Outlier Ridge Line

The Outlier Ridge Line is a 271.0 mile (61.4 miles in BC) railway line of the North Western Pacific Railroad (NWP) running from Mount Broadwood Junction on the Crowsnest Southern Line to Outlier Ridge.

The Outlier Ridge Line is part of the Eastern Division of NWP's British Columbia District.

= History = Plans to open new coal mines in the Outlier Ridge area first arose in the 1960s, and the first mine site, at Flathead, was opened in 1966; to serve this, the Milwaukee Road refurbished its moribund Crowsnest Southern Line between Elko and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and extended it 37.9 miles from Elko to Flathead.

The second mine site, at Snowshoe Lake, opened a decade later, in 1977, and at the same time the Milwaukee opened 14.1 mile Snowshoe Lake Line from the mine site to a point on the Crowsnest Southern Line that became Mount Broadwood Junction.

A decade would again pass before the third mine site was opened, at Outlier Ridge; this needed a 6.3 mile extension to the rail line, which was opened by the Chicago, Milwaukee & North Western Railroad (successor to the Milwaukee Road after its 1979 merger with the Chicago & North Western Railroad) in 1991. The line retained its name until 1999, when the CM&NW's successor, the present-day North Western Pacific, renamed it Outlier Ridge Line.

= Services = The Outlier Ridge Line is freight only, hauling almost exclusively coal from the mines. On the rare occasion, equipment is delivered to the mines, but this is the entire extent of inbound traffic.

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