Traveling through Nebraska? Try these spots....

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken


What are you doing for rural C&R offices in Nebraska? (other than having a good look at 1950's technology?)

1950's? some of these offices are still in 1880's buildings, with appropriately same era equipment!

As for what I'm doing, Let's just say it's Government related, since I can't really get into specifics.

[kschmidt]

Greetings,

The Buttermilk Curves are really nice and photogenic. Below is a shot I took at the Curves last August. I was just pulled off to the side of the road and shot from the passenger side of my truck.

The only observation deck (which I believe is the one mentioned in the AAA book) stands about 30 feet off the ground and you can see one of the hump yards, the back of the engine facility and not much more. The plan was and maybe still is to build the "Golden Spike" tower which would stand about 6-7 stories and have a real obs area.



Keith

[mudchicken]

Think about McCook as you wander down US-6....

Probably will find two ex- ATSF GP-20m's at Geneva or Fairbury in Fillmore County.

What are you doing for rural C&R offices in Nebraska? (other than having a good look at 1950's technology?)

[JoeKoh]

watch out around lincoln. there might be mookies on the prowl.
stay safe
Joe

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mudchicken

Would be smart to capture:

Perkins County, Dawes County, Box Butte County slated for around october timeframe, so it'll be awhile before i get there.

Kearney County was already hit by one of my co-workers, so No go there for me. [:(]

Fillmore County, Hitting this one this week, it's a half day job, so I may get some time to look around.

Jefferson County was there last week, but had to catch a plane in omaha, so didn't have time to look around.

Phillipsburg, KS Sorry not hitting Kanas for awhile, maybe in the spring.

Madison is slated for around august.

Pierce County has already been hit.

QUOTE: Cherry County has no railroad east of Merriman (old CNW Cowboy line)....a virtual empty space to rival Nevada (miles of nothing along US-20)

yes but where else can you see sand dunes in the northern areas? [:D]

[Anonymous]

A quick question--

Have the yards at North Platte become any more restricted to the average visitor since 9/11? According to my AAA guidebook, there is supposed to be a panoramic place to see the whole yards, set up by UP. Is that still possible?
[:D]

[mudchicken]

Would be smart to capture:

(1) Perkins County (Grant, NE) home to NKCR RailNet (Keep an eye out at Holdrege & Orleans)
(2) Dawes County (Crawford Hill) Chadron, Ne Crawford Hill, Cowboy Line DME/BNSF....the tunnel has been missing track for years
(3) Box Butte County (Alliane, NE) BNSF Hub
(4) Kearney County (Minden NE) Harold Warp Museum
(5) Fillmore County (Geneva) Fillmore & Western
(6) Jefferson County is Fairbury (Former Rock Island Division HQ (2 Story Brick Depot &DOB)
(7)straight south of Alma on US 183 is Phillipsburg, KS (KYLE)
(8) Madison County (Norfolk) is Nebraska Central RR
(9) Pierce County (Osmond) Nebraska Northeastern RR (NENE)

Cherry County has no railroad east of Merriman (old CNW Cowboy line)....a virtual empty space to rival Nevada (miles of nothing along US-20)

[Anonymous]

The only problem with Nebraska is summer season. Nebraska realy sucks when summer comes around. The summer is hotter than HELL. And the High Due Points don't help at all. And Winters are no better. So Nebraska's Weather sucks! Allan.

[Anonymous]

Another week and this time was even better. there was some major activity on the line running next to us 275 in omaha this week, saw several trains running on it in the morning and afternoon as i was driving in and out of town. there were several coal trains, one had 2 very dirty UP (almost SP like) engines pulling and had an SP unit pushing.

I was in and out of fremont for a couple of days, there were several coal trains parked along the main on old-275, side by side (at least 10). each barely in a signal block, most were 2 UP engines, but some were UP/SP engines. Was told by a person in town that the coal was coming from Montana. The yards in fremont were a flurry of activity, and made me wish i wasn't in an office all day.

well that's this week's nebraska report [:D]

[Anonymous]

The BN Tunnel is in Dawes County. There is a Bridge at the very top of the Hill grade. There will be a county road that will take you to the Tunnel. Caution! Watch out for Trains. Allan.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, No North Platte for me, one of my co-workers made it there already. As for alliance, that's on the west end and that'll be the next grouping, probably just over a month from now. I will put my name on it as a county i want to hit (we work with the county clerk offices), and hopefully I'll get it.

You'll have to tell me what county that Tunnel is in so i can lay claim to it too. I'm looking at trying to get Cherry county as well, I hear there's some great looking sand dunes there and that most of the towns have really old late-1800's buildings still.

As of right now, I'm pretty much confined to everything east of US 281, but I can see the schedule and we're slowly moving westward, so should be hitting those areas in about 5-6weeks. Really look forward to seeing trains traveling this landscape, it's just to perfect and varied not to see something on the rails.

[PwdOpd]

Jay,
When you get to the middle and western portions of the state you will have better fortunes. Don't know what towns you'll be visiting, but if any or on US 30, you be well satisfied with traffic. US30 follows the UP mainline from Frremont all the way to the Wyoming line except for a short stretch where it dips down into Colorado. Good places include Gibbon Jct., Butter Milk curve near maxwell, and of course North Platte. If you get up north around Chadron or Alliance ther's plenty of traffic on the BNSF. Hope these help-have a good time.
Paul

[Anonymous]

Have you seen Alliance & Noth Platte,Neb?
Allan.

Oh and one more thing. You have got to see the BNSF Crawford Hill. Plus the only Railroad Tunnel in Nebraska at Bemont.

[Anonymous]

As some Know, I have been in nebraskas for the past 2 weeks and will be returning for at least another 4 weeks there. Since i am there on business and really didn't have time to really hunt for anything cool, These are things I stumbled across in my drives to places. Also I didn't have my camera on me this trip, so no photo's, sorry.

So, obviously, there is Omaha itself, but let's branch out from there:

In David City, there is an old frieght depot building still standing, with 2 sets of tracks still active next to it and a third set that is not connected to the line, but still there. For you Modern Folks, there is an active recycling depot in town as well. there was a train parked at it, but from the only spot i could see the loco, it was heads on and at a distance (Red nose with white Chevrons).

In Beatrice, there is an old (probaly 30-40's) Passenger station that has been turned into a mini-museum, there was a CB&Q caboose parked outside as well as a few older type hand equipments.

In Fairbury, I was running late in and out so didn't stop to look at it, but there was a sign pointing to a Rock Island Railroad Museum.

Also, if you travel almost anywhere, you will find old wooden treastle bridges across creeks and small rivers. most of these I saw on lines running parallel to the road. And, as you would expect in farm country, there were many grain elevators about too.

Unfortunatly, most of the track i was around didn't have any traffic on them, this probably was due to being Agriculture spurs and that it's not Harvest time. The only UP train i saw was when i first flew in and i was still in the air, would have been a perfect shot, had I remembered the camera.

Anyways, will be back out there again for the next 4 weeks in the North east area, so may see even more for you. after that, I will be working the central section for about 4-6 weeks, then finally the western part of the state. so definatey chances to see more interesting sights.