TVA Dam Site on the C&S RR
Well, we have finally gotten to mile marker 30 high in the Smokies above RailCamp where we started this adventure.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has done a lot to modernize Tennessee.
Here we see construction of a dam on the Beaver Bend Branch of the Ocoee River being built by TVA. This dam will channel the head waters of the Ocoee into a wooden flume that will carry the flowing waters along the upper edge of the Ocoee Gorge. After 5 miles the flume will be about 500 feet above the river and will there turn down to a power house 500 feet below and spin its turbines to generate electricity. The water is then returned to the Ocoee completing the circuit.
To help in this incredible endeavor, TVA has hired the C&S RR to transport the crushed rock, cement, coal for the primitive cement mixer, and the workers constructing the dam and the flume.
The first set of pictures show the required posting of a Federal Sign, a Class A Climax shoving crushed limestone to be dumped in to the fill of the center of the dam and the cement cars taking fresh cement to pour in to the forms of the dam.
Notice the Dead Grass Crooked Creek and Western Hopper from Bill Nelson's nearby DGCC&W RR with a load of fine coal for the steam powered cement mixer.
Doc Tom