Montana Railroading and Railfanning In "Big Sky Country"

Montana railroading is historically renowned for breathtaking open vistas and lots of grain and other agriculture-related train movements. While Montana’s official nickname is The Treasure State it is perhaps best known as Big Sky Country, and for good reason, with such open and beautiful panoramic scenery of the Northern Plains. The state was also once home to no less than three Seattle to Chicago main lines and the longest operated stretch of electrified railroading in the country. Today, Montana still sees plenty of railroading action with two operating Class I railraods, one Regional and two shortlines.

Montana railroading has its beginnings dating back to 1880 when the narrow-gauge Utah & Northern Railway first entered the extreme western part of the state (today the railroad is part of the Union Pacific Railroad system). Not long after this time the Northern Pacific Railway and Great Northern Railway would enter Montana pushing to the west where their main lines would eventually connect Minneapolis, Minnesota with Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; and the entire Puget Sound region. The two would also stretch all of the way to Chicago via friendly connections with the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

While at first, when railroads were the primary mode of transportation, this setup likely cost the Milwaukee Road. However, by the 1950s and 1960s the railroad industry had come to understand that its biggest strength was hauling freight over long distances and the Milwaukee's Pacific Extension not only was the fastest route between Chicago and Seattle, but the railroad also held a commanding 50+% of the traffic originating from the Puget Sound region!

After Milwaukee Road's "Lines West" (another term the western lines were known by) opened in 1909, over the next six years the railroad worked to electrify much of its Rocky Mountain and Coastal Divisions, which earned the railroad its legendary status. The Milwaukee, while initially planning to electrify its main line entirely from Harlowton, Montana to Seattle, Washington (and the rest of its Puget Sound operations), it never completed a gap between Avery, Idaho and Othello, Washington. In total, however, the Milwaukee would operate roughly 660 miles of electrified and railroad.

(It should also be noted that while the CB&Q and Union Pacific also had a presence in Montana, it was nothing to the extent of the former three railroads mentioned.)

While the lack of online traffic along its main line in the Pacific Northwest hurt the Milwaukee early on, as mentioned before this direct route was a force to be reckoned with when the piggyback revolution (i.e., truck trailers fixed directly to railroad flat cars) caught on in the 1950s and 1960s as the railroad was one of the first to embrace it and began service in the mid-1960s (with named freight trains like the XL Special and Thunderhawk). Because of its clear advantage of a direct route between Chicago and Seattle it soon dominated the market in the West.

All was not lost for the Milwaukee. Its savior, for the time being, was its Pacific Extension. Even as the company’s management began to make increasingly idiotic decisions during the 1970s (such as scrapping the electrification just as the oil embargo hit) and defer maintenance across the entire railroad, their main line to the Pacific Northwest continued to earn the company a healthy profit.

Sadly, though, the railroad’s fate was sealed when, in another short lapse of vision, management decided in the late 1970s to scrap the entire railroad system west of Miles City, Montana some 1,100 miles of track! While the results of this and other abandonment projects on the eastern side of the system worked in cutting costs the now much smaller railroad, which no longer competed for the lucrative traffic entering the Port of Seattle (which today is booming), made for a prime merger target and in 1985 the Soo Line Railroad purchased the company. With the purchase thus closed the book on one of our country’s most interesting and dynamic railroads. Today, what's left of the Milwaukee Road is cut up amongst different railroads and the best engineered rail line through the rugged Cascades is but weeds and trails, a vital transportation artery no longer available to shippers and the American economy.

It should also be noted that even as Milwaukee was piling up trains along its Pacific Extension with slow orders and derailments, as track conditions worsened, the railroad astonishingly still continued to receive a majority of the container and trailer traffic from the Port of Seattle. The Milwaukee also, ironically, brought about its own bankruptcy because of its deferred maintenance to the Pacific Extension. Even as the track got worse the railroad continued to move large amounts of freight over its Chicago-Seattle main line to such a degree that the lack of maintenance literally forced it into bankruptcy as the infrastructure could simply not handle the heavy volume.

Today, Montana railroading may no longer feature the Milwaukee Road’s Pacific Extension but Big Sky Country continues to see plenty of railroading action with Class I railroads BNSF and Union Pacific operating trackage within the state (much of it owned by BNSF). Others include Regional Montana Rail Link and shortlines Central Montana Rail, Inc. and Dakota, Missouri Valley & Western Railroad.

In total, these railroads operate a little over 3,000 miles of trackage although at one time the state was home to nearly twice that. For more information about Montana railroading, in terms of route mileage over the years please refer to the chart below.

And, while Montana railroading may also not feature trains like the North Coast Limited and Olympian Hiawatha the Empire Builder remains under the Amtrak banner, continuing to operate over much of the same territory as it always has with eleven different stops throughout Montana.

All in all, while Montana railroading may no longer feature electrified main line freight railroading or numerous famous passenger trains it does offer a unique blend of Class I and shortline railroads as well as gorgeous scenery all around. So, a trip to the Treasure State, as its name implies, should be a memory-making experience!

For more reading about Montana railroad history consider the book Guide to the Milwaukee Road in Montana by author Steve McCarter which gives an excellent history of the Milwaukee Road's operations within the state and has received excellent reviews by readers. Also, for more reading about railroads in the west you might want to consider picking up a copy of the book The Story of the Western Railroads: From 1852 Through the Reign of the Giants by Robert Riegel, which describes western railroading from its beginnings in the 1850s, before the transcontinental line was built (when west meant across the Mississippi) to how the large systems that dominated the 20th century came about. If you're interested in perhaps purchasing either (or both) of these books please visit the links below which will take you to ordering information through Amazon.com, the trusted online shopping network.