This is either the original or the second station to be built in Columbus by the Northern Pacific Railway. The Northern Pacific's main line reached Columbus in 1881, while the
Northern Pacific Railroad History Association indicates that a station was built in Columbus in 1882. Old photos indicate this to be the same station in the photos, but we don't have one from 1882. As a result we'll have to say that this
could be the 1882 station. If it's not, then this one was built in the very early 1900s.
A very typical small town station, the wood framed building had wide eaves and a freight warehouse as well as a passenger terminal and station master's office. Columbus was in the 5th Subdivision (Billings-Livingston) of the Yellowstone Operating Division of the Montana Division of the Northern Pacific Railroad. A few snippets of information from the
Northern Pacific Railroad History Association tell us that in 1973 the depot platform was retired and in 1977 the depot was remodeled.
An
old timetable notes that Columbus had two daily trains in each direction, at 12:15 PM and 5:43 AM westbound, and 12:15 PM and 12:02 AM eastbound, as of June 11, 1967. A bit earlier,
in 1902, mainline traffic passing through Columbus consisted of no less than 8 trains per day, three passenger and one freight train in each direction.
Other freight facilities in Columbus in earlier years included an automobile loading and unloading platform, 4 stock pens, water for stock and a wool warehouse. Many Montana Northern Pacific towns had wool warehouses, as the Northern Pacific was the major carrier of wool out of Montana. The wool warehouses were eventually all closed with centralization of wool collection in Billings.