Modified 12-wheeler, taken in 2005:

http://abpr.railfan.net/abprphoto.cgi?o ... ne_028.jpg

Actually there are two cars in West Yellowstone. There is a former UP (OSL) business car that was used as a residence (IIRC) that has been restored and is intact INSIDE of the Holiday Inn. It was apparently supposed to have been a bar for another development but I don't think that has happened. It is accessible to the public.

The car pictured is another survivor of the Montana Centennial Train. This was a state tourism project that went to the World's Fair in New York in the late 1964-65. The train consisted of a variety of former heavyweight head end cars of NP and other roads (a C&O rpo in south of Livingston on account of this. Most of the cars from the train have either been scrapped or seen adaptive reuse, which involved the removal of the "board" siding (actually nailable steel flooring). This is the second surviving car retaining the board siding (the other is a former NP car in Alberton MT serving as a community Milwaukee Road museum). Other surviving cars are known to be in Wibaux MT and likely elsewhere.

The car in the picture is part of an effort of restore and preserve the Union Pacific station and dining hall. The Union Pacific terminus in West Yellowstone has many paralells to the ATSF facilities at the Grand Canyon.

It looks like somebody (not necessarily the current owners) cut a hold for an AC unit to make the car into usable display space. The car in Alberton is missing the entire car end on account of similar modification.

I saw the car a year before the photo was taken. At the time, it was across the street from the depot, being used as part of a children's maze attraction, hence the wood siding covering the car...

I'd love to see a better shot of that "Craftsman-style" depot...looks to be quite a beauty.

I'd have to agree with mikefrommontanna on this....you can see to the right of the opening for the AC, at the top and bottom are several areas where the "wood" has been damaged (bent/curved in actaully) to an extent that wood would bend nor survive.

Is there rail service to this station?

The last passenger service to W. Yellowstone ended in 1960, and the last passenger special may have been for the western governors conference at West Yellowstone in July, 1967, when UP ran a 3 business car train and kept it there for some of the govs and their staff, because there was not enough available hotel space in W Yellowstone at the height of the tourist season. Service on the line ended in 1979 and the rails removed in 1981.