I grew up in a town called Seymour, which is in the same county as Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. It's Dolly country. She's a hero - she's done so much for her community. Much of the money you spend at Dollywood goes to help so many public causes. One of them is the Imagination Library, which gives out free books every month from birth to 5 years of age. I was one of the first families that got to take a part in it. I certainly don't remember much from when I was 5, but I do remember getting those books. I imagine it had a positive impact on my growth.
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.
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deelowe
Took the family to Dollywood this year and it was by far the best run theme park I've been to. I was amazed at the cleanliness, friendliness of the staff, and how well maintained everything was. The train was really cool too. One of only two times I've been able to see a real coal fired steam engine functioning.
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flippyhead
> Dollywood Express, the heritage steam train that operates within Dollywood, has a higher rail ridership than 27 states.
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.
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shortformblog
The irony being, of course, that it is surrounded by an area where it is basically impossible to get by without a car.
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.
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sltr
Blount county native here. (How native? Almost got married in the church her nephew preaches at).
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.
throwaway522482
How funny, my wife and I were literally just talking about Dollywood right before I opened Hacker News.
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.
sarchertech
If you’re going to count the Dollywood Express, you’d better count the Tennessee Valley Railroad too haha.
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.
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/
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hirvi74
I have met the man that was allegedly in charge of a lot of the operational management or something of the like for those trains at one time! He has a fully operational train track with various functioning trains in his front yard. He has quite the collection too.
He has a little festival every year on his property:
I've been to Dollywood a few times while visiting relatives in Tennessee. It's a trip. The rides and shows are fine. The real attraction is the people watching. By far the best and weirdest slice of Americana in a theme park. Highly recommended.
cjj_swe
In my Tennessee mountain home, life is as peaceful as a baby's side
As an East Tennessee native, I love everything Dolly Parton!
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shermantanktop
I listened to a great podcast which helped explain her appeal. She is a fascinating combination of genuine friendliness, talent and achievement, and incredible toughness and resilience.
The comparison of the Dollywood Express ridership to statewide railways is pretty unfair. The Dollywood Express is not really transportation, it's an amusement park ride, more comparable to the Disney Railway than Amtrack, and I'm pretty sure more people ride the Disney Railway than the Dollywood Express. The economics of amusement park rides and actual transportation systems are radically different. (Actually, the Disney Monorail(s) would be a more apt comparison because it actually serves as transportation!)
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bombcar
Six million people ride “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland each year. That’s more than many transit systems. But it’s a useless comparison, really.
jancsika
In real life freight trains have the right of way in the U.S.
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.
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quitit
I heard an interesting (and certain to be inflammatory) take the other day:
"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".
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toomuchtodo
It's a great time, highly recommend if you're in the area.
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danans
> I love Disney and I love Dolly Parton, but it says something deeply broken about our national priorities when their theme park trains outclass public infrastructure in billion-dollar economies. Be serious
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 feelbetter in that kind of human-scale environment, and they are fundamentally in the business of making people feel better via escapism.
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jmartin2683
The guy mentions that he’s never been to Tennessee and I believe him. Clearly he’s not aware of how low the population density is if he thinks trains make for sensible transport there.
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johng
I still believe that if Dolly ran for President, she would win. She's probably one of the most liked people in the country, percentage wise. I've actually asked quite a few random people what they think of her and I've never met someone that had anything bad to say.
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Reason077
> "U.S. States With Less Rail Transit Ridership Than Dollywood"
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.
stevage
>Dollywood moves about 5,000 people per day. That’s 92% of all rail riders in Tennessee, if you exclude Amtrak’s single daily train, the City of New Orleans.
So...why do they exclude the "City of New Orleans"? They don't explain.
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Valien
Riding the train at Dollywood is one of life's best experiences. Highly recommend it for sure!
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.
xnx
> The trains run all day during park hours and can burn through up to four tons of coal per day and 4000 gallons of water.
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
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jacobjjacob
Was just there a couple weeks ago and didn’t get to ride, they were doing engine repairs :(
It's a dream, but I would love a small planned car free community.
Bikes only, with a train station to a larger city.
I think theirs a project like this in Arizona.
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a_simple_man
it's true, but we still move plenty of the economy on trains, just not people. flights are cheaper and faster.
absurdo
> As I’ve written before, there are few institutions, or people, with a higher approval rating than Dolly Parton. While I love her for her music and the feeling of joy she gives us, I also love that Dollywood Express, the heritage steam train that operates within Dollywood, has a higher rail ridership than 27 states.
Oh I’d ride that, alright!
chrisco255
Dollywood is great, but unfortunately the article gradually shifts into bashing Tennessee and America for not using enough passenger rail. That train left the station a long time ago. Car ownership is very high, sprawl is very high. We do not have urban cores with the same density or concentration of business districts as European or Asian cities. Most of the time buses make more sense for public transportation in America, but even those often get low ridership. It's likely we'll shift towards autonomous mini-buses and electric over the next couple of decades and unlikely that anything changes significantly wrt passenger rail. There are real structural and societal differences here.
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.
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NoblePublius
“ I love Disney and I love Dolly Parton, but it says something deeply broken about our national priorities when their theme park trains outclass public infrastructure in billion-dollar economies. Be serious.”
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.
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eldaisfish
[flagged]
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serf
Yes, steam locomotives are neat.
