The Last Part

“Time is tight”

That is the title of an instrumental by Booker T and the MGs. One of my all time favorites. And it seems all of our time is tight: there’s never enough. It’s what we gauge the day on. Time for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Time to head to work. Time to head home. Time for the weekend.

But time seems to do funny things when you’re on vacation. You count down the weeks, then the days, then the hours before you catch that plane to go wherever you are going.

The first couple of days, you relax and get into the groove to do what you have planned.

And before you know it…..time’s up. It is back to reality. Time to go home. Time to go back to work (shivers).

It’s hard to believe that 2 weeks ago today at this very time that I am typing, 1pm CDT, that I was here in Kearney, Nebraska, at the municipal parking lot at the eastern end of those 111 miles of triple track mainline to North Platte.

But at the same time of knowing that this trip is ending, I have great memories of where I have been in some of the most desolate, yet at the same time, some of the most beautiful parts of the Midwest. And I am glad I came out here.

Thanks, Sid, for once again giving me the nudge to come back out to Nebraska.

And some observations about our host states. We truly live in one great country. A country with fertile soil, hard working people, and immense beauty. When one flies over the mid-section of this country, you see those huge farms below. These are not rich people by any means. After all the toil and sweat thru the harvesting season, the farmers do maintenance on their machinery during the winter and get ready for the new growing season in the spring. And it never hurts to ask for divine intervention. I see all of these little churches in these towns and cities. From Catholic to United Methodist to Lutheran and more. These are God-fearing people. And I am sure they ask God for a little help. Farmers deserve our gratitude and appreciation. Goodness knows where we would be without them.

Then I look at the scenery and endless countryside I have driven thru. If you have lived around suburbia all of your life, you very much deserve to come out here to the Midwest and see what this part of the country has got to offer. No developers. No salesmen. Just beautiful, virgin country. And by all means, follow U.S. Route 30. If you like trains like I do, they’ll be the icing on the cake. If not, just bear with them but see what this country of ours has to offer off the Interstate pace. You don’t need any four or five star hotels to stay at. The ones that I have stayed at are all quite comfortable. You have all of the amenities. Once again, good hard working folks who will keep the light on for you and take good care of you.

And one important thing about all of these hotels: wireless Internet. Who knew, even 10 years ago, how important wireless Internet would be today, considering the number of businessmen and women who depend on it every day to keep up with their job’s home base?? And how helpful it has been to this author in getting this blog out every day?? Finding the local dial-up number for Earthlink was a big part of planning a trip back then. And you have to admit you would be a bit out of sorts if you didn’t have your daily dose of the Internet.

But now, it’s time to head home and sadly end this blog. I hope that you have enjoyed both the writing and the pictures. And before we go, some parting shots:

 The UP pipe train east of Cozad, Nebraska:

A beautiful partly cloudy sky above KRVN's transmitter site in Holdrege, Nebraska:

Mount Rushmore near Rapid City, South Dakota:

The Veterans/Public Service Memorial on the state capital grounds of Pierre, South Dakota:

Thunder River Mine, south of Gillette, Wyoming:

The bluffs at Scotts Bluff in Scottsbluff, Nebraska:

North of the Denver, Colorado skyline on I-25:

Some special art work on an eastbound coal train at O'Fallons, Nebraska:

A mural in Central City, Nebraska:

And finally......sunset at Columbus, Nebraska:

Outside, the rain is coming down hard as a cold front that I managed to stay ahead of has arrived here in Columbus. And it looks like some windy skies as I head back to Windsor Locks on Tuesday.

Thanks again to my son Chris and my daughter Caty for helping me with setting up the blog. Thanks to my younger brother Paul for the name of the blog. Thanks to my youngest brother Jay for helping out with our folks while I have been on vacation. Thanks to those who covered my shift at News8.

And thanks to all of you out there for following along. It has been an honor and a privilege. Take care.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Columbus, Nebraska.

Part Sixteen

“Here comes the Sun”

It’s a beautiful day on the Prairie this Sunday. What were huge downpours at O’Fallons, Nebraska on Saturday afternoon, which then become more downpours as I headed to North Platte for the night finally stopped some time before 11pm CDT.

