The Montana Railroad, now defunct, was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 railroad built and operated between the towns of Lombard

Lombard, Montana

Lombard is a ghost town in southeastern Broadwater County, Montana, United States. The town was located on the east bank of the Missouri River, just north of the mouth of Sixteen Mile Creek. Lombard was established in 1895 as the western terminus of the Montana Railroad, and the location of its...

 and Lewistown

Lewistown, Montana

Lewistown is a city in and the county seat of Fergus County, Montana, United States. The population was 5,813 at the 2000 census. Lewistown is located in central Montana, the geographic center of the state, southeast of Great Falls...

, Montana

Montana

Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

, a distance of approximately 157 miles. The railroad connected with the national railway network via a connection with the Northern Pacific Railway

Northern Pacific Railway

The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...

 at Lombard. The Montana Railroad line was constructed between 1895 and 1903, and operated independently until 1908, when it was acquired by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad

The Milwaukee Road, officially the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until its merger into the Soo Line Railroad on January 1, 1986. The company went through several official names...

 ("the Milwaukee Road"). The railroad was colloquially known as "the Jawbone", because of the contrast between the promising statements of the line's promoters and the company's perennially-weak financial position.

History

The Montana Railroad was the brainchild of Richard A. Harlow, a Helena, Montana

Helena, Montana

Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...

 attorney and entrepreneur, who envisioned the construction of a railway eastward from Helena to serve the mining and agricultural regions of central Montana. His first attempt at such a project, the Montana Midland, began construction in 1893, but almost immediately failed due to the onset of the Panic of 1893

Panic of 1893

The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...

.

Undeterred, in 1894 Harlow organized the Montana Railroad, a project with similar goals. Construction work on the Montana Railroad began in 1895 at Lombard, a station on the Northern Pacific Railway 53 miles east of Helena. The Montana Railroad route proceeded eastward from Lombard up Sixteen Mile Canyon towards the mining districts of the Castle Mountains, in southeastern Meagher County

Meagher County, Montana

-National protected areas:*Gallatin National Forest *Helena National Forest *Lewis and Clark National Forest -Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,932 people, 803 households, and 529 families residing in the county...

. The railroad reached Leadborough, at the southern end of the mining district, in November 1896; unfortunately for the railroad, however, the region's mines were already past their peak by then.

In the face of the declining mineral production in the Castle area, Harlow realized that his railroad needed a larger and more diversified traffic base. He therefore announced plans to extend his railroad still farther, and in 1899 railway construction crews began working eastward down the Musselshell River

Musselshell River

The Musselshell River is a tributary of the Missouri River, long from its origins at the confluence of its North and South Forks near Martinsdale, Montana to its mouth on the Missouri River. It is located east of the Continental divide entirely within Montana in the United States...

 valley. The Montana Railroad was completed to the new town of Harlowton

Harlowton, Montana

Harlowton is a city in and the county seat of Wheatland County, Montana, United States. The population was 1,062 at the 2000 census. The city was once the eastern terminus of electric operations of the Milwaukee Road railroad's "Pacific Extension" route, which went all the way to Avery, Idaho. ...

 (named after Harlow) in 1900. The line's tracklayers then turned northward, finally reaching Lewistown in 1903.

In 1908, the Montana Railroad was purchased by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad, which was then in the process of constructing a new transcontinental line through the state of Montana. The Lombard-Harlowton segment of the Montana Railroad became a part of this new Milwaukee line, although nearly all of the original route was heavily rebuilt, to reduce curvature and raise the Sixteen Mile Canyon trackage above the flood-prone canyon floor. Work to electrify

Railway electrification system

A railway electrification system supplies electrical energy to railway locomotives and multiple units as well as trams so that they can operate without having an on-board prime mover. There are several different electrification systems in use throughout the world...

 the line began in 1914. The Montana's Harlowton-Lewistown route became a secondary main line for the Milwaukee; it was later extended to Great Falls

Great Falls, Montana

Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...

 and several branch lines were built.

Nearly all of the Milwaukee Road's trackage in the area was abandoned in 1980, and today only a short segment of the former Montana Railroad (near Moore

Moore, Montana

Moore is a town in Fergus County, Montana, United States. The population was 186 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Moore is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land....

) remains in service. Most of the former grade can still be seen, however.