Golden Spike Tower

Today is a catch-up day as far as pictures go. These have been sitting on my computer for months now. Anywho….

Back in July on our way back from our South Dakota trip, we visited the town of North Platte in Nebraska where we stopped at the visitor center at the Bailey Rail Yard, the largest train yard in the world.  Ten thousand rail cars are handled here each day, and the yard has long fascinated rail buffs (like my hubby).

Just few years ago, an eight story tower, named the Golden Spike Tower, was built so visitors could get a bird’s eye view of the rail yard.

Inside the visitor center, we bought our tickets to go up in the tower and then we headed for the elevator.

Check out the look on Harland’s face as we waited for the elevator:

The train buff was excited.

Once at the top, the view was pretty amazing:

The white building on the left is a repair shop where the locomotive engines are worked on. The size of 3 football fields, it is one of the largest repair shops in the world.

And the track lines in the center and going off to the right are where the rail cars are sorted, some 3000 per day, onto different trains heading out to dozens of destinations.

We stayed up in the tower for about an hour, watching the cars as they were sorted, and trains coming and going. It was pretty amazing to watch.

If you would like to learn more about Bailey Yard, or the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center, click HERE to visit their website.

 oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo