| From Minden we
headed north to US30, a quieter road than I80 and just to the north of it.
Then we turned west and followed the railway line for the next 70 miles to North
Platte. It turned out to be interesting because they were doing something
to the lines and there must have been 20 track machines at work, ranging from
this tiny one man unit to the behemoths below. |  |
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I don't know enough about what these machines do except that they do things
to the sleepers and ties and try to make the track as smooth as possible for
the heavy trains which run over it. This was the first part of the three
part unit shown below. This must be a major ballast refurbishment machine.
The coal wagons behind are a passing train on the adjacent line. |
| When you have cleaned the
ballast you have to tamp it back into position so that the sleepers don't
move as the trains pass over, which is what this machine does. |  |
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And this is what it is all for. There is almost no passenger traffic in this
part of the
US but a seemingly endless procession of coal trains heading east and
empties heading west. |
| This is unusual in
the US, a separate track going each way. Most lines are single track.
This is the Union Pacific line which is the largest railroad company in the US. Most
coal trains have two engines on the front, and another pushing from the rear.
Southern Pacific is another line which was taken over by UP in 1995. Both
companies have large numbers of GE AC4400 locomotives generating 4400hp so
the coal trains have over 13000hp on them. |  |
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Most of the trains we passed were coal (about one every 10 minutes) but there were some
freight trains interspersed like this double stacked container train with
three locos on the front. Most trains are over a mile long and this was no
exception. They travel at 45mph at most. |
| They do seem to be
endless, carrying in excess of 200 containers or 12,500 tons of coal. The day
was getting mistier and the trains began to disappear into the distance. It
is very flat here so you can see for miles on a clear day. |  |
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But not today! The road was very empty, most traffic uses the parallel
interstate but that was tiring to drive, and boring. |
| Eventually we reached
North Platte, a town which is based on a railroad classification
(marshalling) yard and diesel depot in the middle of nowhere. There is a
small park with, guess what, a couple of UP locomotives. This is a 4-6-6-4
articulated 'Challenger' class locomotive from pre 1955. Not quite as large
as a 'Big Boy' but almost. These were also occasionally used for passenger
traffic through the Rockies. This is one of only 2 remaining of the original
105. They weighed over 400 tons. |  |
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And another of those super-large 'Centennial' class diesels with 6600hp that
were retired rather prematurely. A diesel with 2 driven axles on each bogie
is a Bo-Bo, with three it is a Co-Co so logically if it has four it will be
a Do-Do, which is what this class is! |
| We drove out through the
thickening mist to UP's Bailey yard. The largest sorting yard in the world,
it handles over 150 trains a day with over 15,000 cars. The site is 8 miles
long and 2 miles wide and has 315 miles of track. That's large enough for 2800
football pitches (a figure our American friends can grasp). However today we
were not going to see much! |  |
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About 70% of the traffic is bulk trains, mainly coal, which pass through. |
| It has the largest diesel
depot I've ever seen. We watched a string of 14 coupled up diesels moving. I think
there were more locomotives parked here than British Rail has! They use
114 million gallons of fuel a month. |  |
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This diesel depot services 300 locos each day and repairs 750 each month.
North Platte also repairs 50 railroad cars a day and replaces 10,000 pairs of
wheels each year. |
| They have actually built
an observation tower and visitor centre to cope with the visitors.
Unfortunately it was just a few weeks away from opening but it will have a
panoramic view of the yard and depot. However you would have needed radar to
see anything today. |  |
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We carried on westward, pausing at Ole's Big Game Steakhouse for lunch. It
is decorated with trophies from the original owner's hunting trips an many
parts of the world - you don't expect to see an elephant and a giraffe here.
We had buffalo burgers - well, you have to try things at least once. A bit over-rated in my book,
but we did get a doggy box for the leftovers which made another meal. |
| And so, with the weather
worsening, the wind rising, and tornadoes being forecast, we arrived at
Ogallala. The first campsite we looked at is right next to the I80. This one
is a little further
away and more sheltered. Later on the winds abated and we got this shot of
the lights in the town which we could now see. |  |
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