Part Five

“Dude....like…it’s Windy, Man!!”

That would be the Hippy Dippy Weatherman making his observation this morning. The order of the day is keeping your hat on your head considering how blustery it is today. All of Nebraska is under a wind advisory for the whole day with winds at 25 to 35 miles per hours with gusts up to 50. Eastern Colorado is under a high wind warning with gusts up to 60 miles per hour. Kinda like where my youngest brother Jay use to live when he went to the University of Rochester many years ago. Up in Rochester, New York, they say the wind doesn’t blow; it sucks…backwards.

And when you go by the grain elevators here, keep your windows up. Farmers are dropping off their loads of corn kernels this morning. And as soon as the kernels come pouring out, the corn dust just goes everywhere. Well, it is Nebraska. And it is flat. Sons of the Pioneers can be heard in the background singing “Tumbling’ Tumbleweeds".

As we head west to North Platte this morning, we bid ado to our host town of Cozad:

Whose claim to fame is being situated on the 100^th meridian, or longitude, as the sign across the Lincoln Highway proclaims:

 

And BTW, wouldn’t this make a great radio shack back home?

As I arrive in the town of Brady, I come across what I call The Bridge, 

A pedestrian walkway across the UP mainline at milepost 261.52 which offers some nice vantage points to see the trains roll by. But on today, thou must hang on to his/her hat. The winds are at a constant 30 MPH and the gusts are approaching 50. As you can see below, it IS windy:

This bridge is well built with square helixes that get you to the top span. And did I mention the wind?? At least when they built this, you have a couple of cubby holes on each level to protect yourself against the wind:

 

And the UP continues to provide the entertainment; a manifest freight going east:

A dedicated K-Line double stack going west:

As I head to Maxwell, I keep scanning the right side of Route 30 and it appears that the auto graveyard that has been here since I first came here is gone. I saw maybe two cars but all I could see was prairie grass. And so it goes.

I stopped at the general store in Maxwell to pick up lunch and proceed west to North Platte. At the southeast corner of North Platte Municipal Airport, there is this short strip of concrete road that I guess was supposed to go somewhere but it makes a good place to enjoy lunch. And once again, the UP entertains.

Coal empties going west:

Coal loads going east:

After lunch, it’s a trip to the Golden Spike Observation and Visitors Tower in North Platte. 

 

It’s situated on the eastern side of Bailey Yard, the largest classification yard on Earth. It is 2 miles high at its widest point and 8 miles long. Upwards of 130 trains either go thru, terminate, originate, swap out old power for new power, get sand and fuel, or get something fixed.

The locomotive shops do all sorts of repairs:

 

The fuel/sand pad and the eastern part of the yard:

 

And more of the eastern yard:

And how’s your luck at navigating corn mazes??:

A retired locomotive engineer named Bob was on volunteer duty this afternoon answering questions from the visiting railfans. From the eighth floor enclosed observation deck, you can feel the wind shake the building just a bit. And if you go one floor below to the open air observation deck, well, just make sure your hat is glued on tight.

After our visit, it’s out to O’Fallon’s, Nebraska just west of Hersey, where the Morrill Sub from the Power River Basin coal fields meets the Cheyenne Sub from Cheyenne and Salt Lake City and heads east towards the western approach of Bailey yard. It is quite windy as attested by the tumbleweeds wedged under the maintenance-of-way car nearby:

And the UP carries on - coal empties going west:

Coal loads going east:

Auto Racks going east:

Double Stacks going west:

And to finish out the day, let’s play a number game. In the state of Nebraska, they have a unique numbering system for their automotive license plates. Courtesy of our friends at Wikipedia.Org, here is a map of the state of Nebraska with all of its counties:

 

As you can see, each county is assigned a number. And here is one of those license plates:

The number that comes before the dash is your county number. The letter and numbers that follow the dash are unique to that person who owns the car. So since the before number is 18, then this car originates from Dawson county which includes folks from the towns of Lexington and Cozad. Usually the first number in your town will be the same as the other residents. But when you see a number different than yours, check the list at Wikipedia.Org and you’ll know where they came from.

Day 5 comes to an end with some very blustery winds here at O’Fallon’s. It will be pretty much the same as I do my 5-6 hour trip to Pierre, South Dakota tomorrow. It will be even more fun with a high wind warning in affect for all of Nebraska and southern South Dakota from 7am to 10pm CDT. Hands at 10 and 2, please.

I'm Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In North Platte, Nebraska.