Our primary reason for being in North Platte was to revisit the Golden Spike Tower at the Bailey Yard of Union Pacific Railroad. This is one of the biggest rail yards for Union Pacific and sports an 8 floor tower - an open observation deck on #7, and an enclosed observation deck with air conditioning and retired railroaders available to answer questions.
The total length of the yard is 8 miles and has 985 switches. The eastbound hump is 34 ft. tall; the west bound hump is 20 feet tall. Three thousand cars are humped every day. Cars advance to the hump and a computer directs the car to the correct track to it's train. The Diesel Shop repairs over 750 locomotives every month. Every 24 hours the Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars.
We watched from the 7th level and then moved up to the 8th floor and enjoyed talking to the trainmen who were available for questions. We enjoyed it so much that we went home for lunch and returned after lunch for another hour or so. Jack was in his glory!
On to Cheyenne tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment