Beginning operations in 1893, the Butte, Anaconda & Pacific Railway (BA&P) began to electrify much of its system in 1912. Never a very large railway, at its peak it had 135 miles of track, 75 of which were electrified. Though it was a common carrier, hauling passengers and freight, its sole reason for being was to haul copper ore from the mines at Butte to the smelter at Anaconda. The railway was a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, which, incidentally, owned pretty much everything else in Anaconda, as well.
The mainline, 27.5 miles of track between Butte and Anaconda is where one would have spied The Anaconda in the days that passenger service took place on the BA&P Railway. Begun with the start of the railway in 1893, passenger service was discontinued in 1955, essentially putting this car out of work. The smelter closed in the 1980s and the line has been sold yet remains operational, though we will never again see coaches such as this making their way down the tracks. It is one of the very few passenger coaches of the BA&P which still exist.
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