I have been fascinated with weather all of my life. Goodness knows at News8 that I have asked every weatherman on our staff questions about what is going on, will I be able to outdoor work this weekend, how early am I going to have to leave for work when it gets just plain nasty out there.

But there has been one thing missing on this trip….snow. In October 2002 and October 2008, I had snow. And both times it occurred in Sidney, Nebraska. And what a pretty sight it was, particularly here on the Prairie. Not that I’m complaining. But I sure had some decent timing the last 2 trips.

Rainfall has been minimal at best. The first Monday I was here in Kearney, I had to dodge the raindrops and pretty much stay in the car at times and just write. And then there was this past Friday and Saturday. Back in Connecticut, you really can’t see the clouds for the trees in our state. But out here, it’s like looking at a big panoramic view. And you gaze up, or should I say, gaze out at the clouds in these big skies and try and figure out where the rain is and how soon it will be on top of you. And then you can be getting poured on and look out in the distance and see the clears skies that were ahead of the cloud line. And let us not forget about having these big skies to help you locate and keep an eye on possible tornadoes.

And considering how far a reach the radio stations have out here with no suburbia and dense trees to attenuate their signals, they do the forecasts all right but in sections. For example, KRVN in Lexington, Nebraska covers all of Nebraska, south central South Dakota, and the northern half of Kansas. And the forecasts on the radio take a good 3-4 minutes to give out to cover this huge service area.

So if you really would like to study weather and see what these big skies can provide, take a spin out to the Midwest. You will not be disappointed.

I leave North Platte just after 10am CDT and it is a leisurely drive towards Kearney. Past the auto graveyard in Maxwell. And as I come into Brady, it dawned on me that I had mentioned the rusty brown pedestrian footbridge, which makes a great place to watch the action but didn’t think to take a picture. And so, here it is:

And as if on cue, UP once again provides the entertainment:

And in Gothenburg, Nebraska, it’s “fill ‘er up” as grain cars are lined up at the local grain elevator to get their fill of corn kernels.

And we can’t forget our friends at Cozad:

And the corn piles high in Elm Creek:

I enter Kearney just after 12 Noon CDT and there is that funny looking sign I always see:

“LIPS” stand for “Lisa’s Instant Printing Services”. Clever.

And while we’re at it, a few snapshots of our host city for today. You’ve heard of Bob’s Discount Furnture and Raymour & Flanigan?? Well, here in Kearney, you have Bruce Furniture:

And the bigger Nelson’s Furniture & Flooring:

Both are across the street from each other on Central Avenue. Want to play the piano?? Help yourself!!

And what do you do with an old movie theater:

Imagine that!!

And let’s not forget the blossoms of fall:

So it is a leisurely afternoon of watching trains:

Coal loads going East:

And getting caught up on some reading.

Monday we head to Columbus and the last leg of our trip before going home Tuesday morning. We’ve got one more part to do. Please stay tuned.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On the Road. In Kearney, Nebraska.

Part Fifteen

“A good morning to sleep in.”

That’s what News8 weatherman Geoff Fox recommends some Friday nights during the 11pm News depending on what the weather is for Saturday morning.

But with all of the traveling I have been doing and writing this blog, this Saturday morning seems like the day to do just that…sleep in. And it was a good thing.

I leave Sidney, Nebraska at 10:30am MDT and start working my way east towards North Platte. And today is also the day where I will lose one hour of daytime due to the time zone change from Mountain Daylight Time to Central Daylight Time when I approach Sutherland later this afternoon.

After the pouring rain last night, it was nice to see the sun trying to peek out this morning but the sunlight was really competing with the thick clouds:

It was pretty much a crapshoot as to what the weather would do. But the Weather Channel said cloudy skies with a very small chance of showers. Considering my luck with the weather the past 2 weeks, I will take that for today.

After leaving Sidney, I make a stop in Logdepole and stop by the gazebo. My scanner comes to life and there is a westbound approaching. Over to the grade crossing nearby and around the bend comes a high speed double-stack container train.

