Part Five

“It’s a beautiful day!!”

The song by the rock group U2 sets the mood for today’s agenda. Absolutely pristine, blue skies as my day begins in Cozad. And as you can tell by the view behind the town’s “skyscraper”:

It IS a beautiful day with the temps in the low 50’s.

And before we leave our host city for today, a reminder of where we are:

Cozad’s claim to fame. The sign represents where the 100^th meridian falls. Oh, and that pile behind the sign wrapped in tarp?? You guessed it. More corn.

Westward we go and I arrive in Brady and the rusty brown pedestrian bridge that spans the triple track mainline I discovered back in 2008. When I first came out here in 1997, many small towns like Brady had one main grade crossing. But after the Union Pacific took over the Southern Pacific in the late 90’s and with the boom in traffic, it became apparent that some of the crossings could become a liability. Plus with trains having to stop sometimes to re-crew due to the 12 hour federally mandated work rules, train crews would stop at the nearest town and wait until a relief crew could be brought from the next crew change point. And with the trains stopped, you ended up blocking a main street and possibly delay emergency services. So now you have this nice overpass walkway which makes a great place to see trains and all of the vehicular traffic gets their own bridge.

And the coal trains keep on rolling. Loads East:

Empties West.

And today must be a good day for flying. At one time, I saw 9 different contrails in the sky. Seven going to the southwest, one southeast, and this one, west. Very cool.

And make note of one the more important structures in this small town: the early warning siren. This is Tornado Alley.

Just east of Maxwell is this auto graveyard.

Some of the guys at Girard Nissan in Groton, Connecticut, where I get my car repaired, were curious about what makes and models I found back in 2008. So with the help of a new digital camera, we have:

Two different generations of Chevrolet:

A white Plymouth Valiant:

And some cars near and dear to my Dad’s heart: a Hudson and a Plymouth

And a pair of Renaults, the original Puddle Jumper:

And we can’t forget the Fords:

Onward to Maxwell to pick up lunch.

While watching a train roll by, I happen to meet a lineman from the UP. While talking to him, I come to find out that Challenger 3985 is working its way west to North Platte.

Thirty-Nine Eighty-Five, you ask??

This is a real life, honest-to-goodness steam locomotive, one of a very few in operation across the country and one of two that are owned and operated by the Union Pacific with the other being the 844.

Since the lineman was unsure of what time 3985 was to come by, I headed to North Platte to visit the Golden Spike Tower:

The tower was built back in 2008 so railrans can see what the Bailey Classification Yard looks like at 8 stories up in a temperature controlled fully enclosed observation deck. And if you want to hear the sounds, go down one floor and you’re on an outdoor observation deck looking west towards the yard. You can learn more about this new landmark at:

http://www.goldenspiketower.com/

Needless to say, the views are quite spectacular: locomotive repair:

The fueling and sanding islands:

And parts of the classification yard:

And how good are you at corn mazes??

I met up with Bob, a volunteer tour guide for the tower and retired UP railroad engineer.  He answers my questions and others from a number of visitors who have stopped by. Did I mention spectacular views??

So with my visit done at the Golden Spike Tower, it is time to find 3985. According to the ticket seller, the locomotive and its train have tied up at the business tracks along the southwest edge of Bailey Yard. I managed to get a picture of 3985 and its train arriving at the eastern edge of Bailey Yard:

I get to the business tracks where it’s tied up for the day and I am awestruck at this impressive piece of machinery in front of me.

Challenger 3985 was built back in 1943. It has a wheel arrangement known as 4-6-6-4, meaning it has 4 wheels on the lead truck, 2 sets of 6 driving wheels, and 4 wheels on the trailing truck under the locomotive’s firebox.

Originally run on coal, it was converted to run on fuel oil. Its centipede tender holds 25,000 gallons of water and 8,000 gallons of fuel oil:

It has 2 auxiliary tenders and a small fleet of maintenance and spare parts cars to keep 3985 running.

Its maximum track speed is 75MPH and the lead engineer goes by the name of Steve Lee. Learn more about the 3985 at:

http://www.up.com/aboutup/special_trains/steam/locomotives/3985.shtml

All I can say is wow.

Thursday morning, the train will depart North Platte at 9am CDT and work its way west back to its home base in Cheyenne, Wyoming. And if all goes well, I’ll get a video of the locomotive running at track speed. Diesels are the way a railroad runs nowadays but there is nothing more spectacular than live steam. I saw it firsthand today and must say it was very, very cool.

I finish the day at O’Fallons, a junction point on the UP about 15 miles west of North Platte in the town of Hershey watching the trains rolled by. Coal trains to and from the Power River Basin in Wyoming take the South Morrill Subdivision to the northeast to my left and to my right, double-stack, piggyback trailers, and other commodities head west on the Sidney Subdivision towards Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, and eventually San Francisco. And on the southern horizon, I see the Gentleman Power Plant, as seen from the Golden Spike Tower:

I had mentioned that I would go there today but I’ll swing by there next Saturday on my way east from Cheyenne and show you coal’s important role in making electricity.

So….a beautiful fall day. Feels like Indian Summer. Good weather. A healthy dose of trains. And seeing Challenger 3985. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Thursday, we head north to Pierre, South Dakota to visit my friend Jenn for a few days. We will go to see the presidents on the big hill, post some gorgeous pics of the National Grasslands, and a salute to veterans and those in public service.

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