Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express

Re:Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express by shortformblog on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @02:43PM (#44250532)

There are plenty of places where it would make sense, actually, but Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg are very much not on that list. They are towns surrounded by mountains where once you get off the strip, you may not even run into a gas station or grocery store for a while.

Also, that was 15 miles, not 15 minutes. I think it took us more than an hour to get there with all the traffic. Excellent example of a tourist trap.

A related quirk of the area is its onetime attitude towards free alcohol samples, which I wrote about last year: https://tedium.co/2024/11/10/free-sample-history/

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Re:Dolly Parton's Dollywood Express by sarchertech on Wednesday June 11, 2025 @03:13PM (#44250798)

It’s not just surrounded by mountains, it’s just outside the border of Great Smokey Mountains National Park. It’s essentially a dead end for rail because to continue on you need to either go up a mile in elevation in a very short span or tunnel mountains inside a national park.

One of the worst places for rail east of the Mississippi.

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