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Rolling through the worldslargest rail yardBailey Yard a key to Union Pacifics massive rail network canhandle 14000 rail cars every day CNET Road Trip 2013 checkedout the eight-mile-long facility

by Daniel Terdiman | July 27 2013 400 AM PDT

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Huge coal trains pass through Bailey Y ard -- the worlds largest train y ard -- constantly The UnionPacific facility processes 14000 rail cars a day

(Credit Daniel TerdimanCNET)

NORTH PLATTE Neb -- If you want to know how the American economy is doing

before everyone else does a visit to this small town in western Nebraska might well give

you some very valuable hints

Why would such an otherwise nondescript town be a place to see how the country is

doing The answer lies in Union Pacifics 2850-acre eight-mile-wide Bailey Yard

[httpwwwupcomaboutupfacilitiesbailey_yard] the worlds largest rail

yard where around 139 separate trains carrying 14000 rail cars roll through every

day In a strong economy the number of trains coming through rises As the economy

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flattens out so does the rail traffic In all likelihood the subtle ebbs and flows of traffic

here happen well in advance of corresponding changes in formal economic indicators

Trains for miles Inside the worlds largest rail yard (pictures)[httpwwwcnetcom2300-13576_3-10017682html] 1-2 of 27

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Bailey Yard is a key component in Union Pacifics national rail network due to North

Plattes location central to the companys major north-south and east-west routes

Operating 24 hours a day seven days a week Bailey Yard sees huge quantities of

everything from coal grain sugar corn chemicals consumer goods steel and much

more roll through every day In short it is a train lovers dream

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As part of Road Trip 2013 [httpwwwcnetcomroad-trip] I drove west to

North Platte for a first-hand look at train nirvana From inside the yard trains stretch

off into the distance as far as the eye can see In both directions Coal cars

[httpreviewscnetcomcar-tech] by the hundreds sit idle on tracks waiting

for maintenance service locomotives or simply the green-light to move forward while

hundreds of cars at a time get separated onto different tracks where they are united

with other cars headed where theyre going

Union Pacific has had rail operations in North Platte since 1867 and over the decades

since those operations have gotten bigger and bigger Bailey Yard was named after

former UP President Edd Bailey and was officially designated the worlds largest rail

yard by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1995

Monday and Tuesday busiest

Although Bailey Yard never closes it is busiest on Mondays and Tuesdays Thats

because the largest number of East Coast-bound and West Coast-bound trains start

their cross-country journeys on Fridays In general trains will stop through Bailey Yard

for about an hour to be refueled to pick up sand that is used to gain traction on slippery

steel tracks and to get quick maintenance service

One of the most important operations at Bailey Yard is separating rail cars coming from

a wide variety of destinations into others heading for a large number of other

destinations If for example a train pulls into North Platte from Salt Lake City each of

its cars may have a different destination with cities like Kansas City St Louis Chicago

and others on the manifest Thats where the East hump comes into play

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On one side of Bailey Yard a 34-foot-mound rises to a small plateau There locomotives

push trains full of rail cars to the top where workers manually separate the cars and

send them slowly and individually downhill onto one of 64 different bowl tracks Each

track has a designated destination and the cars roll gently at 4 miles an hour or less

onto those tracks where they connect with other cars heading to the same cities

Theres a similar hump for west-bound traffic but because the bulk of the cargo Union

Pacific hauls is heading east the West hump is a smaller operation Its mound for

example is just 20 feet high

Some trains of course dont need to be sorted Known as unit cars these are trains

carrying a single kind of cargo going to a single destination Instead of being routed

through the hump they are put through Bailey Yards giant service track where they

are re-fueled filled with sand and sent on their way

Regardless of whether theyre going to be separated the average train that rolls

through Bailey Yard is about 100 cars long And what kind of special cargo comes

Check out the latest from Daniels trip to discover some of the best tech spots in Americas

heartland

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1357 6_3-10017 669htm l]

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10017 624htm l]

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10017 611htm l]

T he Mem phis Belle com es back to life [httpwwwcnetcom 2300-1357 6_3-

10017 524htm l] []

Road T rip 2013 roundup [httpwwwcnetcom road-trip]

Follow Dan on T witter [httpstwittercom greeterdan]

More from Road Trip 2013 Midwest tech

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through the yard It can be anything from 125-foot-long telephone polls to dirt from

nuclear site cleanups to Christmas trees for the White House and almost any kind of

military equipment If it travels by rail the people who work at Bailey Yard have seen

it Even the Ringling Bros and Barnum amp Bailey Circus comes through six times a year

By the numbers

Bailey Yard is so large that it has 315 total miles of track and 766 turnouts Each month

it services 8500 and repairs 1200 locomotives and uses 18 million gallons of diesel

fuel It has 18 tracks for nothing but coal trains that have to sit idle for a while

In the end Bailey Yard is hard to fathom The sheer volume of trains inside the yard at

any one time is almost impossible to imagine yet every day Union Pacific manages the

facility and its hundreds of trains with little trouble These days lumber traffic heading

east from the Pacific Northwest is picking up Thats a good sign that housing

construction is picking up The economy then is likely improving The train tracks in

North Platte said so

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Daniel Terdiman is a senior writer at CNET News covering Twitter Net culture and

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The flatbed cars that have those rectangular containers on them more than likely the containers

came from the Orient caring electronics and other such products I miss the passenger service

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Jul 28 2013

Jul 28 2013

Jul 28 2013

of the 50s and 60s Sitting in the dome diner while the scenery passes you all by Getting to

make new friends in the club car At night If the light in the car was low enough to look out the

dome from its car and see the myriad of stars that are out there

like []reply []

bombones [httpwwwcnetcomprofilebombones]

This will be my sons wonderland I plan to take him visit Bailey Yard when time and moolah

permits

like []reply []

kyle_74 [httpwwwcnetcomprofilekyle_74]

I worked for UPRR for 12 years Whatever people may think of the Company they do know how

to rail road

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theyayarealiving [httpwwwcnetcomprofiletheyayarealiving]

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Jul 28 2013

Jul 27 2013

Jul 27 2013

Outstanding article

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noibsguy [httpwwwcnetcomprofilenoibsguy]

Really nice job Very interesting Thanks

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FSugar [httpwwwcnetcomprofileFSugar]

Yes very good and interesting article

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Jim Dennis [httpwwwcnetcomprofileJim+Dennis]

Great description and an interesting article Thanks Daniel

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