Took my family to Stone Mountain the day after Thanksgiving. Had a wonderful time, weather was perfect. We rode one of the last trains of the evening. The ride was so rough and Everytime they applied the brakes the noise was unbearable. It's sad when everyone in the car has to put their fingers in their ears. On the other hand the christmas lights were nice and the stop at the Lacy Hotel to tell the story "The gift" was enjoyable. After riding the train at Stone Mountain it makes me really appreciate our little train in Blue Ridge.

When I was out there with my family in 2005, we had the same miserable experience on the train. Haven't been back since...

I don't think management "gets" how those types of experiences impact a family's choice on where they want to go.

Those Dollywood style coaches apparently need some extra weight added. You're the third or fourth person that I have heard mention that they rode rough. As for brakes, they need to do something like the skunk train does. I rode it when I was in Cali for the TRAIN/ARM convention. The Skunk folks use water from the tender of the steam engine, or I suppose a reservoir on the diesel, to lubricate the tracks ahead of the coaches. This is done specifically to eliminate brake squeal, as the Skunk route is extremely curvy (like SMSRR).

It is my understanding from a former SMSRR engineer that the coaches they are using today are old flat cars that had the benches and canopy built on top of it.

If they were indeed originally designed for freight and not passengers...no wonder they are so miserable to ride on!

I thought the stack on the General looked nice. I think it is a nice, unique engine with a blend of old and new, without its number plate, an old style stack, light, compound cylinders, etc. Last time I went there, the General was put on a little display track in the yard and given a fresh coat of paint.
That is even less promising that it'll operate. It's too bad, since the steamers would nicely complement the Crossroads and the station

They used to have actual passenger cars that were ex-LIRR(?) ones, they kinda got hot in the summer, but they were nice. The Mountain retired them in 2001, probably for the same reason Disneyland got rit of their coaches (issues with viewing areas and boarding times). I like how they have the crossing signals, but if they could just get them working again...
Probably the only reason Dollywood's trains are surviving this other than with the savaged parts is because of Ms. Parton owns it in part!

I'm not really sure how much longer the park can last like this. Until they improve, I'm staying with Six Flags .

OK, I had to share this...

From time to time, I check the Stone Mountain Park website (http://www.stonemountainpark.com) in the hopes that maybe one day they will bring back steam to the park.

As you probably guessed, they aren't...but they do have the price to ride the railroad - $9.00! I couldn't believe that...they should pay ME to ride that sorry excuse for a railroad!

Here is the link if you want to check it out:
http://www.stonemountainpark.com/attractions-shows/attraction-detail.aspx?AttractionID=54

We visited Stone Mountain this past summer and rode the railroad too. Their web site talks about the pre-recorded narration:

"A Look Back Down The Tracks, a blend of narration about the
chronological history of trains around Stone Mountain from the
mid-1800s, when the rail line was first built at the mountain,
and interesting facts about the mountain."

But, sound system was cutting in and out so badly that they shut it off about 1/2 way through the trip. Not that it would have mattered much, the brakes squealed so loudly that you couldn't hear anything else when they were applied (which was often, particularly on the downhill parts).

I can understand that eliminating brake squeal might be difficult, but when the sound system is an essential part of the ride "experience", they should either make sure it is reliable, or have a backup on-board. It's not like it requires new technology to play a pre-recorded spiel on a train, they've been doing it at DL for a few decades!

Part of the problem is that SMRR built their open air coaches on top of flat bed railroad cars. My guess is that they were built to carry trailers and cars...NOT people.

When SMRR had actual passenger coaches, the brakes were not nearly as loud and it was a much smoother ride.

So not only did they let their steam locomotives go to rot, but they also had passenger coaches and then got rid of them? Nice...

They sure did...they were also vintage and can be seen on this website: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/archiveThumbs.aspx?id=2487&Page=2