I was over in Butte, MT yesterday and couldn't pass by this old Consolidation without taking a few photos. This old lady sits in front of the Butte Civic Center and was used for service between Butte and Whitehall, MT. While in butte, we had lunch at "The Metals", which is an old bank that is a national historic site in "uptown" Butte. Most towns have a downtown area, but the old city center of Butte is up on the side of a hill overlooking todays Butte and is called uptown. The old Metals Bank is now a restaurant, and in the back of the restaurant is the vault and its 30 ton door. This is where the "Copper Kings" would keep their money. While having lunch it was interesting looking at the old buildings across the street. I model the transition era and of course these kinds of buildings are just perfect, not only for my era, but any era. Guess you can never get model railroading out of your mind. As we were leaving there was another interesting building I took a picture of. I just love older buildings. The "Times" on the sign is not for a newspaper, but for the Irish Times Pub. The I noticed the shamrocks on the light pole. They're getting ready for Saint Patricks Day in Butte. There's also a brewery in the same building. The people in this town take Saint Patricks Day celebration to a whole new level. Party Hardy doesn't even come close. I'm sure BoxCab will vouch for that. Hope I didn't bore you to death. ................................... Chet
Nice! I wandered into Butte back in 2009, when Alaska GP49 and I barnstormed MT from Great Falls to the GN Hi-line, across Glacier Park to Whitefish, down to Missoula, following the MILW and MRL to Alberton and back to Butte and home to GTF. We concentrated on MILW remnants such as the Butte depot (KXLF building nowadays), Butte Yard and the approach to Pipestone Pass where we spent most of the day. Are the GN and NP depots still around?
There is a lot of railroad history in that area. Whenever I am in Butte I try to check out what I can in the area even if I have been there before. When I was a kid I was lucky enough to have ridden in the cabs of steam, Diesel and electric locomotives and the trip over Homestake, or Pipestone as the railroad called it was one of my favorites. I have relatives working for the Milwaukee Road living in Harlowtown, Three Forks and Deer Lodge. I still get to these town fairly often to visit and still check out anything to do with railroads. I also had relatives working for the Northern Pacific. Family gatherings could get interesting.
Was watching a show on PBS just last night about Great Falls. Nice but brief segment about the railroads. Good view of the MILW depot shown, and comment about their several such structures with towers. So naturally Missoula and Butte came into mind. *Sigh*
If anyone has doubts, it's only a few days until.... Still time to get there and take part. Preparations are well under way and it has been in the news well ahead of time.
