Western Montana Railroad Historical Association

06/01/2026

The WMRHA has been doing its part to "dress up" our little section of downtown Helena! Working with our awesome landlord, VEK Railway Supply, and the Helena Business Improvement District ( downtownhelena.com ), we were able to get our vandalized/wind damaged large front window replaced! As we are located on N Last Chance Gulch and right at the entrance to Helena's historic downtown, this new window and frame will make a much more positive impression of Helena for our many out-of-town visitors and guests! Thanks to all involved!!

04/28/2026

It's very important to have good track work so that your trains run smoothly, but most layouts don't really come to life without the effort of artists! A couple of recent additions at the "Last Chance Layout" include the new backdrop behind the Great Northern's Corbin Trestle (thanks Kim B. for the excellent artistry!), and the stained glass light fixture over our helix (thanks Scott and Mindy P.. for the lamp, Bill for glass repair, and Ron for installation!)! There are generally many hands involved with each improvement at our layout, and our visiting guests seem to really appreciate those efforts!!

04/15/2026

Montana's largest model train/railroad memorabilia show is coming right up in less than two weeks! The 44th annual Helena Railroad Fair will be held in Helena, Montana on the last Sunday in April. The WMRHA will have extended hours at our "Last Chance Layout" on Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th to accommodate the many out-of-town guests. Saturday hours will be 10 AM to 8 PM, and Sunday hours will be from 11 AM to 5 PM. In addition - the WMRHA will be having 8 tables of model railroad related items to sell at the Railroad Fair! We hope to see you at both the Helena Railroad Fair AND the Last Chance Layout (619 N Last Chance Gulch) on the 26th of April!! Happy Railroading!!

04/02/2026

Here are some early Burlington Northern related photos taken by Eugene "Gene" Koch in the vicinity of Mullan Pass, near Helena, Montana in June of 1979. An eastbound train led by BN SD45 #6543 leads a bunch of SD45 power into the Mullan Tunnel which goes underneath the Continental Divide. Also shown is the giant blower system which was located at the east portal of the tunnel at that time! Additional photos from this roll of film and others can be found in the Eugene (Gene) C. Koch Railroad Photo collection located on the WMRHA's webpage: wmrha.org

03/23/2026

An eastbound Milwaukee Road manifest train (HO scale) has diverted onto the Northern Pacific Railroad line in Butte, Montana and is now grinding its way up the roughly 2% grade of Homestake Pass. The two head-end locomotives are ScaleTrains GP40's, as is the mid-train helper. This action is taking place at the Western Montana Railroad Historical Association's "Last Chance Layout" - located in Helena, Montana, USA. You gotta love long trains and hills!! Especially when you have excellently speed-matched locos with current keepers!! ;-)

An eastbound Milwaukee Road manifest train (HO scale) has diverted onto the Northern Pacific Railroad line in Butte, Montana and is now grinding its way up t...

03/09/2026

Over the last couple of years we've had several inquiries about our track maintenance procedures. With over 2,200 feet of track to clean and maintain we believe that we have worked up a good procedure! Several of the retired (mostly) members of the Association meet for breakfast every Friday morning, after which we go down to the "Last Chance Layout" to get things ready for Saturdays when we are open to the public. We definitely don't want track problems when we are giving tours to visitors! We generally run two types of cleaning trains every Friday: a vacuum train (1-3 separate trains), and a much longer rail cleaning train (both pictured below). The rail cleaning train generally only does the mainlines, and about once a month also does the longer spur lines and sidings. The rail cleaning train is a hard pull and requires at least 3 locomotives to pull it. It consists of a gondola to collect loose parts found along the track, a couple of cars (Bachmann) with light abrasive pads, a CMX liquid track cleaning car using ACT-6006 track cleaning/conductive fluid, an "electrostatic" battery operated cleaning car, two "home built" pad cars using upholstery fabric to pick up the excess cleaning/conductive fluid on the track, a plastic coal hopper with a super magnet inside which picks up metal fragments, loose spikes, screws, etc., and of course - a caboose! It generally takes 1.5 to 2 hours to clean the track, but we do get to run trains and perform needed maintenance at the same time! Win, win!! ;-)

02/23/2026

The WMRHA is located on the lower floor of the "Steamboat Block" building in Helena, Montana. On the floor directly above us is the Lewis & Clark County Historical Society (Lewis & Clark County - MT - Historical Society) which we work very closely with! The LCCHS recently had a large set of "Helena Urban Renewal" photographic slides donated to them by Shirley Clearman, and among them were these photos of the Helena, MT Northern Pacific Railroad roundhouse and turntable from 1975 - as the structures were being dismantled. A sad but common fate for these once immensely important facilities!

02/11/2026

Over the several years of our existence we have been offered the opportunity to dismantle several private layouts. The most common reasons for removing a layout has been the passing of the owner, or downsizing/moving by the owner. In each case though it is sort of a sad process, as we take apart in a matter of hours layouts that took much love, money, and 100's if not 1,000's of hours to build. As we deconstruct we try to admire the workmanship and understand the process that was used in building the layout, as we may gain building tips that we can apply to the continuing work down at the "Last Chance Layout". We also try to salvage and re-use as many of the components as possible for our layout. Items/components that we don't think we will use are either passed on to youth who are just getting started in the hobby, or sold at train shows to support our operation. While layout dismantling can be a sad affair, we feel good that we can recycle many of the items as well as utilize and highlight the work of many good modelers in our ongoing layout construction!

02/02/2026

While most of our "Last Chance Layout" is modeled to reflect the historical locales of the railroads operating in western Montana during our chosen historical era (1950 to mid-1970), we also have added a couple of places on our layout that didn't exist in real life but are needed for operational reasons. The first of these was the "Koch Cut-off" which is a link between our Great Northern line from Helena to Butte, and connects to the Northern Pacific line near Elliston. The second place is the R.G. Yard. The R.G. Yard is our big staging yard (15 tracks) on the layout where Sustaining Members each have a designated track on which to leave a full train - including locomotives! Each track is separately powered so that parked motors aren't continuously idling - leading to longer life! This staging yard is something that has been desired from the very beginning of the layout, but it took the inspiration of Ron and Shawn to figure out where and how to do it! The R.G. Yard is a great addition to the layout and is in memory of and honors the contribution and legacy of one of our early members - Randall Green - whose modeling skills and numerous contributions lie at the very forefront of the success of the Last Chance Layout!

01/17/2026

Customized, location and era-specific items on a layout really make it "POP"!! In this case a custom painted Intermountain Lines bus crossing the NP tracks near Garrison and headed to Anaconda, and a custom painted Kenworth GN tractor pulling a refrigerated trailer up Helena Avenue in Helena bring a real sense of history and place to the WMRHA's "Last Chance Layout"! These are just a few of the custom-made scenery items that can be found on our history themed layout! Thanks to Robert Garrett for the amazing work on these two vehicles!!