Part Five

"Twin Spin"

Back in my youth, my summertime radio station to listen to was MusicRadio, 770 WABC out of New York, New York. And every so often, they would play two songs in a  row by the same artist. Well today's twin spin is courtesy of Mother Nature. Another spectacular, abundant sunshine day. 

Day Five begins with the temp at 45 degrees. And as I drive alone Route 30, I try to vision where my dream retirement homestead would be. But as I as found out this morning going to breakfast, the air is alive with the aroma of cow manure. If this homestead is ever built, I am going to need a real good filtration system. A call out to Extreme Makeover Home Edition's Ty Pennington may be in order. Don't get me wrong. I accept the fact outside. I just don't need the fact INSIDE.

I make a stop at the town of Gothenburg. Per our friends at Wikipedia.Org,,  

"Gothenburg, Nebraska is named after Gothenburg, Sweden and is noted for its Swedish heritage. Gothenburg, Nebraska, and Gothenburg (Swedish: Göteborg), Sweden, are believed to be the only two cities named Gothenburg in the world.

"Gothenburg was founded in 1882 by Olof Bergstrom, a native of Hassela, in Gävleborg County, Sweden. After coming to America from Sweden in 1881, Bergstrom worked for a time on the Union Pacific Railroad, then homesteaded in Dawson County near Gothenburg. He eventually became a land agent for the UP. Bergstrom selected the site that was to become Gothenburg and located a farmstead about a mile north. The Union Pacific Railroad laid out the original town of eight blocks parallel to the railroad tracks. Bergstrom made several return trips to Sweden to lead groups of settlers to Dawson County."

  

In fact, Dave Thorell from KRVN told me yesterday that the high school teams are named The Swedes. Makes sense to me. As they would say, "ha en trivlig dag!!"

And it appears we have a new long train length. 148 cars by the grade crossing in Gothenburg.

As I go west on U.S. Route 30, I look to my right and I stop the car. I think I found my retirement homestead on the western side of town. 

 

Seems simple. Got a nice big front yard where the observation deck would be built, complete with a railroad scanner.

Nice panoramic view of the railroad:

Saw a spot for the tower AND the caboose. Hey, a guy can dream, yes??!! If you would like to see where it is, plug in this bearing into Google Maps: N40 57 52  W100 15 02. It's the small white house on the lef in the center of the picture.

A stop is in order at Brady and this fine rusty (color) brown pedestrian bridge.

And the UP provides the action. Coal loads east:

Coal empties west: 

And I guess if you have a motorized way to get around town, Cub Cadet can help you out:

Upon arriving in Maxwell, I look for my little general store to grab lunch and....it's not there. I went back up and down the street twice and it ain't there. I discovered this place some years ago and always was able to get a great sandwich and a Dr. Pepper. No more. So it is west to North Platte and I find a Casey's General Store and a couple of slices of sausage pizza will fill the bill. Back out to the eastern edge of North Platte and here is my lunch spot for today. 

This is an access road built to nowhere on the northeast corner of North Platte Airport across from UP milepost 280 (that many miles west from Omaha). And on this day, I see a rarity on the railroad:

 A train of empty piggy-back flat cars. On the railroad, they call these "bare tables". 

And how 'bout these vehicles to get around North Platte:

After lunch, it is onward to the Golden Spike Tower on the south side of Bailey Yard. As I travel west on route 30, I am looking for the signs. I literally drive right thru town. I turn around and head back. Still no signs. Befuddled, I pull over and dig out the iPad and get Google maps running. I get my directions and a few minutes later, I am there. 

Upon asking the ladies in the gift shop what happened to the signs, well, let's just say that the city fathers can sure find ways on how to upset visitors to their city and lose some tourist dollars.

ANYWAY....... I head up to the 8th/top floor of the tower and meet Bob, a volunteer and retired 30+ year engineer of the Union Pacific. I met him 4 years ago and darn if he remembers me. We talk about various items having to with the Union Pacific and trains in general. Outside on the 7th floor open observation deck,

There is cirrus near us as filtered sunshine is now the rule of the day.

As I mentioned earlier, North Platte is the home to Bailey Yard, the largest classification yard on the planet. Upwards of 120 freight trains either end, begin or pass through the yard on any given day. 

The triple track main line from the east is a combination of trains from Chicago and Kansas City. The triple track main line from the west is a combination of trains from the coal fields of the Power River Basin of eastern Wyoming and the main line from Sacramento, Salt Lake City and Cheyenne. The yard measures 2 miles wide at its thickest point north to south and 8 miles long from east to west.

And this building is one of a few in the system that handles repairs and overhaul of the locomotives:

To get a better idea of,what the yard looks like from high above, plug Bailey Yard into Google Maps and you will see the immensity of the yard. 

At about 3pm, I am at O'Fallons, due west of Hershey, where the main line splits to the Basin and Cheyenne. 81 degrees and filtered sunlight. And the Union Pacific keeps them trains running.

Coal loads going east via the Cheyenne line:

 And a triple meet between a double stack going west and a manifest freight going east:

And coal empties going west. 

Not too Shabby!!

Before we end today, a picture of some spray painted writing on the road next to the railroad crossing where I was yesterday at the corner of DR 758 and U.S. Route 30 in Darr.

Ever wonder about those orange and white posts you may see along roads or railroad right-of-ways?? Beneath those posts are fiber optic lines. Way back in the early 1990's when fiber optic was coming up to speed, no pun intended, the phone folks were wondering where they could put their lines and in the most direct way?? Well, someone thought of why not burying them along a railroad right-of-way?? I can remember back in the summer of 1990 when a plow train came by on Amtrak's right-of-way near my house and my then young kids and I watched as to how the pathway for the cables was dug. Then I can remember a group of technicians from AT&T rubbing the ends of some cables coming out of an underground bunker. Come to find out years later that these ends were being polished so that they could be fused together and make up what became the main fiber line between Boston and New York City. I was told that when the cable was fully functional, up to 100,000 telephone calls would be carried thru those cables. And of course, those of us in the broadcast industry knows that fiber optic carries some of our programming signals and The Internet and of its related services. Technology at its finest. What will they think of next??!!

Tomorrow we head up to the second state on our travels: South Dakota. We'll visit one of my close friends Jenn who works for Hughes County in the state capitol of Pierre. Here's hoping for calmer winds as compared to 2 years ago. And more of that abundant sunshine.

I'm Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In North Platte, Nebraska.