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TRANSACTIONS 33 BUSINESS IS PERSONAL 34
Business
A RAILROAD ON A MISSION
Amid economic changes, the Mission Mountain Railroad looks to diversify
BY JUSTIN FRANZ
A Mission Mountain Railroad freight train switches cars in downtown Kalispell.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
IF YOU WERE TO STOP AND WATCH a Mission Mountain Railroad train rumble down the tracks on its way to Columbia Falls, Kalispell or Eureka, the contents of the freight cars probably wouldn’t surprise a longtime resident of Northwest Montana. There would be grain coming from the elevator in Kalis- pell and nished lumber from the mills in Evergreen.
But every once in awhile, there might be a commodity that would surprise you, like a gondola full of magnetite bound for a coalmine in Canada.
With changes in Northwest Montana’s economic landscape, the Mission Moun- tain is teaming up with BNSF Railway to expand its business and nd new custom- ers, even ones who are in another country
and miles away from the short line rail- road’s tracks.
“Our traditional model on the Mis- sion Mountain has been to serve local customers that are physically located along the railroad in Kalispell, Ever- green, Columbia Falls and Eureka,” said Ted Kadau, vice president of marketing and sales for Watco Companies, the com- pany that owns the railroad. “But we’re now looking for ways to expand our busi- ness and diversify beyond our traditional commodities.”
While trains were rolling through the Flathead Valley before Kalispell was even incorporated, the Mission Moun- tain is a relatively new player in the industry. From 1891 until 2005, nearly all of the tracks in the Flathead were owned
and operated by the Great Northern Rail- way or its successor BNSF. But 11 years ago, BNSF decided to hand over its two branch lines — one between Columbia Falls and Kalispell and another between Stryker and Eureka — to Watco, which in turn created the Mission Mountain Rail- road (Watco owns the route to Eureka and leases the line to Kalispell). Watco, based in Kansas, owns three dozen short line railroads across the country that operate on approximately 4,700 miles of track.
The agreement meant that BNSF — one of the nation’s largest railroad com- panies with more than 32,000 miles of track — could focus on moving freight on its main line through Montana while the smaller railroad could focus on getting
freight the nal few miles to its destina- tion, a sometimes tedious and labor-in- tensive task.
Today, the Mission Mountain runs trains on a total of 35 miles of track with eight full-time employees. The railroad moves about 6,500 carloads of freight annually.
Kadau, who is based in Lewiston, Idaho and does the marketing for a num- ber of Watco’s railroads in the region, said for years Plum Creek Timber Company, and later Weyerhaeuser, has been the rail- road’s largest customer. Even with Wey- erhaeuser’s decision to shutter two of its mills in Columbia Falls, the lumber pro- ducer still provides the Mission Mountain with the most freight of any of its custom- ers. However, as the timber industry in
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