Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway
The Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway (BAP ) is a regionally circulating ( shortline ) railway company in the United States. It was created on 1 October 1892, operates today in the state of Montana. Their main task was the transportation of copper ore for the Anaconda Copper Mining Company of Butte for smelting by Anaconda. Since the company was founded as a general operating transport companies, they also operated passenger and other freight trains.
Route network
The main route runs from Butte of nearly 1,700 meters above sea level initially along the Silver Bow Creek downstream and follows the course of today belonging to BNSF former Northern Pacific mainline. By 1980, the railroad told the station the railway node Butte with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road), which also ran parallel to the west. In Silver Bow, one belonging to Butte neighborhood, approaching from the south has always been to Union Pacific belonging distance from the direction of Pocatello. After about five kilometers, the slim-cut valley of the Silver Bow Creek is crossed and it crosses the paths of the Milwaukee Road and Northern Pacific on a steel bridge. After all three routes have turned to the north and have dropped to about 1560 meters above sea level, branches off the main line of the BAP from the northwest and runs slightly uphill by Anaconda at 1627 meters above sea level. In Anaconda, a branch line runs west to Browns, another branch line led formerly to the east to the tracks of the Northern Pacific.
History
The railway company opened its route on 1 January 1894. Along with the mines and smelters they belonged to the well-known than copper king Marcus Daly entrepreneurs. The main route from Butte to Anaconda to the Washoe smelter was scheduled information 25.7 miles long ( about 42 miles), a later branch from Anaconda westward after Brown was 6.2 miles long (about 9 km ). The total length of the tracks on the marshalling yards, junctions and factory tracks was 135 miles ( about 220 km). 51 % of the company belonged to the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and 49 % of the Great Northern Railway.
At the beginning of the operation put the company steam locomotives with the wheel arrangement 1'D and 2'd.
The BA & P was a pioneering company in the field of electric traction. Benefiting from experience of working in the mining sibling company in operation with electric motors, she led the electric traction in 1913 as first, mainly active in the freight railway company in the United States. It was also also the first electric railway operations in the U.S., which was introduced for purely economic point of view. Furthermore, a possible use of the conveyed and transported copper in the world could be shown practical. The decision was supported by a contract with the Great Falls Power Company, who not only built the necessary power plant, but also put the power on terms more favorable than that of a company's own power plant available.
The contract with General Electric was closed in December 1911 and involved the construction of the necessary substations, supply of locomotives, the electrification of about 144 kilometers of track. The power was carried out using direct current of 2400 volts, the preparation of the equipment and of the contact line made by General Electric and ground own labor. The top line consisted of a single line on poles from red cedar wood with a distance of 45.72 meters (150 feet). All 304.8 meters (1000 feet) was a current injection into the overhead line. In the same distance passed down conductors to the tracks. By Breaker in certain sections individual sections could be isolated. The substation was built in Butte and Anaconda. Each station was home to a 1,000- kW system. Provided the 2400 V three-phase AC is converted to the desired 2400 V DC by means of a 1450 kVA synchronous motor and two series-connected, 500 kW payable 1200V DC generators.
17 locomotives of the type 80 - ton boxcab were delivered in 1913 and were given the operating numbers 50 to 66 locomotives 65 and 66 were intended for passenger services and therefore received a different gear ratio. On 14 May 1913, the first electric locomotive ran on the track and two weeks later the regular electric operation started. In early October 1913, the entire operation was switched to the main track to electric traction.
Due to the traction could change with three electric locomotives and the corresponding occupation, the same performance can be obtained as before with four steam locomotives. Between 1913 and 1914, the railway company was thus able to reduce the cost of locomotives by 40 %, labor costs for the crew by 21% and the total cost by 36%. At the same cargo volume rose by 8.8 %. For savings of approximately $ 242,000 per year and total investment cost of $ 1,211,000 was to be expected with a payback within five years. Due to the higher performance on the track, if could on the transport of approximately 3,000 tons of ore to a smelter in Great be waived and this will be conveyed directly by Anaconda. To allow this 25 - percent increase in transport volume, was built a second substation in Anaconda 1914/1915 and acquired a further four locomotives. In addition, we acquired four so-called " tractor trucks". This two-axle vehicles corresponded to one of the locomotives and bogies were weighted with corresponding weights. This additional vehicle propelled the starting tractive effort was increased by 50%. 1915/1916 acquired a further seven locomotives. In addition, one more transformer station were built in Butte and Anaconda. Thus, finally, a power of 3000 kW and 4000 kW of Anaconda was installed in Butte. Due to the slope ratios were two locomotives with 5600 tons are transported westward, eastward, however, only 2,000 tons. Since the ore trains eastward mostly drove empty to be loaded again in Butte, this circumstance was not so significant.
In 1957, the original 28 locomotives from existing electric vehicle fleet was supplemented by two electric locomotives GE 125 - ton Electric. In addition, an automatic 2500 kW Ignitron rectifier substation was built in Dawson. For operation on the non-electrified sections of a few years, the last steam locomotives were replaced by diesel locomotives before. Following agreement on the route rights, the BA & P began in 1958 with the operation of the route of the Northern Pacific Railway between Butte and Durant. 1967, the electrical equipment was set on the home track, as the construction of a new ore processing plant in Butte the necessary traffic on the main line and shunting greatly reduced and the use of diesel locomotives - three GP7 and GP9 four - thus was cheaper.
After the closure of the steelworks in Anaconda the railway company lost most of its transport business and was sold to the state of Montana in 1985. A consortium of local investors founded to operate the Rarus Railway ( rarw ) and acquired in 1990, the ownership of the railway company. On 19 July 2007 the holding company Patriot Rail Corporation, the Rarus Railway bought up in May 2007 announced that the Company rückzubenennen again in Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway.