The historically important Murphy Branch is the westernmost part of what was the

Western North Carolina Railroad Western North-Carolina Railroad Company was incorporated under act of North Carolina on February 15, 1855.Interstate Commerce Commission. ''Southern Ry. Co.'', Volume 37, Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports, November 6, 1931, p. 215 ...

, later the Richmond and Danville, Southern Railway, the

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

(NS) and today the

Blue Ridge Southern Railroad The Blue Ridge Southern Railroad is a Class III shortline railroad operating over of track in Western North Carolina. The railroad is owned by Watco of Pittsburg, Kansas, and operates three lines that connect in the Asheville area that were pr ...

. The branch runs between

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

in the east and

Murphy Murphy () ( ga, Ua Murchadha) is an Irish surname and the most common surname in the Republic of Ireland. Origins and variants The surname is a variant of two Irish surnames: "Ó Murchadha"/"Ó Murchadh" (descendant of "Murchadh"), and "Mac ...

in the west.

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west Interstate Highway running through the south-central portion of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and I-80. From west to ea ...

from Asheville to Canton and US Route 74, also known as the

Great Smoky Mountains Expressway The Great Smoky Mountains Expressway is a four-lane divided highway that serves as the main east–west corridor through Southwestern North Carolina; connecting the towns of Bryson City, Sylva and Waynesville to Interstate 40. Its establishmen ...

, from Canton to Murphy, roughly parallel the railway. Grades on the Murphy Branch exceed 4.0% in two places.

History

It was constructed with

convict lease Convict leasing was a system of forced penal labor which was practiced historically in the Southern United States, the laborers being mainly African-American men; it was ended during the 20th century. (Convict labor in general continues; f ...

labor between 1881 and 1894 under the charter of the

. The Murphy Branch was important to the development of southwestern North Carolina in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It opened up the isolated and rural mountains west of Asheville to the outside world, allowing easy travel and improved commerce. These tracks stimulated the development of Western North Carolina. In the 1980s,

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway (U.S.), Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the ...

decided to close the Murphy Branch west of Sylva because of declining freight traffic. The NCDOT purchased the branch west of Dillsboro in 1988, the first purchase under NCDOT's program to preserve rail corridors. It granted trackage rights between Dillsboro and Andrews to the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (GSMR), a tourist excursion railroad that also provides freight service. In 1996, the NCDOT sold the Dillsboro-Andrews portion of the Murphy Branch to the GSMR. In April 2014,

announced that it would be selling the Asheville-Dillsboro leg of the Murphy Branch to

Watco Watco Companies, L.L.C. (Watco) is a transportation company based in Pittsburg, Kansas, formed in 1983 by Charles R. Webb. Watco was composed of four divisions: transportation, mechanical, terminal and port services, and compliance. Watco is th ...

, a short-line railroad headquartered in

Pittsburg, Kansas Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, Kansas, United States, located in southeast Kansas near the Missouri state border. It is the most populous city in Crawford County and southeast Kansas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the ci ...

. A new North Carolina

Limited Liability Company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of a ...

was established and named the

to manage this. The deal closed and operations began on 26 July 2014. The GSMR continues to own the Dillsboro to Andrews leg, and operates all but the westernmost portion between Hewitt and Andrews. The NCDOT continues to own the tracks between Andrews and Murphy; this section has been out of service continuously since 1985. The next year

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

abandoned and removed its connecting line in 1986 from Murphy southwestward into Georgia, formerly a line of the

Louisville and Nashville The Louisville and Nashville Railroad , commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States. Chartered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1850, the road grew into one of the ...

Towns, cities and communities along the route

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Buncombe County, North Carolina. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the state's 11th-most populous cit ...

(Beginning point) * Murphy Junction * Emma *

Enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...

Hominy Hominy (Spanish: maíz molido; literally meaning "milled corn") is a food produced from dried maize (corn) kernels that have been treated with an alkali, in a process called nixtamalization ( is the Nahuatl word for "hominy"). "Lye hominy" is a ...

