One place Dave wanted to see was the Union Pacific's North Platte railyard here in North Platte. 4 years ago when we drove from Scotts Bluff to Kearney, Nebraska, we traveled on the north side of the North Platte River, following the Immigrant Trail eastward. Dave said he saw the tower, I don't remember it, and he said that the railroad went on for miles.
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| Cute whiskers on this car |
Bailey Yard, which is the world's largest rail yard, is named for the former Union Pacific's president, Edd Bailey. It's where east meets west on the UP line, and where 10,000 cars are handled each day on 2,850 acres of land that stretches out eight miles.
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| Looking west, as far as you can see |
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| They can service 100 engines in a day (24/7) |
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| Lots and lots and lots of cars, engines |
The tower is shaped like a spike that is used on the rail way. First floor is visitor's center and gift store and you can go up to the 7th floor for outdoor viewing of the yard or go up to top floor to see more displays and see the yard from an enclosed platform.
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| East Hump, cars being sorted and moved to one of 64 rail lines to head east |
We had toured the Ely, Nevada's rail yard and we were able to go inside the locomotive repair shop, see first hand how they do things. With this big of an operation - we were at least a mile away from it all. That's the disappointment that Dave had - could not see things up close. However, I did learn a couple of things - like what a hump yard is. Not far from where we lived in Ohio there is another rail yard (Bellevue) and I had seen this hump yard, just did not know it's function. Cars are slowly brought up to the inspection point, then released to the appropriate rail line below sitting in a bowl shaped area, being directed to the proper line to go to it's destination. In this yard there are over 64 different bowl tracks heading east and 50 different tracks for west bound.
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| I had read a book on the Orphan Train - amazing story |
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| Engines are biggums! |
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| Not a good pic - but those little lines - rail roads |
4 cars can be sorted per minute. And there are over 2500 employees in this yard. Guess we know who the main employer is in North Platte! Afterward we drove to where the North Platte River meandered north of town and I took a few pictures. Surprised at how low the water was in comparison to the South Platte River which runs right by our campground.
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| South Platte River - quite snow melt swollen |
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| North Platte River - just the opposite, seemed low |
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