Greetings Family and Friends, 

A return to On the Flip Side but with a twist. Rather than dispatches from overseas,  posts from stateside on an extended road trip. The region to be wandered is the Great Lakes with a wide margin for error. Given my penchant for all things maritime, expect an excess of photos on museum ships. Furthermore, in the transportation vein, railroad, aviation, and auto themed pictures should be in the offing. Add in some focus on sports and round out with all things Americana, hopefully an adventure worth sharing via On the Flip Side.

First stop is North Platte, Nebraska. This is a railroad town, literally, and the Union Pacific is the railroad. Old steam locomotives, like UP 480 (2-8-0) in Memorial Park as pictured below in the photo gallery, are cherished here and rightfully so! Note that for these posts, a new format of multiple photo galleries will be utilized. Each gallery can be navigated manually via the left/right arrows or, alternatively, will automatically advance after a pause of a couple of seconds. Plus, at the behest of one of my siblings, my visage will be getting more screen time.

Arguably the best view in town is from the Golden Spike Tower which overlooks the Bailey Yard of the Union Pacific. This is the largest railroad classification yard in the world and has been acknowledged as such by Guinness World Records. The 7th floor of the tower provides the open air terrace where one gets the best views and photo opportunities of the yard. Note the photo with multiple tracks with multiple locomotives on each, awaiting a turn within the maintenance facility. The 8th floor not only provides additional views within a climate controlled environment but also displays of railroad artifacts as well as a docent for answering questions. The docent that day, Mick, was a fountain of information on how the “hump” yards operate in putting together trains combining old and new technologies.

The Cody Park Railroad Museum is small but it most definitely punches above its weight. It sports only two locomotives but they are both class acts – one a steam locomotive, the other a diesel-electric locomotive.

The steam locomotive is the Challenger 3900 series, UP 3977 (4-6-6-4). It is the only Challenger currently accessible to the public and is the second largest steam locomotive – behind the Big Boy (4-8-8-4). By way of explanation, the numbers in parentheses indicate the wheel configuration for steam locomotives. The first number is the number of leading wheels and the last number is the number of trailing wheels, while the middle number(s) is the number of driving wheels.

The diesel-electric locomotive is the 6900 series, UP 6922 (D-D). These are the most powerful diesel-electric locomotives ever built. For diesel-electrics, the wheel designations are by truck and axel with A indicating 1 axel per truck, B indicating 2 axels per truck, C indicating 3 axels per truck, and D indicating 4 axels per truck. So for the 6900 series (D-D) the locomotive had two trucks each with 4 axels (8 wheels).

The museum also has a caboose, railway post car, and workman’s car, all of which sport the UP livery. The cabs of both locomotives and the interiors of the three railway cars are accessible to the public. The depot onsite is from Hershey, NE – an architectural gem and a repository of railway memorabilia. Like the tower, a docent is on hand to answer questions. Pat was the docent on the day of my visit and he provided not only information but tales of working on the UP during his 30 year career.

That’s it for now. As always, feel free to share this link with anyone who expresses an interest. And of course, if I am cluttering up your inbox, simply let me know and I will correct that. Note that in the section below the blog where comments may be entered, the email address will NOT be displayed. It is collected simply as a way of identifying the writer before publishing the comment – unfortunately On the Flip Side gets quite a bit of attempted spam. Lastly, as before, I will sign off with my very much cherished title of Papi – the French word for Grandpa and how I am known by my Grandsons. 

Until later, 

Papi