We visited the Golden Spike Tower and Bailey Rail Yard in North Platte, NE, this morning. The Tower features some interesting videos about the rail yard, including a great documentary on the North Platte Canteen. We took the elevator to the 7th floor observation deck and learned all about how trains go over the “hump” and enter the east or west-bound bowl.
This massive yard covers 2,850 acres and has 17 receiving and 16 departure tracks handling 14,000 rail cars every 24 hours. Of those, 3,000 cars are sorted daily in the hump yards.
It was an unique stop on our trip across the state and a hour well spent.
