Union Pacific Bailey Yard

Once again my wife's talent at finding interesting things to see scored a big hit.  We found our way to the Bailey Yard owned and operated by the Union Pacific company.  Some interesting facts about the yard:

• Every 24 hours, Bailey Yard handles 10,000 railroad cars.  Of these, 3,000 are sorted daily
• Bailey Yard handles 130 trains daily bound for cities as distant as the East, West, and Gulf Coasts
• 70% of train traffic through Bailey Yard is composed of “unit” trains (coal, auto, refrigerated, grain, etc.)

Bailey Yard is the largest railroad classification yard in the world

• Classification bowls for eastbound and westbound traffic contain 114 tracks and thousands of cars
• Over 14 million gallons of diesel fuel is used monthly
• The car repair facility repairs 50 cars daily, and replaces 10,000 pairs of wheels yearly
• North Platte is home for 2,500 Union Pacific employees

From what we had read we expected to find a fancy visitor center at the Bailey yard.  What we did find was a sturdy, if plain, raised and covered platform from which we could see a bit of the overall train yard.  We had an excellent view of the operation shown in the top two rows of photo below.  A train was backing up a long incline far to our left and as each car reached the top of the rise an uncoupler disconnected the car.  Then gravity took over and the car coasted down the ramp into the yard where (I assume) a series of switches routed the car to its proper location. Well worth the going for a train enthusiast.  We were told that a real observation tower and visitor center is scheduled to be built but I don't know what the time table is on that.        

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