Part Ten

"In the middle of nowhere”

With no disrespect to the great states of Nebraska, South Dakota or Wyoming, today was a day for the books. I thought I had seen the wide-open spaces before but things were redefined. And it is safe to say that some of today’s pictures speak volumes.

I left Gordon, Nebraska at 8am MDT and headed south to the very small town of Ellsworth before heading west onto Gillette, Wyoming. And it seems that one of the themes today was working on the railroad. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe, or BNSF, is the other major player the Midwest that moves coal from the Power River Basin. And there was no exception as I headed west on Nebraska State Route 2. Seems the Maintenance-of-Way crews were hard at work tamping down new ballast on the tracks to take care of the upkeep needed to handle 17,000-ton coal trains.

In order: a ballast cleaner which literally scoops up the ballast under the roadbed, shakes out anything other than the ballast rocks themselves, and dumps the now clean ballast onto the tracks.

Ballast regulators that take each concrete tie and vibrates it so that the ballast is tightly in place around the ties:

A track gauger to make sure the rails are 56 ½ inches apart and on a level plain:

And a surfacing machine that smoothes out the ballast and levels it on all sides of the rails.

At a curve just east of Lakeside, Nebraska, BNSF makes its presence known:

The next big city on Nebraska State Route 2 is Alliance, where coal trains from Wyoming and freight trains from Sidney, Nebraska and beyond combine to head east. In the yard, coal trains await their crews:

Upon leaving the city limits of Alliance, I come across these huge piles of I don’t know what they are.

And the trucks are lining up to come into the yard:

I managed to talk to one of the drivers and the piles in questions are sugar beets:

As ugly as these things are, they are processed to produce sugar. And here it is I thought Nebraska did just corn and cattle?? Learn something new every day.

And the BNSF coal trains keep on rolling:

North of the hamlet of Belmont, we enter the Nebraska National Forest and what was sage bush and natural grass become large clusters of evergreens:

And we enter the town of Crawford:

With the car refueled, we continue northwest and again, you see nothing but the National Grasslands:

And once again, we are back in South Dakota:

And enter Ardmore:

And the town looked like a ghost town. Nearly every structure I looked at was either in disrepair or the elements were doing a number on them.

West of Ardmore, BNSF keeps on rolling, with a loaner locomotive from UP on the point:

I then turn onto South Dakota State Route 471 and this is what awaits me:

You are looking at tampered white gravel. And I repeat, this is South Dakota State Route 471. Fifteen miles!! Go faster than 40MPH and the back end of your car will start to dance, And did I mentioned that the rumblings of the car will loosen fillings?? And is it loud!! And then there is the town of Rumford:

That’s it, folks!!

And again, the views of the middle of nowhere:

Oh, and in those 3 pictures above, there is a railroad line.

More and more nowhere until I arrive in the town of Edgemont:

And to my youngest brother Jay:

Tee times are available.

A left turn out of Edgemont and within a few miles, we enter our third state today:

And the wide-open spaces:

And yes, the antelope do play on the plains:

Further north and the BNSF rolls around the small hamlet of Hill View Heights:

It’s pretty much wide open spaces and incredible wide views of the countryside as we arrive just east of Gillette, Wyoming and the Donkey Creek Yard where coal trains going into and out of the Power River Basin are staged:

And then you see the start of the line that heads into the Power River Basin:

After what has been about 350 miles and 7 ½ hours of driving, I arrive at the Howard Johnson Inn on the east side of downtown. The weather today was just perfect. About 62 degrees and scattered clouds. As much as it is so nice, I just dread what the temps and weather will be in another month as Fall succeeds to Winter.

Tuesday, we head into the Power River Basin. You’ll see the mines where the coal is processed and those long heavy trains as they struggle to get up to track speed. And well get back to Nebraska and show you a place that boasts a 100-mile view.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Gillette, Wyoming.