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  • North Platte

  • Pertaining to all railroad subjects, past and present, in the American West, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and The Dakotas. For specific railroad topics, please see the Fallen Flags and Active Railroads categories.
Pertaining to all railroad subjects, past and present, in the American West, including California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, and The Dakotas. For specific railroad topics, please see the Fallen Flags and Active Railroads categories.

Moderator: Komachi

 #367098  by Dakguy201
 
I am considering a trip to North Platte in the spring. For me, it would be about 7 hours one way. I would probably pick up the UP line at Fremont and use highway 30 rather than I-80, as I understand it has long stretches with the tracks in sight.

Has anyone been there recently? My understanding is that there is a train watching platform to the west of downtown, but from the picture of it I saw it does not appear tall enough to see much of the yard.

An alternative would be just go as far west as Gibbon or Kearney. You would get the same traffic count and (I assume) there must be some decent train watching spots.

Anyone want to comment?

 #367207  by nssd70
 
Gibbon Junction is a good spot to sit as is the west end of Bailey Yard. If you don't want to go as far as North Platte then you can't go wrong with Gibbon.

Doug

 #367809  by dhaugh
 
You are correct in that you can't see a lot from the platform. I was kind of disappointed. But then again it would have to be 30 stories high to see the whole thing. IIRC, you can watch one of the humps pretty well from there. If I were you, I'd go there, just because you're going to be that close & you'll want to see it someday. My first trip to the UP main only went as far as Kearney & sure enough, another one had to come later. Kearney is a good place to watch trains. Gibbon is of course good too.

 #367996  by Dakguy201
 
ok, guys, thanks for the info

haven't really made up my mind, but we'll see