| Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway 42 at Rocker, Montana on October 10, 1958, Kodachrome by unknown photographer, Chuck Zeiler collection. The following is from CERA Bulletin 116, which contained reprints of various the General Electric Company publications, in this case, GE Bulletin CEA-828, published in February 1928: The Butte Anaconda & Pacific is essentially an ore-hauling road, the freight traffic from this source originating at the copper mines located near the top of Butte Hill. From the mines, the trains are lowered down the mountain a distance of 4½ miles to the Rocker yards, located a few miles west of the city of Butte. At this point new main-line trains are made up for transportation to Anaconda. The main-line division extends through a rough, mountainous country, a distance of about 20 miles, with grades as high as 0.3 per cent against the loaded trains and 1 per cent against trains of empty cars. In addition to 32 miles of electrified road, there are also numberous sidings, yards, and smelter tracks equipped with overhead trolley, which makes for a total of 123 miles on a single-track basis. |