by FinnKuhn on 6/11/25, 4:46 PM with 210 comments
by cleverwebble on 6/11/25, 7:12 PM
We'd go to Dollywood a few times a year - she would give out free tickets to people who worked in Gatlinburg to go. It's really well run, and their water park is great too. Growing up, we'd ride the train when we visited. While I didn't appreciate it much as a kid, when I grew up I realized how awesome of an opportunity that was.. I moved away from Tennessee about 12 years ago, one of the biggest things I have missed is Dollywood and their big steam train.
by deelowe on 6/11/25, 5:23 PM
by flippyhead on 6/11/25, 5:09 PM
I don't now if it's useful, but this way of putting quanties in context, would be neat to see about all kinds of things. Like how they seem to always do rare things compared to your chance of getting hit by lightning.
by shortformblog on 6/11/25, 6:19 PM
My wife and I once left Gatlinburg after a week there and our tire blew out on the way out of town. It was a Sunday morning. Literally our only option to get it replaced that day was a Walmart location 15 miles away. So we had to wait for AAA for an hour and a half to tell us we were stuck using a donut to get there.
There is a trolley system but it is anemic.
by throwaway522482 on 6/11/25, 6:10 PM
We live in Sevier County, and Dolly offers $5 tickets to her park to locals this week, which is really quite a charitable thing to do. The discount even applies for taking ~$100 off of a season pass.
Never realized that train got so much usage, but I guess it makes sense. Although you do have to pay attention if you sit near the front as you’ll be slightly covered in soot after the ride.
by johng on 6/11/25, 5:25 PM
by sarchertech on 6/11/25, 5:50 PM
In addition to the longer scenic trips, there is regular 6 mile round trip “Missionary Ridge Local” route that could theoretically be used for commuting.
by jonah-archive on 6/11/25, 5:10 PM
I think my favorite part is when the announcer explains the emergency stop system, and clarifies that getting a cinder in your face doesn't count as an emergency (IIRC they have safety goggles you can wear if you're concerned about it).
EDIT: found a video I took of it going by where you can hear the whistle blow (I was there over the holidays which is why it's decked out for Christmas): https://www.instagram.com/p/B64mteDJUBl/
by sltr on 6/12/25, 2:39 AM
There was a joke that made its rounds here round about the time Queen Elizabeth died:
> Bob: "The queen's dead"
> Alice: "Dolly?!"
If you ride the train, be prepared for soot to get in your eyes.
I'm sure Dolly would be tickled silly to know a bunch of computer people were talking about her.
by hirvi74 on 6/11/25, 8:53 PM
He has a little festival every year on his property:
by cjj_swe on 6/11/25, 5:11 PM
As an East Tennessee native, I love everything Dolly Parton!
by shermantanktop on 6/11/25, 7:17 PM
by lisper on 6/11/25, 5:12 PM
by jancsika on 6/11/25, 5:59 PM
In other words, the Dollywood Express would be a lot less fun if it spent half the day waiting while trolls unload corndogs from two-person handcars randomly distributed along the track.
by bombcar on 6/11/25, 8:36 PM
by toomuchtodo on 6/11/25, 4:47 PM
by danans on 6/11/25, 7:24 PM
Reducing public transit to an unserious/unreal thing is the point.
People who live in car-bound places (most of America) visit theme parks like Disney's where a big part of the novelty is the make-believe urban walkability and transit (i.e. Disney's "Main Street"), creating the belief that such things are fantasy (tied to the rest of Disney's make-believe world) rather that something quite normal that people in much of the urban world experience (minus the dancing anthropomorphic mice).
Essentially, what is pretty normal elsewhere is repackaged as fantasy in the US.
Are Dollywood/Disney part of some great conspiracy to undermine walkability and transit in the US? No, but they sure as heck know that people feel better in that kind of human-scale environment, and they are fundamentally in the business of making people feel better via escapism.
by quitit on 6/12/25, 1:39 AM
"When we visit the USA, we look at it the same way you might look at Fiji or some other underdeveloped country."
While I can explain part of that view as differences in cultural priorities (i.e. US residents valuing extensive highways over high speed rail). What I can certainly agree with is that internally in the USA, some states rate of progress far exceeds that of others to the extent that without significant leadership at the federal level there will certainly be "two Americas".
by absurdo on 6/11/25, 8:00 PM
Oh I’d ride that, alright!
by simple10 on 6/12/25, 4:43 PM
by Reason077 on 6/12/25, 12:05 AM
I'm sure Nevada wouldn't be on this list if the Las Vegas Monorail were included. Average daily ridership was 11,780 in 2022, and it can reach around 40,000 daily riders on peak conference days.
by stevage on 6/11/25, 11:32 PM
So...why do they exclude the "City of New Orleans"? They don't explain.
by Valien on 6/11/25, 6:29 PM
Also, if you're ever in Pennsylvania and go to the train museum in Strasburg you can ride that steam train as well and it is also a blast.
by xnx on 6/11/25, 5:10 PM
Oof. That's a lot of coal. ~ 1000 tons of coal/year or the CO2 equivalent of 10 million miles of driving.
Edit: corrected math
by jmartin2683 on 6/12/25, 11:16 AM
by PaulHoule on 6/11/25, 6:50 PM
by 999900000999 on 6/11/25, 6:48 PM
Bikes only, with a train station to a larger city.
I think theirs a project like this in Arizona.
by jacobjjacob on 6/12/25, 5:41 AM
by a_simple_man on 6/11/25, 7:23 PM
by chrisco255 on 6/11/25, 5:32 PM
I say that and at the same time, I'd love it if Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga were all connected by a high speed rail line (and on down to Atlanta from there). I just don't see the will to get it done.
by eldaisfish on 6/11/25, 9:38 PM
by serf on 6/11/25, 9:29 PM
BUT the fact that we're all still so impressed by steam engines that we decided that 1000 tons of coal a year ( 622 cars worth of co2, the annual energy use of ~250 US homes a year) was a good value just to see an antique demo at the US's 30th (!!) most popular theme park bodes pretty poorly for us and our priorities.
Might not be nostalgic, but these things have huge steam stacks and exhaust output seemingly; is capture at all possible?
by NoblePublius on 6/11/25, 5:37 PM
Europe has lots of train infrastructure because it was very poor after WW2, and its people could afford nothing but train fare.
America has lots of car infrastructure because it was very rich after WS2, and its people have the freedom to choose personal transportation.
Over 90% of American households have at least one car. It’s not because American government doesn’t invest in public transit. It’s because Americans, even poor Americans, overwhelmingly choose personal transportation.