|
The Copper King Express, Hosted By The Butte, Anaconda & Pacific RailwayThe Copper King Express was a relatively new excursion train provided by shortline carrier, Rarus Railway, now known again as the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway (the railroad's name was changed back to the historic carrier's name in 2007 by parent Patriot Rail Corporation). The tourist train debuted in 2006 and offered spectacular views of southwestern Montana from the tracks of the former mine railroad, and original Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway. Unfortunately, its operations were discontinued in December 2009.
While the Milwaukee Road was another of several Midwestern granger roads (meaning that it was a railroad which served the heart of America’s breadbasket in the Midwest and plains) it clearly distinguished itself from the many others by having a direct transcontinental line to the Port of Seattle, which competed with the likes of the western railroads, Great Northern (GN) and Northern Pacific (NP).
Like its name implies you can probably guess the Milwaukee Road began in its namesake city Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1850 known as the Milwaukee & Mississippi. After being renamed and then taken over by the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad the M&StP became known as the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul when it reached Chicago. After extending out through much of the Midwest serving the Heartland the railroad added “Pacific” to its name when it decided to build West, all the way to the Pacific coast and Seattle, Washington which it reached in 1909. The Milwaukee Road, just a few years later in 1915, electrified its Rocky Mountain Division between Harlowton, Montana and Seattle, Washington, including south through Tacoma, a distance totaling over 616 miles (there was a gab in this electrification between Avery, Idaho and Othello, Washington). The electrified lines would make the railroad a celebrity in the railfan community as few other freight railroads boasted such a project, or electrification at all! · EMD GP7 #102: Originally Butte, Anaconda & Pacific #102 built in 1952. · EMD GP9 #107: Originally Butte, Anaconda & Pacific #107 built in 1952. · EMD GP9 #201 · EMD GP9 #202: Ex-Montana Western · EMD GP9 #302: Originally built as Southern Pacific #5628 in 1956. · EMD GP38-2 #1011: Ex-Montana Western The seasonal operations of the Copper King Express were completed on November 29, 2009 and the excursion train planned to run two final trains in December but canceled those plans due to poor weather conditions. Patriot Railway, which owned the BA&P, stated that the while the train received good ridership it never carried enough passengers to justify continuing its operations and the equipment has since been sold.
|
