot of changes! Here's what I'd do:

1. Replace the current ugly passenger cars with more modern cars
2. Give the "Yonah" a cosmetic restoration
3. Repaint the Geeps to their original paint scheme.
4. Replace the General II & Texas II with modernized replicas of the original engines.
5. Uhhhhhhhhhh.... I guess that's it.

Okay okay okay okay. So it's actually a few changes. Oh well.

When the guy told me that, I had to question the logic. I can't imagine how dangerous it would be to fire those engines without a thorough inspection of the boilers. Never the less, this guy from guest relations told me that story with a straight face. I wonder where he got it from...

brian1993 - I agree that the open-air flat cars need to go and the "Yonah II" needs to be cosmetcially cleaned up.

Where I disagree with you is with the "Texas II" and the "General II".... If I were king, I would send both of them up to Tweetsie's shops for a complete overhaul. Hopefully, they would be able to rehab both engines - but the main goal would be to get at least one back in service. I'd run that engine on weekends and extremely busy times in the park (spring/summer/fall).

I would take the GP - repaint it and reduce it to pushing the now cosmetically beautiful "Yonah II". I take the air compressor from the GP and have it run to a whisle on the "Yonah II". I'd use this arrangement during the week when ridership is low (spring/summer/fall). For the winter months, I'd run the GP alone.

Is the Tweetsie shop big enough for standard gauge locomotives?

That is a good question...I don't know. If they can't handle it, I bet the Tennesssee Valley Railroad Museum could do the work.

Well, mostly wheel work. They've repaired drive wheels for Nickle Plate 765, Soo Line 2719, & Frisco 1522, as well as the TVRM's own engines.

What a shame. i guess the bean counters don't know the historical value of what they have there. I went once but we were going to go on the tram but in the end had to go to the airport to catch a plane to Philadelphia.