September 12, 2015

Good morning everyone.
Today our plan was to go to the Bailey railroad classification yard.  The yard's main function is to sort out incoming trains, car by car if necessary so that they can then head to all parts of the country.  It is the largest reclassification yard in the world.  Our visit to the yard was to the Golden Spike Tower where we could get an 8 story view of the yard. For the best view from the tower, go to Bailey Tower View On this site you can scroll left and right to see the yard with labels on the different areas.
For a good overview of what the yard does, go to this link.  Overview of operations
 

At the yard, all the locomotives are  computer controlled. The only time that Locomotive engineers are needed is when they bring a train in, or they take a train out.  The picture below is the Locomotive repair building.  It operates 24/7, repairs approximately 750 locomotives monthly, can hold 87 and work on 35 at one time.  It employs 900 people.

This is the sand tower.  Each locomotive takes on sand that is used when more traction in needed with the rails.  The yard also pumps 18 million gallons of diesel a month.

This is a hump where cars are separated and then by gravity are sent to different tracks that ultimately make up a train headed for different locations.  The link to youtube gives an excellent view of what is done on a hump.  Hump in action

 This is the east hump that is higher and sees much more action.

After we left the yard we caught Grammie taking a break in the Challenger engine 3977.  It was put into servive in 1943 and weighed over a million pounds when ready to go. The tender held 5945 gallons of oil, 25,000 gallons of water and 53 cubic feet of sand.  It was retired in 1961.

 Inside of a mail car back during the days when mail went by rail.

A great tour if you are in the area.

Tom went for a walk later in the day and decided to walk on a golf course (no not to play).  The course was empty so it wasn't going to bother anyone.  As he walked near the 16th tee, he saw a stray range ball and decided to pick it up and toss it back to the nearby range.  As soon as he picked it up, he saw a snake about 2 feet away all coiled up as if ready to strike.  It wasn't very large but looked kind of serious.  When he got back to the room, he did a little research and found the pictures below.

 Because it was coiled up it was hard to judge the size but was estimated to be about 18 inches.

Tom decided that it was a Prairie Rattlesnake and was probably better left alone.