Railroad History of the North Georgia Mountains

Helen has never had a tourist train, and you won't find one running through town. What you can find nearby is real railroad history, from the Civil War raid that became a Disney movie to a mountain line that hauled tourists to Tallulah Gorge. The nearest working excursion is the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, about 80 minutes from Helen.

Helen itself grew out of the timber business. The New Georgia Encyclopedia says the Byrd-Matthews Corporation opened a major sawmill around 1910, named the town for the daughter of a company partner, and that a railroad connector linked the new town to Gainesville. Logging thrived until the Great Depression, when most of the timber was gone and the company left. Our Helen history guide tells the rest.

These stops are all a drive from Helen. Details come from each operator's own site, checked on October 8, 2026.

On April 12, 1862, Union volunteers led by the civilian scout James J. Andrews stole the locomotive The General at Big Shanty, now Kennesaw, and headed north on the Western and Atlantic Railroad toward Chattanooga. Confederate conductor William Fuller chased them, first on foot, then with a series of engines that included The Texas, run in reverse. The chase covered 87 miles. The raiders abandoned The General north of Ringgold, 18 miles short of Chattanooga, when fuel ran out, and all were captured within two weeks.

Andrews was hanged on June 7, and seven other prisoners convicted as spies were hanged on June 18. Eight raiders escaped, six were held and later exchanged, and the soldiers among them became the first recipients of the Medal of Honor, per Wikipedia. The Southern Museum in Kennesaw is a Smithsonian Affiliate and tells the story.

The Tallulah Falls Railway ran about 58 miles from Cornelia, Georgia, to Franklin, North Carolina, over 42 wooden trestles, according to Wikipedia. It carried visitors to the gorge and the resorts around it, but it struggled financially and entered receivership in 1923. The longest trestle was 940 feet.

Because the line looked so old, Disney used it as the main location for The Great Locomotive Chase. The line also appears in the 1951 film I'd Climb the Highest Mountain. The railway is gone, but Tallulah Gorge is not; see our Tallulah Gorge guide. In Cornelia, the renovated depot is a museum, and the Big Red Apple outside, built in 1925, is 7 feet tall and weighs 5,200 pounds. It honors the apple growers who helped the county through the boll weevil years.