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Black Hills Central Railroad 9:00 AM Train 8/19/2021

The two travellers arose at the Pines Country Inn after an excellent night's sleep. After doing our Internet things, we ckecked out and drove the very short distance to Donna's Main Street Diner where I had French Toast and bacon and Elizabeth enjoyed a Denver Omelette. She drove us all to Hill City, where we arrived at 8:40 AM and picked up our tickets, as well as a set of steam engine magnets while I looked around.

The Black Hills Central Railroad is a heritage railroad that operates the 1880 Train on the former Keystone Branch of the Burlington Northern Railroad between Hill City and Keystone, South Dakota. This railroad line was originally built by the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad as a mining railroad for gold in the Black Hills. It reached Keystone on January 20, 1900 and was later used to haul equipment for carving nearby Mount Rushmore.

In 1957, William Heckman and Robert Freer started the Black Hills Central Railroad which began operating a tourist passenger excursion train service on this line. In 1972, the Black Hills flood destroyed the last mile of the Burlington Northern/Black Hills Central line in Keystone, which was later restored in 2001.

The Black Hills Central Railroad restores early twentieth century-era locomotives and train cars and has been featured on television shows such as the Gunsmoke episode "Snow Train", "General Hospital", and the TNT mini-series, "Into the West". It also appeared in the movie "Orphan Train".

Trains operate between early May and early October over the scenic 9.5-mile line.

The BHCR operates rare, well-preserved, and operational steam locomotives:

Prescott & Northwestern (Caddo & Choctaw) Baldwin 2-6-2 7, built 1919.

Peninsula Terminal Railroad Baldwin 2-6-2T 103, built 1922.

Peninsula Terminal Railroad Baldwin 2-6-2T tank locomotive 104, built 1926.

Potlatch Lumber (Weyerhaeuser) Baldwin 2-6-6-2T 108, built 1926.

Rayonier (Weyerhaeuser) Baldwin 2-6-6-2T 110, built 1928.

The Black Hills Central Railroad also has a diesel locomotive on its engine roster:

EMD GP9 63 formerly Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O).

Whitcomb Locomotive Works 80DE5 6657, built 1943.

An old friend was on the point of the train, Black Hills Central 2-6-6-4T 110 built by Baldwin in 1928. It is an articulated mallet was built by Baldwin in 1928 for the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company to work on its Vail, Washington, line. After over twenty-five years working at at Vail, 110 was sold to the Rayonier Lumber Company in 1954 where it operated on the Grays Harbor line until 1966. During that time, it was fitted with a tender from Rayonier 2-8-2 101. Rayonier retired 110 in 1968 and it was sold to the Promontory Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. In 1971, the locomotive was transferred to the Wasatch Railroad Museum and placed on display at Heber City, Utah. Then, in 1993, it was sold to the Nevada State Railway Museum and was placed in storage at Boulder City, Nevada. Six years later, in 1999, it was sold to the Black Hills Central and trucked from Nevada to South Dakota on four semi-trailers. Work then began to restore the mallet to operating condition and it returned to steam in January 2001.

Black Hills Central Railroad GP9 63, ex. Progressive Rail 63, exx. Chillicothe Brunswick 63, exxx. Northeast Kansas and Missouri 63, exxxx. Indiana and Ohio 63, nee Chesapeake and Ohio 6178 built by Electro-Motive Division in 1956.

Black Hills Central 2-6-2T 104 built by Baldwin in 1926 as Silver Falls Timber Company 104 at Silverton, Oregon. It was sold in 1938 to Alaska Junk Company at Portland, Oregon then in the 1940's, sold as Peninsula Terminal Company 104 at North Portland, Oregon. It was purchased by William Heckman in 1967 and now runs onto the Black Hills Central Railroad.

Hill City scene.

Black Hills Central coach 125 "Keystone", built by the American Car Company in 1913 as Oregon Electric Railway 125. It later worked on the Pacific Great Eastern before being acquired by Black Hills Central in the 1970's.

Now sit back and enjoy a ride on the Black Hills Central. We rode in the open car "Mystic" again. I have been in this car on all four trips on this railroad.

I hope you have the enjoyed the trip to Keystone. Now we will watch the engine run around our train.

Black Hills Central 110 has successfully ran around the train. Now sit back and enjoy the ride back to Hill City.

I hope you enjoyed your trip aboard the Black Hills Central Railroad this morning. Next Elizabeth drove us to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. It was cloudy and I warned the group that we might not see Mount Rushmore. We took our parking ticket and then went to see the great mountain.

The views of Mount Rushmore as the clouds then came over.

For slow walkers this was the view they had. Elizabeth bought a DVD of National Parks with booklet, coffee mug and magnets. From here we went to Storybook Island for a steam engine.

South Dakota Cement Company 0-4-0T built in 1911 by H.K. Porter and is now called Patsy.

The Porter bulders plate. Next we went to Rapid City.

First the Milwaukee Road Freight House in Rapid City.

The Milwaukee Road passenger station under reconstruction in Rapid City. We went through the drive through at Arby's then Greg took over driving. We went down to Murdo where we stopped at the 1880 Town. We pulled into their parking lot and could not believe what was in front of us here in rural South Dakota.

South Dakota Central FP7A 103C, originally Milwaukee Road 103C, built by Electro-Motive Division in 1951.

Santa Fe baggage/Railway Express Agency car 3419 built by American Car and Foundry in 1947.

Santa Fe dining car 1482 built by the Budd Company in 1937 for the Santa Fe Super Chief.

Santa Fe lunch counter-diner 1552 built by Budd Company in 1948. These cars were at Bucksport Junction in Tea, South Dakota then went to Prairie Village in Madison in 1979 and were then sold to 1880 Town in 1981.

Rail display.

Plaque in the stone

Milwaukee Road station from Lane, South Dakota.

Canadian National speeder 169-58.

Unknown speeder. Elizabeth and I went into the building and a very nice fellow let us in for free to take pictures of the steam engine here.

Museum scene.

The Chicago and North Western Gettysburg station from that town.

Chicago Burlington and Quincy caboose 14424, nee BN 11118, built by the railroad.

Chicago, Burlington and Quincy stock car 52144, built by the railroad in 1938.

Great Western 0-4-0T 7 built by Davenport in 1921 for the Grand Rapids Gravel Company and sold to Great Western Sugar Company in 1931. It was previously in Gering, Nebraska.

The view of this whole train set.

Northern Pacific stock car 83015 built by the railroad in 1931.

Northern Pacific stock car 82710 built by the railroad in 1936.

Northern Pacific stock car 88270 built by the railroad in the 1930's. We next went inside the Gettysburg station.

The picture of the C&NW Gettysburg station in its day.

The station office. We returned to the car and drove into Murdo itself.

The Murdo-Mackenzie Milwaukee Road station built in 1907.

The Murdo-Mackenzie Milwaukee Road sign. We then went to find the other depot in this town but needed to get petrol and spotted the station while filling the car.

The public view of the Milwaukee Road Draper station. From here we drove to front of the Pioneer Auto Museum and Elizabeth and I paid a $10 donation to see a depot and caboose.

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific caboose 046.

The Milwaukee Road Draper station from Creston and then Draper built in 1906.

Inside of the Milwaukee Road Draper station.

Barney Fife of the Andy Griffith Show fame was on display. We drove east to Chamberlain where Greg and Marty went to Taco Johns while Elizabeth and I went to Subway for our dinner. We picked them up then headed east to Soiux Falls where we checked into the Ramada Inn for the night.

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