During their combined existences, the Smoky Mountain Railroad and its forerunners had no better friend than retired Brigadier General Frank Maloney (1879 - 1952). A longtime outspoken proponent of "Sevierville's railroad," 37-year old Maloney even designed its extension into the foothills below Gatlinburg. Three decades later, he was appointed as the company's permanent federal trustee. Without Maloney's intervention during some of the railroad's darkest days, the line might have ceased to exist a decade or more before its 1961 demise.

Maloney was a native Knoxvillian, graduating with an engineering degree from the University of Tennessee. His military service was distinguished from the onset, when he helped organize an infantry company which saw combat in the Spanish-American War (1898). Maloney returned to active duty the next year during the Philippine Insurrection. In 1911, then-Governor Hooper appointed him Adjutant General of the Tennessee National Guard, which the officer efficiently reorganized. He served in that post until 1915.

Perhaps Maloney's greatest military contribution was not as a combat soldier, but as a civil engineer. His recommendation of a site near Columbus, Georgia, for the present-day Fort Benning was enthusiastically selected by the Army over another location.

In civilian life, Maloney served with equal distinction. Immediately after his tour-of-duty as Tennessee's Adjutant General, he was hired by William J. Oliver to supervise the design of the Pigeon River Railroad as its chief engineer. The line effectively extended the Slow & Easy ten miles above Sevierville, via Pigeon Forge, to McCookville. According to newspapers of the day, Oliver, as well as the railroad's officials and its financiers, were extremely pleased with the construction of the segment. Unfortunately, the Pigeon River Railroad only operated from 1919 until 1929, after which it was removed.

Still later in his career, Maloney headed Knox County's highway department, its planning commission, and the Knoxville Housing Authority. However, he is best known for his near-single-handed recommendation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park's accepted boundaries. He also laid out the 72-mile route of the Foothills Parkway, which remains partially complete to this day.

Retired Brigadier General Maloney in the late-1930s. (From a National Park Service photo)

In 1947, General Maloney, by then age 68, was appointed as the Smoky Mountain Railroad's trustee during a turbulent time in its history. Three months prior, the Slow & Easy was already suffering dismal losses as an unwanted and sorely underfunded subsidiary of the Midwest Steel Corporation. Midwest Steel, a dealer in scrap metals, was headquartered in Charleston, West Virginia, and purchased the Smoky Mountain Railroad just prior to World War II in order to sell it for scrap. The wartime construction of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Douglas Dam called for the railroad's services, however. So, Midwest Steel granted the line a reprieve, deciding to milk the little line of all profits earned from its lucrative TVA construction contract.

On January 20, 1947, almost two years after the war's end, a major washout occurred on the railroad, making it impassable and stranding seven cars of foreign lines. Using the washout as a convenient excuse, Midwest Steel sought the Interstate Commerce Commission's permission to abandon the line, while simultaneously requesting bankruptcy protection for the Smoky Mountain in Knoxville's federal court.

U.S. District Judge George C. Taylor appointed Maloney on April 23, 1947, immediately ordering the trustee to refurbish the line and return it to profitable operation. (Maloney was no stranger to railroading, having been involved in the railroad construction business throughout his career.) The General began by quickly repairing the Smoky washout and replacing every third crosstie along the 28-mile route. Trains were rolling again within a month.

In his effort to make the railroad a going concern, Maloney suggested methods of improving its efficiency. His recommendations may sound very familiar to longtime advocates of a modern-day, reincarnated Smoky Mountain line:

• End the run of Smoky Mountain trains at Vestal rather than downtown Knoxville, eliminating the monthly rent paid to the Southern Railway for 2.2 miles of trackage rights over Southern's K&A branch;
• Regain the U.S. Mail contract by ensuring the mail's arrival in Sevierville early enough in the day for rural route delivery;
• Return all trains to Sevierville each evening rather than Knoxville or Vestal, since most train crews lived in Sevierville and vicinity;
• Reduce monthly operating expenses by selling two steam locomotives, instead acquiring and operating a small diesel unit; and,
• Gain lucrative shipping contracts from one or all of three Sevierville petroleum distributors which preferred to ship by rail.

Maloney's ideas never reached fruition. By mid-1948, Midwest Steel's 1947 petition to reorganize the railroad under bankruptcy protection had been declared null and void by a federal appellate court. Under this ruling, a frustrated Maloney was ordered to turn over the Smoky Mountain's operation to a county-appointed receiver on July 15, 1948. (Remember that the General was federally-appointed.)

Sadly, Maloney passed away in 1952, never to realize the fate of "Sevierville's railroad." Yet, his repairs and improvements to the Slow & Easy unquestionably extended the road's life by over a decade into the 1960s. His efforts, as well as his distinguished military and civilian service, firmly established Brigadier General Frank Maloney as an icon in the history of East Tennessee.