The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway is a

short line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

which was incorporated in 1891. It was financed by the interests behind the

Anaconda Copper Mining Company The Anaconda Copper Mining Company, known as the Amalgamated Copper Company between 1899 to 1915, was an American mining company headquartered in Butte, Montana. It was one of the largest trusts of the early 20th century and one of the largest mi ...

and operated primarily to carry copper ore from the mines at

Butte __NOTOC__ In geomorphology, a butte () is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from a French word me ...

, Montana to the smelters at

Anaconda Anacondas or water boas are a group of large snakes of the genus '' Eunectes''. They are found in tropical South America. Four species are currently recognized. Description Although the name applies to a group of snakes, it is often used ...

, Montana, although the company was chartered as a

common carrier A common carrier in common law countries (corresponding to a public carrier in some civil law systems,Encyclopædia Britannica CD 2000 "Civil-law public carrier" from "carriage of goods" usually called simply a ''carrier'') is a person or compan ...

and also carried passengers and general freight.

Early years

The BA&P was an

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

pioneer, converting in 1913 and being the first primarily freight railroad to electrify. Electrification was at 2,400 volts DC; the work was performed by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

and the railroad's own staff. As described in a period article: The electrification was abandoned in 1967 as it had become cheaper to operate

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels ...

s. Many resources of the railway were included in the

Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway Historic District The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway Historic District is a historic district which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It covers the railway right-of-way which begins in Butte, Montana and runs to Anaconda gener ...

, which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1988.

Business sold

The railroad as a whole lost much of its business following the closure of the Anaconda smelters, and in 1985 was sold to a consortium of local investors and reconstituted as the Rarus Railway .

Film credit

In 1985, The B.A.&P. became the backdrop of a full-length feature film called

Runaway Train A runaway train is a type of railroad incident in which unattended rolling stock is accidentally allowed to roll onto the main line, a moving train loses enough braking power to be unable to stop in safety, or a train operates at unsafe speeds d ...

. The film was directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, & stars Jon Voight, who was nominated for an Academy Award & won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor, Eric Roberts, who was nominated for an Academy Award & Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor, Rebecca DeMornay, John P. Ryan, Kyle T. Heffner, Kenneth McMillan & Edward Bunker who also co-wrote the script. It was filmed on the B.A.&P. Railway & at the Roundhouse at Anaconda in March 1985. The film was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Drama.

Name change

On July 19, 2007,

Patriot Rail Corporation Patriot Rail Company LLC (Patriot Rail) is a holding company for a number of shortline railroads across the United States. In June 2012, Patriot Rail was acquired by SteelRiver Infrastructure Partners (SteelRiver). On August 8, 2022 Patriot Rai ...

, the parent company which acquired Rarus Railway in May 2007, announced that the railway's name was officially changed back to Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway.

Footnotes

References

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External links

Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway Web site
Montana railroads Former Class I railroads in the United States Electric railways in Montana Patriot Rail Company Anaconda Copper {{Montana-transport-stub