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NP2626
Guest
My layout is loosely based on Northern Pacific's Butte Shortline. This is a route used by the NP for passenger traffic that broke form the mainline at Logan Montana, went over Homestake Pass, through Butte Montana and reconnected with the mainline at Garrison Montana. One of the current threads here today is a question for us about: "What Do You find to be the Most Enjoyable Aspect(s) of Model Railroading?" I stated in my response that I enjoyed researching things for my layout and therefore a trip to Butte would be considered research. We had to make a trip to Cody Wyoming to attend a Funeral and I thought adding a side trip to Butte would be fun. Butte is a very interesting city. It was started as a Mining town and continues in that capacity today. It started with gold being found in the area. When the gold played out, Silver was found and during this time copper was found in great quantities. Copper is still being mined there and the mining took place in hard rock shaft mining, with shafts descending to depths of over one mile deep! There are also open pit mines there and the current mining in Butte is being conducted in this manner. I'm uncertain why; but, you would think that freight into and out of a mining town such as Butte would rule the rails, however, on the Northern Pacific's Butte Shortline it was mostly Passenger traffic. I guess that the Butte Anaconda and Pacific which ran between Butte and Anaconda to the West and had a smelter must have hauled most of the Copper Ore from Butte.
We left Butte and drove down through the Gallatin Canyon to West Yellowstone, through Yellowstone Park and on to Cody Wyoming. It was a fun and interesting trip!
We left Butte and drove down through the Gallatin Canyon to West Yellowstone, through Yellowstone Park and on to Cody Wyoming. It was a fun and interesting trip!