Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway

The Washington, Idaho and Montana Railway is a short-line railroad in the northwest United States, described as "a single-track standard gauge steam railroad" that runs between Bovill, Idaho and Palouse, Washington.

Construction began 120 years ago in May 1905 by the Potlatch Lumber Company as a logging railroad,[1] but it also carried other freight, passengers, and mail.

[2][3] Although the railway was to extend into Montana, these plans were abandoned, for two main reasons.

The first was a 1910 forest fire along the North Fork of the Clearwater River, which destroyed valuable timber and the second was an agreement between Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound railway (which operated into Montana) and the Washington, Idaho & Montana railway for joint use of tracks at Bovill and a division of rates.

[2][4] One of the line's original passenger cars, combine car 306, which served the railroad from 1909 until being sold and converted into an outbulding on a farm in the 1950s, was restored in 2020 and now serves as an Airbnb near Deary, Idaho.