On a recent motorcycle trip (I just got back home today), I came across some history that I think you guys would like to see. First is the Great Northern RR Depot (now amtrak) and station at Whitefish, with a Bruck (Bus/truck) and Nicely Preserved NW3 .
The second set of photos are of a small mining community called Burke, which is 7 mi north of Wallace, ID. The first of these photos is from 1946 and faces the loadout section of the "Star" silver mine. The second is from last week. Look for the same house about halfway down on the right. The neat thing about this town was it had the main line of the narrow gauge "Canyon Creek RR" running right down the middle of the street. The vendors and merchants would pull the awnings of their stores in to keep them from being damaged when a train passed by. The canyon is so narrow that the Tiger hotel was built straddling the railroad, street and creek. You could get off the train in the lobby.
The Star Mine has been long abandoned but some of the narrow gauge tracks on the upper level are still in place. Too bad there was a fence around it all. If I ever did an On30 scale layout, it would be a point to point like this short line.