Double-stack trains have special cars called well cars where you stack one shipping container on top of another. The well cars make up a single or 3 or 5 car articulated set. For this particular consist, it had 3 locomotives at the head end with a combined rating of over 13,000 horsepower. 

Between what was individual well cars 126 and 127, 2 DPU (Distributed Power Unit) helpers, rated over 8,000 horsepower, were cut into the consist. 

By the time the last of train went buy me, it had 210 individual well cars and somewhere in the vicinity of 375 containers. 

At about 65 feet per well car to handle a maximum container length of 53 feet, and adding in the length of each locomotive, you have a combined train length of 14,000 feet or about 2.65 miles long!! Very impressive.

And at Chappell, the continuing march of corn to market with grains cars being loaded at the local grain elevator:

And while were at Chappell and as been mentioned before, what a difference 2 years make. From October 2008:

And from today:

Entering Colorado one more time:

I head to Julesburg to again enjoy a delicious sub from Julesburg General Store. And BTW, they’re known as “subs” out here. I asked the girl behind the counter for a grinder and she said, “What??” Be forewarned.

Just before I cross back into Nebraska, UP surprises me with a 154, yes, 154 car empty grain train heading west.

 Only the lead locomotive was online as it passed by. And the usual DPU helper brings up the markers, with this one being an old Chicago Northwestern unit.

And as I enter Paxton, Nebraska:

They’re still piling up all of that corn. As I go thru Paxton, all traffic is being diverted to the south and then onto I-80 East. Seems they are rebuilding U.S. 30 between Paxton and Sutherland. And midway between Paxton and Sutherland, we cross into the Central Time Zone and bid ado to the Mountain Time Zone, which has hosted us since last Sunday afternoon.

I am in Sutherland about 10 minutes later and then start climbing south and heading to the Gerald Gentleman Power Plant. And an interesting thing about the power plant. See this bridge below on I-80:

There is another one like this on U.S. Route 30. They carry a rail line off of the South Morrill Sub so that coal trains can reach the Gentleman Power Plant. Delorme does not show these. In previous trips out here in ’01 and ’02, the bridges were still not on Delorme. It wasn’t until a few years ago when Google introduced Google Maps to the world and I then discovered the power plant and the rail spur.

And here is the plant:

And its distribution grid:

With the high tension power line towers going south:

East:

And west:

And here is the railroad spur into the plant grounds:

And 2 loaded coal trains waiting to deliver their loads.

And to give you an idea how much one train would approximately weigh, we take the info off of one coal car:

LD LMT 245300 (LoaD LiMiT of 245,300 pounds) maximum allowable weight of the car's load

LT WT 40700 (LighT WeighT of 40,700 pounds) weight of empty car; also called tare weight

So a load of coal would be 243,500 pounds or 121.75 tons. Add the tare weight of the car and you have a combined unit weight per car of 284,200 pounds or 142.10 tons.

So for your empties going west, based on the standard of 135 cars per consist, you have a consist weight of 5,494,500 pounds or 2,747.25 tons.

For your loads going east, again based on the standard of 135 cars per consist, you have a consist weight of 38,367,000 pounds or 19,183.5 tons of which 32,872,500 pounds or 16,436.25 tons is coal.

Quite impressive, eh??

And before we leave Sutherland, we see the tower for KPNE-TV9 and KPNE-FM 91.7 nearby:

Part of Nebraska Public Broadcasting, licensed to the city of North Platte.

Soon, we arrive at O’Fallons, the division point for the South Morrill Sub from the Power River Basin, and the Sidney Sub from Cheyenne. And the action keeps on rolling.

Coal loads going east from the Power River Basin:

Coal Empties going west to the power River Basin:

Grain empties west, with guest locomotives from the Mexican railroad, Ferromex, to Cheyenne:

And a ballast work train going east from Cheyenne:

And working on the railroad carries on:

Sunday we continue heading east towards Omaha with our next stop back in Kearney. And so it goes.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On the Road. In North Platte, Nebraska.