Name of the train comes from judge

By The Standard Staff - 05/20/2006

There ARE lots of photography opportunities from the windows of the train. The tour takes about three hours and there’s abundant scenery.

District Judge Ed McLean of Missoula named the Copper King Express, an engine trailing two vintage passenger cars that runs between Butte and Anaconda.

The name, meant to celebrate the towns’ mining heritage as it stops at historic points of interest between and around the towns, was selected from a list of favorites after a phone-in and e-mail vote of area citizens.

The two-1950s era passenger cars, originally part of a public transit system for the city of Montreal, seat 100 passengers each.

The Blast From the Past event is made possible in part by a $9,000 Department of Commerce special events grant to celebrate the national historic landmarks of Butte, Anaconda and the former Butte, Anaconda and Pacific Railway that connects them — now known as Rarus Railway — and the inaugural run of Rarus Railway’s Copper King Express.