North Platte, Nebraska August 24, 2016
Wednesday Aug. 24, 2016 North Platte, Nebraska Golden Spike Railroad
We got up early this morning, Jan and I had one last morning to drink coffee and chat. It rained in the night and it was nice and cool for a change. They sent us home with a box of canned chicken, beef, sour-kraut, jelly and more. They' are real busy canning and freezing corn from Bob's garden and the corn from their friends.
We met our friends at Ruby-Tuesdays Restaurant at North Platte, NE and after we ate, we headed to see the "Golden Spike Tower" the Union Pacific's Bailey Yard, the worlds largest rail yard with a panoramic view, where east meets west on the Union Pacific line and where 10,000 cars are handled each day on 2850 acres of land stretching out eight miles. These locomotives run on electricity the big diesel engines aboard the locomotives actually turn a turn a generator which produces electricity and the electricity runs the motors that turn the wheels. The Engineer adjusts the amount electricity going to the wheel motors to control the trains speed. There is a large sand tower in the rail yard which provides the sand for the sand tanks toward the front of the engine. Sand is the primary source of traction for locomotives anytime the wheel begins to slip. In front of each wheel, theres a nozzle that sprays sand on the tracks with compressed air. There is an automatic operation each time the wheels slip or the engineer makes an emergency stop. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, workers make sure the trains are running down the tracks with cargo that touches our lives everyday.
We have never seen so many trains coming and going and moving them to different places and how and why they do it this way. A retired engineer named Bob was really interesting to talk to he was a guide at the tower. It was pretty quiet and we had Bob to our full attention for at least 45 minutes. He explained everything that was going on and why, to us and he even recommended a place to eat and what to eat at the restaurant at Fort Robinson, where we will be in a few days.
We got up early this morning, Jan and I had one last morning to drink coffee and chat. It rained in the night and it was nice and cool for a change. They sent us home with a box of canned chicken, beef, sour-kraut, jelly and more. They' are real busy canning and freezing corn from Bob's garden and the corn from their friends.
We met our friends at Ruby-Tuesdays Restaurant at North Platte, NE and after we ate, we headed to see the "Golden Spike Tower" the Union Pacific's Bailey Yard, the worlds largest rail yard with a panoramic view, where east meets west on the Union Pacific line and where 10,000 cars are handled each day on 2850 acres of land stretching out eight miles. These locomotives run on electricity the big diesel engines aboard the locomotives actually turn a turn a generator which produces electricity and the electricity runs the motors that turn the wheels. The Engineer adjusts the amount electricity going to the wheel motors to control the trains speed. There is a large sand tower in the rail yard which provides the sand for the sand tanks toward the front of the engine. Sand is the primary source of traction for locomotives anytime the wheel begins to slip. In front of each wheel, theres a nozzle that sprays sand on the tracks with compressed air. There is an automatic operation each time the wheels slip or the engineer makes an emergency stop. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, workers make sure the trains are running down the tracks with cargo that touches our lives everyday. 
We have never seen so many trains coming and going and moving them to different places and how and why they do it this way. A retired engineer named Bob was really interesting to talk to he was a guide at the tower. It was pretty quiet and we had Bob to our full attention for at least 45 minutes. He explained everything that was going on and why, to us and he even recommended a place to eat and what to eat at the restaurant at Fort Robinson, where we will be in a few days.
posted by How Suite it is | 4:40 PM
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