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The Golden Spike Tower

Overlooking the Union Pacific Baily Yard in North Platte, Nebraska

The world's largest railroad classification yard.

 

 
See photo bottom, left, for the continuation of the parking lot in this photo...

The main observation deck is 95' above ground and offers a 360 degree view of the area...

The open air observation deck below it is 7 stories above ground.

Northeast

South East

Below... my feeble attempt to overlap 5 photos showing the view of the railroad yards from the open air observation deck... approximately 180 degrees...

West

North

This massive yard covers 2,850 acres, reaching a total length of eight miles, well beyond the borders of North Platte, a community of 24,500 citizens.

Every 24 hours, UPRR's Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars.  Of those, 3,000 are sorted daily in the yard's eastward and westward yards, nicknamed "hump yards".  Using a mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20.1 for those heading west, these two hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 "bowl" tracks where they become part of trains headed for dozens of destinations.  Together these two yards have 18 receiving and 16 departure tracks.

Bailey Yard also sports quite the diesel repair facility on it's grounds, providing "one-stop" servicing to trains and a locomotive repair shop.  Bailey Yard mechanical forces fill locomotives with 14 million gallons of diesel fuel every month.  The shop replaces 10,000 pairs of wheels yearly and has a fleet of trucks to repair small defects in the trains.  The shop can also repair 18 to 20 cars per hour, with shifts running 24 hours.  They fix 750 locomotives annually.  Bailey Yard's goods tell the story of American commerce, for through here pass refrigerators, TV's, coal, automobiles, potatoes, fruit, wine, lumber, corn, sugar, steel, chemicals, and hundreds of other commodities used every day.

 

http://www.goldenspiketower.com/_new/

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Taken through the window on the 8th floor observation deck...

Left... There's my car... we are on our way to Denver for the weekend... Right the view looking south... flat Nebraska...

East

 
The continuation of the parking lot in the far right overlapping photo above...

Riley, Dan, Hanna & Mindi
COMMENTS
Moabjeeper said at 4:20 p.m. on Sep 29, 2008:
I can hardly wait to view the yard. Nice try at the overlap. Don't you have a stitching program?
Wildthing said at 4:32 p.m. on Sep 29, 2008:
Sounds like a town: a community apart. The stats are mind-boggling.
Swedfinn said at 4:39 p.m. on Sep 29, 2008:
Gigantic railroad yard! The images reveal well its huge dimensions.Nice overlapping. It is hard to manage it without tripod. Very interesting facts.Thanks for sharing!
Chilla said at 5:25 p.m. on Sep 29, 2008:
Very interesting JOdi and I actually like the way you have used overlap rather than stitching, it looks good in this tabblo.
YorkJodi said at 5:35 p.m. on Sep 29, 2008:
Thank you Bob & Mike for your comments,,, Jorma & Chilla for kind words on my overlapping technique...
Sd14 said at 6:21 p.m. on Sep 29, 2008:
panoramics are something else again great first effort a galloping horse would not see anything wrong no matter you done well,
great pic realy i wish i could do that,

i like to look at good stuff thats why i called,

mesd14+++joe
Jigs said at 10:53 p.m. on Sep 29, 2008:
I really like your panoramic pastiche!
Dromoman said at 1:12 a.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
Thanks for sharing. Something very new to me!
Loes said at 2:55 a.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
Very nice and impressive, I like the overlap too!
Hhwind said at 6:46 a.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
great work awsesome panorama
Babooshka said at 7:00 a.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
very nice, especially love the 'panorama pictures stuck together! very nice done, If you ever hae a chance to get to EUrope you should definitly visist the EIfel tower (don't need to tell where that is...) and the EUromast (it's in Rotterdam) I send you a tabblo from nina196o with pictures from the Euromast!
Chaitiamma said at 10:43 a.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
Well done Jodi !!!
Ira said at 10:49 a.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
Grandiosely and very beautifully!
PaulBarfoot said at 2:20 p.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
yay! Well done. The Librarian loves the information and the Photographer loves the pictures. I think the panorama looks great! Very interesting
SnowWhite said at 2:20 p.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
Wow. Great panorama, I think it works real well :-)
Oldbogus said at 10:23 p.m. on Sep 30, 2008:
I've heard stories of this yard but seeing it is amazing! TY for sharing.
Debdog said at 12:19 a.m. on Oct 1, 2008:
WOW it is huge! love your panorama
Krisu said at 3:02 a.m. on Oct 1, 2008:
What a view! Just great images.
AliDar said at 1:25 a.m. on Oct 2, 2008:
You did a great job putting the panorama together!
Sirnicolay said at 2:17 a.m. on Oct 3, 2008:
Cool panorama!
Peckpark327 said at 9:31 p.m. on Oct 7, 2008:
Awsome place!!!! I invite everyone to stop by Peck Park in Galesburg, Illinois as well if they are ever in that area, this place & Peck Park are 2 of the most awsome places to watch Trains. I was in Baily Yard on 7/23/91, but they did not have this Tower. Great job!!!
Jantass said at 8:22 p.m. on Oct 13, 2008:
VERY INTERESTING ,EXCELETE LAYOUT
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