rties owned and/or controlled by both state and local economic development organizations, including Port of Butte (later Port of Montana). The Silver Bow yard was where Union Pacific interchanged with BN (BNSF) and Montana Western. Rarus Railway had access by way of an interchange track. Today  the overall site is known as the Montana Connections Business Development Park, and includes the Port of Montana, a foreign trade zone that allows duty free storage, and relief from Montana's inventory tax.
(Rarus Railway was named for the well-known Rarus Mine from the historic period of the Butte mining district.)
Anaconda Copper Mining Co. sold its Butte mining operations to the Washington Corporation, with no provision to protect any of Anaconda's employees. Washington Corp. then organized a new non-union subsidiary called Montana Resources, Inc., to operate the Butte properties. Mining operations resumed in mid-July 1986. The sale and resumption of mining operations were the result of a $12 million loan from Montana's mineral severance tax fund, and a three-year tax break for Washington Corp. The sale was completed in December 1985, and production was planned to be 40,000 tons per day by August 11, 1986. (Spokesman-Review [Spokane, Wash.], June 24, 1986; October 19, 1986; Victoria Advocate [Victoria, Texas], July 17, 1986, Associated Press news item)
According to information on file with the Railroad Retirement Board, a company by the name of BGM [Bisch-Greene-McCarthy] Equipment Company was formed on December 23, 1986, and leased equipment, locomotives, truck, track equipment, and land to its affiliated carriers, Montana Western Railway, and Rarus Railway. BGM Equipment was formally merged with Rarus Railway on October 1, 2007.
Rarus Railway purchased the former BA&P from the State of Montana. Most of Rarus' traffic was bridge traffic moving between Union Pacific at Silver Bow, and Montana Rail Link at Garrison. Both Rarus and Montana Western had separate customers in the Silver Bow area. Montana Western's main source of traffic was moving slag outbound from the Anaconda smelter site, and moving hazardous material inbound to be buried along with similar material taken from the Anaconda smelter site, at an EPA approved disposal site created for the disposal of Anaconda material.
May 1, 2007
Rarus Railway was sold to Patriot Rail. (Patriot Rail press release dated May 1, 2007)
July 19, 2007
Patriot Rail renamed Rarus Railway back to its historic Butte Anaconda & Pacific name. (Patriot Rail press release dated July 19, 2007, "today")
(Read more about Patriot Rail's Butte Anaconda & Pacific; official web site)
Montana Union Today
The Montana Union trackage between the towns of Butte, Silver Bow, Stuart, Deer Lodge and Garrison, while still owned by UP, was leased in 1898 to Northern Pacific Railway for a period of 999 years. The lease passed to Burlington Northern Railroad on March 1, 1970, and to Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway on December 31, 1996 (name changed to BNSF Railway on January 24, 2005).
Union Pacific's Montana Division ends in the north at Silver Bow Junction. UP trains interchange at Silver Bow with BNSF and with Patriot Rails' Butte, Anaconda & Pacific. Union Pacific does not operate east to Butte (7 miles), or west and north to Garrison (44 miles).
Homestake Pass (1888-1983)
At Butte, Montana Union Railway (leased to Northern Pacific) connected with Northern Pacific's line over Homestake Pass to the east. Started in June 1888 and completed in January 1889, Northern Pacific built its Homestake Pass line between Butte and Logan, Montana to the east to connect back to its Helena main line. This line, from Logan to Butte by way of Homestake Pass, and from Butte to Garrison by way of the Montana Union, was used by local freights and passenger trains such as NP's premier North Coast Limited, and Amtrak's North Coast Hiawatha until it was discontinued in 1979. The majority of NP freight went over the easier route through Helena. The line over Homestake Pass is paralleled by today's I-90.
Northern Pacific was p