From Fannin County, the rail line toward Murphy now runs about 2.2 miles, and riders get on it only a handful of weekends a year. The last of those weekends in 2026 is Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, at the Historic Mineral Bluff Depot. The depot is at 150 Railroad Avenue in Mineral Bluff.
The event is called Ride the Rails, and the Tri-State Model Railroaders host it. The draw is a ride in a railroad motor car over the Iron Bridge on the Toccoa River to a spot called Murphy Junction and back. FetchYourNews listed it on its Fannin community page as a 5-mile round trip. It's a short ride, and it's interesting for one reason. That track should have been gone years ago, like the rest of the line it once belonged to.
Twenty miles pulled up, 2.2 left behind
For most of the last century, the railroad ran northeast from Blue Ridge through Mineral Bluff and on to Murphy, North Carolina. The Mineral Bluff depot sat on that branch. It's a small brick station, built in 1887 by the Marietta & North Georgia Railroad and later folded into the Louisville & Nashville system. HawkinsRails, a railroad history site, records that the depot carried passengers until 1949 and freight until the late 1950s.
The track outlasted the station's working life by decades, until the water came. The Georgia Department of Transportation's 2018 study, Historic Railroads of Georgia, says flooding in 1980 badly damaged the 20-mile Mineral Bluff to Murphy line. L&N asked the Interstate Commerce Commission for permission to abandon it in 1982. The rails were taken up around 1986. According to that same report, the removal ended one of only two direct rail connections from north Georgia into North Carolina. The other was the Tallulah Falls Railway.
One small piece survived on a separate timeline. The GDOT study lists the 2.2 miles between Mineral Bluff and Murphy Junction as abandoned by CSX in 1993, and it notes that the tracks were left in place. That's the stretch the motor cars run on now. HawkinsRails describes it as a little over two miles of remaining branch line track running west from the depot.
Here's the order of events:
- 1887: Marietta & North Georgia Railroad builds the brick depot at Mineral Bluff.
- 1949: Passenger service at the depot ends.
- Late 1950s: Freight service at the depot ends.
- 1980: Flooding badly damages the line to Murphy.
- Around 1986: The 20 miles from Mineral Bluff to Murphy are taken up.
- 1993: CSX abandons the 2.2 miles to Murphy Junction and leaves the rails in place.
- March 2007: The depot is added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Today Fannin County owns the depot. The Tri-State Model Railroaders Club leases it and keeps it up, and the club runs operating sessions, work days, open houses, and rail-riding events on the remaining track. The rail riding isn't new. A 2019 Chattanooga Times Free Press item called that year's event the 15th annual Mineral Bluff Ride the Rails Festival.
What the motor car covers in a few miles
A railroad motor car is a small self-propelled vehicle. Track crews once used them to inspect and maintain lines. On Ride the Rails weekends, it leaves the depot, crosses the Iron Bridge over the Toccoa River, reaches Murphy Junction, and comes back over the same bridge. The published materials don't pin down exactly where Murphy Junction sits on a map, and we couldn't find a construction date for the Mineral Bluff bridge. The ride itself is the best way to see both.
After the motor car, there's a shorter trip on a genuine railroad hand car, the kind pumped by hand. Kids can ride a miniature 7½-gauge hand car for free.
Details for the October weekend, from the club's own website at tsmri.org and its event flyer:
- Dates: Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25, 2026
- Hours: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with the depot opening at 11
- Motor car departures: noon, 1, 2 and 3 p.m.
- Motor car: $15 suggested donation for adults, $5 for children ages 3 to 12
- Hand car: $2 suggested donation per person, per trip
- Mini hand car and depot tour: free
- Payment: cash, cards, Google Pay and Apple Pay
- Parking: free
The listings word the money differently. The club's homepage calls admission and parking free, the flyer frames ride charges as suggested donations, and the regional tourism listing shows the same amounts as ride prices. Either way, the figures are the same. None of the published materials mention reservations. If you're bringing a group, check with the club before the 24th.
The tourism directory lists accessible parking, wheelchair access, and benches at the venue. It doesn't say whether the motor cars or hand cars can take a wheelchair. If that matters for your group, it's a question for the club.
Inside the depot, the rest of the line still runs in HO scale
The 2.2 miles outside are the part of the line that physically survives. Inside, the club has rebuilt much more of it.
The depot holds a large two-level HO-scale layout. It models the L&N "Old Line" from Atlanta to Etowah, Tennessee, plus the branch line through Mineral Bluff to Murphy. HawkinsRails notes that the model includes the "Hook and Eye Route," the stretch where the main line loops over itself to gain elevation in the mountains. The same site describes the layout as set around 1952, a few years after passenger trains stopped at this depot.
So in about four hours on a Saturday, you can ride the last real piece of the Murphy branch, then walk inside and watch model trains run the full 20 miles that were pulled up around 1986. The depot tour is free.
The other train running this month is on a different line
October in Fannin County already has a well-known train. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway's fall foliage rides run October 11 through November 3. They leave from 241 Depot Street in downtown Blue Ridge and make a 26-mile round trip along the Toccoa River, with 2-hour and 4-hour options.
That's a separate piece of the old railroad with its own story. The GDOT study records that CSX abandoned the 15 miles from Blue Ridge to McCaysville in 1995, and that the line later reopened as the tourist railway. HawkinsRails adds that the southern part of the Old Line is now run by Patriot Rail's Georgia Northeastern Railroad, and the Scenic Railway uses part of that line.
Put side by side, the two rides show what happened to the region's rail after the freight trains left. The route north to McCaysville came back as a full tourist operation with a downtown depot and a fall schedule that runs into November. The route northeast toward Murphy lost almost everything, and what remains comes down to a 2.2-mile piece, a county-owned depot, and a club that keeps both running.
The calendars line up this year. The Scenic Railway's foliage season overlaps the Mineral Bluff weekend, so the same Saturday could include a few miles on each.
After the 25th, the track waits for next year's dates
The 2026 Ride the Rails schedule had three sessions: April 10–11, July 3–4, and October 24–25. Once the last motor car comes back over the Iron Bridge at the end of the 3 p.m. run on Sunday, the track goes quiet for riders until the club posts its next year's dates. If the October weekend doesn't fit, watch tsmri.org for the 2027 calendar.
From the depot at 150 Railroad Avenue, the old line once kept going about 20 miles northeast to Murphy. Today you'd drive it.
Murphy is home for our team, and Randy's family has been in Cherokee County for generations. Stories like this one about the old line between Fannin County and Murphy are a big part of why we love this corner of the mountains. If you're thinking about what your own place on either side of the state line is worth, The Randy Dockery Team is glad to talk it through. Get a free home valuation and local market advice from neighbors who know both ends of this line.
