Summer Vacation Day 2/3 of 5 - Bailey Yard, North Platte, Nebraska

Day 2

North Platte, Nebraska

We decided that each time we cross over a state line, we are going to stop and take a picture of the welcome sign. We had to find create ways to park the car in the right spot and balance the camera on the windshield, set the time and RUN!

Road trippin' for the next 4 hours.

Our view for practically every mile as you head east from Denver. Who knew that once you turned and looked away from the mountain in Colorado it was so very, very flat!

We drove for several hours and were both tired and hungry. We stopped in the small town of Hershey to grab a bite and use the bathroom. Neither of which we accomplished here.

Super Foods General Store.

It was a cute general store, but no fresh sandwiches or salads. Or a public restroom.

We struck out twice. Time to hop back in the car and quickly get to North Platte.

Our first stop in North Platte. We found this great Pub.

A fun place for a grilled cheese and a salad. Now we are ready to go see some trains!

Bailey Yard, North Platte, Nebraska

This is what we traveled so far to see. Trains, trains and more trains!

Union Pacific Railroad’s Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska, is the largest railroad classification yard in the world. Every 24 hours, Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars.

Bailey Yard Info

As soon as we get close to Bailey Yard we start seeing trains. Pretty exciting to travel this far and we are about to be in train lovers heaven.

We aren't usually into tours, but decided to go up in the Golden Spike Tower to see the entire yard from the observation deck on the 8th floor.

I have a zoom lens and this is about as close as we can get. It's a view of the entire yard, but a little hard to tell what is going on.

Looking towards downtown North Platte

Pretty views from the tower, especially since everything is so flat.

We decided to see if we could get a closer look.

So we got in the car and headed down closer to the yard.

We got on a little side access road and were able to get much closer and see these workhorses up close.

Caught a pic of these as they were driving by.

Bailey yard has two hump yards where they sort trains. 34 feet above ground and sorts more than 3,000 train cars per day.

Another train passed under the hump. These trains are busy!

Here are a few videos of the trains being sorted.

After we felt like we saw everything we could see at Bailey Yard, we headed over to Cody Park to see a few more trains on display. Union Pacific 3977 is a 4-6-6-4 steam locomotive originally owned by Union Pacific Railroad and donated to North Platte in 1968. It's counterpart the UP 3985 was the largest operating steam locomotive in the world until being taken out of service in 2010.

Michael climbed aboard for a quick picture.

This Union Pacific 6922 has been on display since 1984.

It's been a full day of trains. More than we ever could have hoped for. We really got to see them up close and personal in action.

We decided it was time to head back to our hotel and call it a day. We are staying in North Platte for the night.

There isn't much to North Platte. It's a farm town and all about the trains.

We stayed across the highway from this gas station and Taco Bell. Apparently people don't walk to places here. We decided to go from our hotel and walk over to taco bell for some food...

We ended up having to cross this 4 lane highway. A little scary, but we made it. Time to eat and rest up for another road trip tomorrow.

I woke early and Michael wanted to sleep more and hang out a bit before we left for another leg of the trip. I decided to go for a long walk around town. I like to walk around new places as it really helps get a feel for things much better than just driving around.