Feature Page #1:
Sevierville's Railroad Depots

Unless you are a native Sevier Countian of Baby Boom-age or older, you might not realize that a standard-gauge railroad once served your picturesque county. Even if you are aware of the line's former existence, chances are that you might not know much else about it. This is certainly understandable, considering Sevierville's last train arrived in January 1961...almost a half-century ago!

To the credit of their authors, most modern-day books about Sevier County history include at least one photo of Sevierville's seemingly lone station, as well as a brief narrative about the line. However, none of them mention a long-forgotten, somewhat remarkable fact...Sevierville actually had four depots during the "Slow & Easy's" all-too-short 51-year lifetime.

Illustrated below are the locations of the four stations, along with the approximate time periods they served Sevierville.

The very first Sevierville-bound trains stopped just over a mile short of town on the farm of Mr. A. H. "Andy" Love. In the January 12, 1910-edition of Montgomery's Vindicator, a detailed account of the very first train's arrival three days earlier concludes with the following passage:

"A force is now at work grading above (up the Little Pigeon River) from A. H. Love's, where the temporary station is at present and it will be only a few days until they get to the river as the right-of-way is practically level all the way."

Sevierville's Vindicator, as well as the Knoxville newspapers, reported that between 200 and 300 citizens gathered on the Love property to welcome the special first run and the visiting dignitaries it carried. That party was, of course, led by the founder and builder of the Knoxville, Sevierville & Eastern (KS&E) Railway, Mr. William J. Oliver.

Regarding the interim station on his property, it is possible that Mr. Love provided a small building (or buildings) behind his farmhouse for the railroad's use; alternatively, Mr. Oliver's construction company might have erected a small structure for that purpose. We are still researching these century-old details and will report them as soon as they are unearthed.

Built in 1880, the former Love farmhouse survives to this day in immaculate condition at the intersection of Old Knoxville Highway and Love Road in northwest Sevierville.

Only a few days...surely not more than a week...after the historic arrival of Sevierville's first trains on the Love farm, the final half-mile or so of trackage to the town's second (but first "permanent") depot was completed. This neat little station, of frame construction, featured brick chimneys, separate passenger and freight buildings, and a "split-level" platform. Its stenciled "SEVIERVILLE" signboard included the mileages to Knoxville ("30.0") and Sevierville ("0")

In modern-day terms, this depot was located on Kilby Street behind the shopping center housing Food Lion and Big Lots (formerly TG&Y). It was equipped with at least three parallel tracks, over two of which locomotives could switch to the opposite ends of their trains for departure back to Knoxville. Because no locomotive turntable was installed at Sevierville until about 1916, the "Slow & Easy's" iron horses had to run in reverse, cowcatcher-to-cars, for the entire return trip to Knoxville.

Although we've yet to locate any written accounts of this station's operations, we were blessed with at least four photographs of it and its trains. The image below, from the collection of the late-Herbert Lawson, is, arguably, the most treasured of the four. It gives us the best-available view of the depot's construction, fixtures, diminutive size, and its first agent, Mr. T. J. Stafford (right). Stafford and his friend, Mr. E. G. McAfee, pose here with the new terminal just after its completion.

Amid a plethora of financial and legal wranglings in August, 1916, William J. Oliver boldly announced his intention to extend his railroad from Sevierville via Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg to the Tennessee/North Carolina state line, a distance of some 26 miles. His purpose in doing so was to provide transportation to lumber mills for the vast stands of timber yet to be harvested from the western slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains.

Rather than a continuation of the KS&E Railway, the new extension was named the Pigeon River Railroad, or PRRR (not to be confused with North Carolina's Pigeon River Railway). Although the KS&E and PRRR were, for business reasons, separate entities, the two companies had common officers and were thus affiliated.

In preparation for the extension, Oliver's crews constructed the "Armstrong" (non-motorized, man-powered) locomotive turntable on the west side of Sevierville (located just behind the present-day Walgreen's). They also took on the daunting task of bridging the west prong of the Little Pigeon River for the railroad, aligning its main track to run directly down the center of Bruce Street through downtown Sevierville.

Because most of the "Slow & Easy's" Sevierville shippers were located on the town-side (east) of the river, wagon and motor vehicle access to the 1910-era depot (shown above) had been inconvenient from the very beginning. Therefore, the decision was made to construct a new depot across the bridge in Sevierville-proper which would serve both the KS&E and PRRR. Its centralized location would be much more accessible to shippers and passengers, alike. The Vindicator reported that construction of the new station had begun as of March 14, 1917. Its location was just east of the original Murphy College (the present-day Sevier County Board of Education building on East Bruce Street), through the grounds of which the railroad had acquired a right-of-way. Although we are still researching the exact plot of land on which the station was built, we believe it to have been on or near the current property of the Sevierville electric utility.

Thanks to the late-Mr. Vic Weals, most famous for his down-home "Tennessee Travels" historical columns in The Knoxville Journal, we have a newspaper photograph of the depot, shown below. To date, it is the only image of the structure we have been able to locate (although there are surely more in private collections). With its bay and dormer windows and, presumably, a passenger waiting room on the right and freight storage on the left, it had a more ornate, depot-like appearance than its no-nonsense predecessor across the river.

By August 29, 1917, the Vindicator hinted that the new facility was nearing completion, although editor Montgomery expressed the following opinion:

"There will have to be a road constructed from the depot to the streets and the jungle on Murphy College lot should be cleared away so the children can see the train as it approaches."

Apparently, the opening of the new station occurred much later (probably due to construction delays on the PRRR to Pigeon Forge and McCookville). The following, once more opinionated item appeared in the December 18, 1918, Vindicator:

The K. S. & E. Railway trains now stop at the new depot. We have not yet heard of anyone getting lost in the jungle between the depot and the town nor have we heard of any effort on the part of the authorities to make connecting roads with Main and Cedar Streets.

The disposition of the second depot, above, is unknown, although it quite possibly could have been used as a section house or other railroad-related storage.

In researching the location of this station, we learned of a truly heroic act by one of the railroad's key personnel, Mr. Rufe B. Newman, Jr. (pictured above with the incomplete depot). Newman, a civil engineer who played a key role in the design and construction of the Pigeon River extension, responded to a fire in the boys' dormitory at neighboring Murphy College. The Vindicator of January 8, 1919, tells us:

"R. B. Newman of the K. S. & E. Railroad (sic), went to the third floor (of the burning dormitory) with a fire extinguisher and was crowded so by the flames he had to leap from a third story window."

Although the dormitory was a total loss, news reports made no reference to any injuries suffered by the students or Mr. Newman. The dormitory is pictured below.

Sometime between 1929 (when the Pigeon River Railroad went out-of-business) and the beginning of World War II, the "Slow & Easy" closed its third Sevierville depot, described above. We are still researching the date and reason(s) the station was abandoned, and will pass that information along as soon as we get it.

"Ancient, unpainted warehouse..." - Described as such in a 1949 Trains magazine article, the warehouse at right served at least two decades as Sevierville's fourth and final railroad depot. Shown in this 1958 photograph is Smoky Mountain Railroad diesel locomotive #440, the fourth General Electric 44-ton center-cab ever built. (Bill Mathis photo)

Once the third depot was shut down, the railroad's Sevierville passenger and freight operations were moved back to the west side of the West Prong and into an unpainted warehouse. The building was located next to Southern Casting Company (most recently Foothills Wholesale Furniture on present-day Kilby Street). The Smoky Mountain Railroad's enginehouse, 1916-era locomotive turntable, water tank, and team tracks were, conveniently, just outside the new "depot."

In 1950, the Smoky Mountain line terminated its passenger operations, but the seemingly-ancient warehouse continued to house the railroad's Sevierville office and freight shed until all operations ceased in January of 1961. The structure was believed to have been razed sometime in the late-1960s or early-1970s.