St. Maries River Railroad
- AAR Reporting marks - STMA
- Offical Website
St. Maries River Railroad Overview
The St. Maries River Railroad is a shortline Class III railroad that operates 71 miles of trackage in northern Idaho. From 1980 until 2010, it was a subsidiary of Potlatch Corp.
The St. Maries River Railroad began service on May 23, 1980, over trackage that previously had been owned by the then bankrupt Milwaukee Road.
The STMA mainly operates between Plummer, Idaho and St. Maries, Idaho on what was the Milwaukee Road's Pacific Northwest main line across the Rockies. The railroad also operated on the Milwaukee Road's former Elk River branch line between St. Maries and Bovill, Idaho.
For several years from 1980 until the mid-1980s, Potlatch also owned and operated 45 miles of adjoining former Milwaukee Road trackage, between St. Maries and Avery, Idaho, as a private logging railroad that connected with the St. Maries River Railroad. The federal government condemned the logging line between St. Maries and Avery in the mid-1980s, prompting its shutdown.
In 2010, Potlatch sold the St. Maries River Railroad for $1.6 million to Mike Williams of the Missouri-based Williams Group, which owns other short line railroads in Idaho, Missouri and South Dakota under the corporate name MidWest Pacific Rail Net & Logistics, including the BG&CM Railroad.
Presently the line to Bovill, ID is no longer in service as the connecting Washington and Idaho Railway line has been abandoned between Bovill and Harvard, ID.
STMA interchanges with Union Pacific at Plummer.
St. Maries River Railroad Locomotives
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St. Maries River Railroad Customers
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