Yellowstone Valley Railroad
The Yellowstone Valley Railroad (reporting mark YVSR) is a 171-mile (275 km) shortline railroad in northeastern Montana, also crossing into North Dakota. It operates two branch lines leased from the BNSF Railway in 2005 - Snowden to Glendive and Bainville to Scobey - connected by trackage rights over BNSF's Northern Transcon between Snowden and Bainville.
Overview | |
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Reporting mark | YVSR |
Locale | Northeastern Montana, West McKenzie County, North Dakota |
Dates of operation | 2005– |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
History
The northern segment, from Bainville to Scobey, was constructed by the Great Northern Railway (GN), opening to Plentywood in 1911 and Scobey in 1914.[1] A further extension was built to Opheim and later abandoned. The other line was built as a pair of branch lines connecting Sidney to the GN at Snowden and the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) at Glendive. The Snowden-Sidney piece was completed by the Montana Eastern Railway, a GN subsidiary, in 1915,[1] and the remainder by the NP in 1912.[2] Effective August 15, 2005, the YSVR leased both of these lines from the BNSF Railway, successor to the GN and NP.[3]
References
- Interstate Commerce Commission, 133 I.C.C. 1 (1927): Valuation Docket No. 327, Great Northern Railway Company et al.
- Interstate Commerce Commission, 25 Val. Rep. 397 (1929): Valuation Docket No. 959, Northern Pacific Railway Company et al.
- Yellowstone Valley Railroad, accessed February 2009