The Murphy Branch is a branch line operated by 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 operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

(NS) and today the

Blue Ridge Southern Railroad The Blue Ridge Southern Railroad is a Railroad classes, 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 ar ...

. The branch runs between

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

in the east and

Murphy Murphy is an Irish surname meaning "Sea Warrior". Origins and variants The surname is a variant of two Irish surnames: "Ó Murchadha"/"Ó Murchadh" (descendant of "Murchadh"), and "Mac Murchaidh"/" Mac Murchadh" (son of "Murchadh") derived ...

in the west.

I-40 Interstate 40 (I-40) is a major east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway in the southeastern and southwestern portions of the United States. At a length of , it is the third-longest Interstate Highway in the country, after I-90 and ...

from Asheville to Canton and

US Route 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 t ...

, 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 establis ...

, 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 in the United States, penal labor that was practiced historically in the Southern United States before it was formally Convict leasing#End of the system, abolished during the 20th century. Un ...

labor between 1880 and 1891 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 Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

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 Andrews may refer to: Places Australia *Andrews, Queensland *Andrews, South Australia United States *Andrews, Florida (disambiguation), various places *Andrews, Indiana *Andrews, Nebraska *Andrews, North Carolina *Andrews, Oregon *Andrews, South ...

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) Watco is an American transportation and logistics company based in Pittsburg, Kansas. The company’s core services are freight transportation, material handling and storage, logistics, railcar repair and maintena ...

, a short-line railroad headquartered in

Pittsburg, Kansas Pittsburg is a city in Crawford County, Kansas, 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 United S ...

. A new North Carolina

Limited Liability Company A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-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 ...

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 Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

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 t ...

Towns, cities and communities along the route

Asheville Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populous city in Western North Carolina a ...

(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, pop ...

Hominy Hominy is a food item 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 type of hominy made with lye. History The process ...

* Candler * Coburn *

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative divisions * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and entertainment * Canton (band), an It ...

* Clyde * 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 b ...

(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 t ...

and the

Blue Ridge Parkway The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway and National Scenic Byway, All-American Road in the United States, noted for its scenic beauty. The parkway, which is the longest linear park in the U.S., runs for through 29 counties in Virginia and ...

) *

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 a Semitic source such as ) owes its name to the biblical Balm of Gilead. Ch ...

* Willits-Ochre Hill *

Addie Addie is a unisex 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 tha ...

Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...

* Sylva * Dillsboro * Wilmot * Whittier * Ela (interchange with Appalachian Railway, 1907-1935,) *

Bryson City Bryson City is a town in Swain County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The population was 1,558 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Located in what was historically the land of the Cherokee, Bryson City was found ...

( Bryson City Depot) *

Almond The almond (''Prunus amygdalus'', Synonym (taxonomy)#Botany, syn. ''Prunus dulcis'') is a species of tree from the genus ''Prunus''. Along with the peach, it is classified in the subgenus ''Amygdalus'', distinguished from the other subgenera ...

* 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)) *

(end point of the GSMR until 2010) *

Marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

(end point of the GSMR until 1995)

Commodities shipped/received

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

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The rail line serves Jackson Paper Manufacturing Company in Sylva and 70 percent of its business came from the

Pactiv Evergreen Pactiv Evergeen Inc. is a manufacturer and distributor of food packaging and foodservice products, supplying packers, processors, supermarkets, restaurants, institutions and foodservice outlets across North America. Operations Pactiv Evergreen o ...

paper mill in

which closed in 2023, forcing the railroad to make cutbacks. Chemicals used in the making of

epsom salt Epsomite, Epsom salt, or magnesium sulfate heptahydrate, is a hydrous magnesium sulfate mineral with formula . Physical properties Epsomite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system. The normal form is as massive encrustations, while acicula ...

are delivered to Premier Magnesia (formerly Giles Chemical) in Waynesville, and the paper mill's closure led to the largest epsom salt supplier in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

getting help from Haywood County to deal with the rail service cutbacks and prevent the company from leaving after 70 years. There are several small

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...

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

, about 4 miles east of Sylva.

Liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, Butane, ''n''-butane and isobutane. It can also contain some ...

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

In media

In 2023, a railroad simulator/management video game entitled Railroader entered early access. The game depicts the route from Sylva to Andrews, which the player owns and operates as a shortline railroad set in the 1950s.

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