Yes, Parton is a saint.
Yes, Tennessee is better place because of her.
Yes, she did good things with her money.
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?
I grew up in a town called Seymour, which is in the same county as Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. It's Dolly country. She's a hero - she's done so much for her community. Much of the money you spend at Dollywood goes to help so many public causes. One of them is the Imagination Library, which gives out free books every month from birth to 5 years of age. I was one of the first families that got to take a part in it. I certainly don't remember much from when I was 5, but I do remember getting those books. I imagine it had a positive impact on my growth.
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.
Took the family to Dollywood this year and it was by far the best run theme park I've been to. I was amazed at the cleanliness, friendliness of the staff, and how well maintained everything was. The train was really cool too. One of only two times I've been able to see a real coal fired steam engine functioning.
> Dollywood Express, the heritage steam train that operates within Dollywood, has a higher rail ridership than 27 states.
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.
The irony being, of course, that it is surrounded by an area where it is basically impossible to get by without a car.
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.
Blount county native here. (How native? Almost got married in the church her nephew preaches at).
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.
How funny, my wife and I were literally just talking about Dollywood right before I opened Hacker News.
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.
If you’re going to count the Dollywood Express, you’d better count the Tennessee Valley Railroad too haha.
https://www.tvrail.com/
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.
I've ridden it before, it's really fun! The two locomotives are Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikados built in 1938/9, more details here: https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobase.php?country=Canada&...
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/
I have met the man that was allegedly in charge of a lot of the operational management or something of the like for those trains at one time! He has a fully operational train track with various functioning trains in his front yard. He has quite the collection too.
He has a little festival every year on his property:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuibCgyBqJM
I've been to Dollywood a few times while visiting relatives in Tennessee. It's a trip. The rides and shows are fine. The real attraction is the people watching. By far the best and weirdest slice of Americana in a theme park. Highly recommended.
In my Tennessee mountain home, life is as peaceful as a baby's side
As an East Tennessee native, I love everything Dolly Parton!
I listened to a great podcast which helped explain her appeal. She is a fascinating combination of genuine friendliness, talent and achievement, and incredible toughness and resilience.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_Parton%27s_America
The comparison of the Dollywood Express ridership to statewide railways is pretty unfair. The Dollywood Express is not really transportation, it's an amusement park ride, more comparable to the Disney Railway than Amtrack, and I'm pretty sure more people ride the Disney Railway than the Dollywood Express. The economics of amusement park rides and actual transportation systems are radically different. (Actually, the Disney Monorail(s) would be a more apt comparison because it actually serves as transportation!)
Six million people ride “It’s a Small World” at Disneyland each year. That’s more than many transit systems. But it’s a useless comparison, really.
In real life freight trains have the right of way in the U.S.
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.
I heard an interesting (and certain to be inflammatory) take the other day:
"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".
It's a great time, highly recommend if you're in the area.
> I love Disney and I love Dolly Parton, but it says something deeply broken about our national priorities when their theme park trains outclass public infrastructure in billion-dollar economies. Be serious
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.
The guy mentions that he’s never been to Tennessee and I believe him. Clearly he’s not aware of how low the population density is if he thinks trains make for sensible transport there.
I still believe that if Dolly ran for President, she would win. She's probably one of the most liked people in the country, percentage wise. I've actually asked quite a few random people what they think of her and I've never met someone that had anything bad to say.
> "U.S. States With Less Rail Transit Ridership Than Dollywood"
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.
>Dollywood moves about 5,000 people per day. That’s 92% of all rail riders in Tennessee, if you exclude Amtrak’s single daily train, the City of New Orleans.
So...why do they exclude the "City of New Orleans"? They don't explain.
Riding the train at Dollywood is one of life's best experiences. Highly recommend it for sure!
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.
> The trains run all day during park hours and can burn through up to four tons of coal per day and 4000 gallons of water.
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
Was just there a couple weeks ago and didn’t get to ride, they were doing engine repairs :(
Here you come again...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bflkeWVTNk0
It's a dream, but I would love a small planned car free community.
Bikes only, with a train station to a larger city.
I think theirs a project like this in Arizona.
it's true, but we still move plenty of the economy on trains, just not people. flights are cheaper and faster.
> As I’ve written before, there are few institutions, or people, with a higher approval rating than Dolly Parton. While I love her for her music and the feeling of joy she gives us, I also love that Dollywood Express, the heritage steam train that operates within Dollywood, has a higher rail ridership than 27 states.
Oh I’d ride that, alright!
Dollywood is great, but unfortunately the article gradually shifts into bashing Tennessee and America for not using enough passenger rail. That train left the station a long time ago. Car ownership is very high, sprawl is very high. We do not have urban cores with the same density or concentration of business districts as European or Asian cities. Most of the time buses make more sense for public transportation in America, but even those often get low ridership. It's likely we'll shift towards autonomous mini-buses and electric over the next couple of decades and unlikely that anything changes significantly wrt passenger rail. There are real structural and societal differences here.
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.
“ I love Disney and I love Dolly Parton, but it says something deeply broken about our national priorities when their theme park trains outclass public infrastructure in billion-dollar economies. Be serious.”
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.
[flagged]
Yes, steam locomotives are neat. Yes, Parton is a saint. Yes, Tennessee is better place because of her. Yes, she did good things with her money.
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?