Butte Special

The Butte Special was a named passenger train on the Union Pacific Railroad. The special ran between Salt Lake City, Utah and Butte, Montana by way of Pocatello, Idaho on the UP's Montana Division. The Butte Special was formalized sometime in the 1920's, with the typical setup containing several mail cars, a Railway Post Office car, two or three reclining seat coaches, a cafe/lounge car, and up to three sleeper cars. The train had a popular connection with the UP's Yellowstone Special at Idaho Falls, Idaho where the Yellowstone bound train went east towards West Yellowstone, Montana and Yellowstone National Park. The Butte Special was the Union Pacific's only North-South passenger service. Although the train served a relatively small population, (with Butte having a population that peaked near 35,000) it was as fully featured of a train as any that Union Pacific offered.

Beaver Canyon on Monida Pass, where the Butte Special ran.

The Route

From Salt Lake City, the train ran north to Ogden, then crossed into Idaho to make stops in Pocatello, Blackfoot, Idaho Falls, Dubois, and Spencer before crossing Monida Pass into Montana. In Montana the train made stops in Lima, Armstead, Dillon, Melrose, and Silver Bow before finally ending in Butte. Connections to the Northern Pacific and the Milwaukee Road were available in Butte. By 1970 the route had been condensed to only stop in Ogden, Pocatello, and Idaho Falls en route to Butte.

End of Service

The Union Pacific had tried cancelling the train as early as the 1960's, but they encountered little success in their efforts, and it eventually ran until Amtrak took over most of the United States' passenger rail service in 1971. As the service was beginning to wind down, the route lost its lucrative US Mail contract in 1967 and the train was no longer run daily, but three times per week. In its final days UP split the service with Northbound trains running on Thursday, Saturday, and Monday, and Southbound trains running Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday.