Lye-Lowe Branch Line Tour

The Lye-Low Branch Line of the Musselshell and Yogo Peak (M&YP) Railroad is a Montana layout which features 7 tunnels and over 9 bridges over a long, circuitous track. All bridges are timber scratch built trestles. The tracks are high in the mountains and travel from the Palisades and east to Winstead, making a western turn through the Caseton display case, and then traveling back along the wall above Eagles Nest. The locomotive is a RSD5 127 short train diverging from the main line of the M&YP. In this video, enjoy a tour of the branch line’s travels and hear various descriptions of the layout.

As the Lye-Low Line diverges from main line, it passes through the first tunnel to emerge below the Lombard mine. Passing over the first bridge — a 66 foot steel deck truss bridge — the branch line travels over a dry wash to come to Eagle Nest. It then heads on to the second bridge – the 177 foot Eagle Nest bridge and tunnel.

Emerging from tunnel 3, the branch line arrives in West Canyon Springs and travels across a third 495 foot steel viaduct bridge that rolls over the top of the town. Tunnel 5 travels below Big Baldy Mountain with Judith Creek behind the tracks and the branch line crossing over it on a small trestle. The sixth bridge is an S curved track of 105 feet over the Judith River. Yogo Town is above; the mining town features an active farm site and abandoned ghost town.

Traveling into Jack’s Canyon, the branch line rolls into Winstead with the Winstead Depot right outside tunnel 6. From here, the loco moves up to Caseton – a display case right outside the layout room. The track then passes behind Big Baldy Mountain and into Briggsdale, a western mining town alongside Lye-Lowe Branch with a depot and old mining structures. Moving on from bridge number 8, a 103 foot steel truss above West Canyon Springs, the train heads into Mill Town and the site of Lye-Lowe Lumber Mill. The branch line finally moves across a 423 foot timber bridge to end in the Saddleback Mountains.