* Candler * Coburn * Canton *

Clyde Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a tow ...

* Waynesville * Hazelwood * Saunook *

Balsam Gap Balsam Gap (el. ) is a mountain pass between the Plott Balsam Range to the northwest and the Great Balsam Mountains to the southeast on the county line dividing Haywood and Jackson counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The gap allows bot ...

(junction of

US 74 U.S. Route 74 (US 74) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Primarily in North Carolina, it serves as an important highway from the mountains to the ...

and the

Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is America's longest linear park, runs for through 29 Virginia and North Carolina counties, linking Shenand ...

) *

Balsam Balsam is the resinous exudate (or sap) which forms on certain kinds of trees and shrubs. Balsam (from Latin balsamum "gum of the balsam tree", ultimately from Semitic, Aramaic ''busma'', Arabic ''balsam'' and Hebrew ''basam'', "spice", "perfume ...

* Willits-Ochre Hill *

Addie Addie is a given name, nickname and surname. It may refer to: People with the name Given name * Addie Aylestock (1909–1998), Canadian minister in the British Methodist Episcopal Church, the first woman minister to be ordained in that church, ...

Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...

* Sylva * Dillsboro *

Wilmot Wilmot may refer to: Places Australia *Division of Wilmot, an abolished Australian Electoral Division in Tasmania * Wilmot, Tasmania, a locality in the North-West Region Canada *Wilmot, Nova Scotia, an unincorporated rural community and former t ...

* Whittier *

Ela Ela or ELA may refer to: Companies and organizations * Basque Workers' Solidarity (Basque: '), a trade union * Earth Liberation Army * ELA Aviación, a Spanish aircraft manufacturer * English Lacrosse Association * Equatorial Launch Australia, ...

(interchange with Appalachian Railway, 1907-1935,) *

Bryson City Bryson City is a town in Swain County, North Carolina, Swain County, North Carolina in the United States. The population was 1558 as of the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Swain County. Located in what was historically the land of the Cherok ...

Almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree native to Iran and surrounding countries, including the Levant. The almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree. Within the genus ...

* Wesser * Hewitt * Nantahala (end point today for the GSMR) * Topton (near the junction with the former Graham County Railroad,http://www.carolana.com/NC/Transportation/railroads/nc_rrs_graham_county.html (retrieved 28 May 2020)) * Andrews (end point of the GSMR until 2010) *

Marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

Commodities shipped/received

The Murphy Branch still plays a vital role in the industrial economy of western

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The rail line serves two paper mills: Evergreen Packaging in Canton and Jackson Paper Manufacturing Company in Sylva. Chemicals used in the making of

epsom salt Epsomite, Epsom salt, or magnesium sulfate heptahydrate, is a hydrous magnesium sulfate mineral with formula MgSO4·7H2O. Epsomite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system as rarely found acicular or fibrous crystals, the normal form is as massi ...

are delivered to Giles Chemical in Waynesville, and there are several small

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

mixing facilities that receive sand. Woodchips are loaded at T&S Hardwoods in

, about 4 miles east Sylva.

Liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas) is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, propylene, butylene, isobutane and n-butane. LPG is used as a fuel gas in heating appliances, cooking e ...

is delivered to a transfer facility a few miles outside of Sylva in the community of

References

External links

Great Smoky Mountains Railroad

Blue Ridge Southern Railroad

- ''Pictures of Murphy Branch in 1910s'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Murphy Branch Southern Railway (U.S.) Norfolk Southern Railway lines Transportation in Appalachia Transportation in Swain County, North Carolina Transportation in Jackson County, North Carolina Transportation in Cherokee County, North Carolina Transportation in Graham County, North Carolina Transportation in Haywood County, North Carolina Transportation in Buncombe County, North Carolina Landmarks in North Carolina

History

Towns, cities and communities along the route

Commodities shipped/received

See also

References

Further reading

External links