Hiwassee Loop

The Hiwassee Loop is one of the few complete railroad loops that passenger trains still ride: the track climbs in a full circle and crosses over itself. On the side of Bald Mountain near Farner, in the far south-east corner of Tennessee, the line spirals round the hill and passes over a bridge 62 ft above the rails it rode a few minutes earlier; from the window you can look down on where you have just been. The Louisville & Nashville built the spiral in 1898 to replace a set of switchbacks, and it is still in use.

The train is run by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, which is based in Chattanooga, but these trips start one to two hours' drive away at Delano, on US 411. The Hiwassee Loop trip is a 50-mile round trip of about four and a half hours up the lower Hiwassee River Gorge in the Cherokee National Forest, over the Loop and back. The Copperhill Special goes further, 94 miles there and back in a full day, to the twin towns of Copperhill, Tennessee, and McCaysville, Georgia.

Trains run on selected days from late March to late November, and autumn, when the gorge turns red and gold, is when they sell out first.

The train leaves the boarding site at Delano and heads east, upstream, into the Hiwassee River Gorge. For most of the way the line keeps to the river through the Cherokee National Forest, with the water on one side and wooded slopes and rock walls on the other. It crosses the Hiwassee on a long bridge at Reliance, a river hamlet that grew up with the railroad, and passes the Apalachia Powerhouse, where water from a dam upstream comes out of an 8.3-mile tunnel. In spring and summer the river below is busy with kayakers and tubers; in autumn the canyon walls hold the colour; and once the leaves are down you can see Apalachia Dam across the North Carolina line.

Near Farner the line reaches Bald Mountain and the Hiwassee Loop. When the railroad opened in 1890 trains climbed here by switchbacks, running forward and back up the hill; in 1898 the Louisville & Nashville replaced them with a single spiral. The track curves right round the mountain, gaining height as it goes, and crosses a bridge 62 ft above the track it has just climbed. Together with the double curves near Jasper, Georgia, it gave the line its nickname, the Hook and Eye.

Turning back, or going on

The Hiwassee Loop train does not turn round: after the Loop it reverses and runs back to Delano, and halfway through everyone swaps sides, so the river side and the mountain side each get a turn. A guide narrates the route all the way.

The Copperhill Special carries on beyond Farner through Turtletown and Ducktown into the Copper Basin, and stops for 90 minutes in Copperhill and McCaysville, where the Tennessee–Georgia state line runs through the middle of town, before returning the same way.

The line and the train

This was once part of the L&N's Atlanta Division between Etowah, Tennessee, and Marietta, Georgia. Once a straighter main line was built to the west in the early 1900s it became the Old Line, kept open for the copper mines at Copperhill until the last of their traffic ended in 2001. The Tennessee Overhill Heritage Association bought the track in 2002, and the museum runs the passenger trains.

The train is made up of vintage coaches, all enclosed and air-conditioned, with a commissary car selling snacks and drinks. The best seats are in the domes: 9410, a Budd dome coach built in 1955 for the Great Northern's Empire Builder and on every train into the gorge since 2018, and Algonquin Park, a Budd dome-observation car of 1954 from Canadian Pacific's The Canadian. The historic car 1877 carries parlor, observation and dome seats of its own.

Both trains run on selected days only, never daily, and every trip is a round trip from Delano. The Hiwassee Loop season runs from 29 March to 22 November 2026, and the Copperhill Special from 1 April into late November. Departure times can change from date to date, so check the one on your ticket.

Good to know:

• Book ahead. Autumn departures sell out weeks in advance, and tickets are not guaranteed on the day.
• Arrive 30 minutes early at 9406 Highway 411, Delano. Parking is free. Trains leave on time and cannot wait for late arrivals.
• Delano is on Eastern Time, and it is one to two hours' drive from Chattanooga.
• Rain or shine. The trains run in all weather.

Departures as of September 2026, from the museum's booking system, which lists only dates still on sale. Confirm before travelling on tvrail.com (opens in a new tab).

Tickets are sold online for a date and a class of car, and fares depend on both. On the Hiwassee Loop, a Standard Coach seat starts at $55 for adults and $40 for children aged 2 to 12, and a family pack for two adults and two children costs $170 outside the autumn season. On the Copperhill Special the Standard Coach fares start at $80 and $50. Dearer seats come with snacks and drinks: lounge chairs, Crown Class on the lower deck of a dome car, and dome, observation and parlor seats. Some of these are for ages 14 and over. From September to November selected dates carry higher autumn fares, from $65 and $50 on the Loop.

Standard tickets are non-refundable. Trip Protection, sold only at booking for 15 % of the fare, allows a cancellation up to 24 hours before departure. Fares checked September 2026 at tvrail.com (opens in a new tab); US dollars.

No rail pass covers the Hiwassee trains. They are run by the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, which sells its own tickets. Amtrak's USA Rail Pass is valid only on Amtrak's own services, and Interrail and Eurail do not apply anywhere in the United States.

The museum's own Annual Pass does not help here either: it is valid only on the Missionary Ridge Local in Chattanooga. The only reductions on the Delano trains are the child fare, the family pack outside the autumn season, and group rates for 25 or more travelling together.

Checked September 2026 against tvrail.com (opens in a new tab) and amtrak.com (opens in a new tab).

The Hiwassee line runs through Polk County, in the far south-east corner of Tennessee, where the state meets Georgia and North Carolina. Etowah, the L&N railroad town, is a few minutes north of the boarding site, and at the far end of the line the old copper country is worth a day of its own.

Two historic houses along the line take guests. One stands by the railroad bridge at Reliance, on the way up the gorge. The other is in Ducktown, near the end of the line to Copperhill.

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