Featuring North America’s Leading Travel Destinations
Great American Railroads 2014
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PREVIEW By Steve Kirchner, Editor & Publisher
ur annual Great American citizens who wanted to honor their Nebraska National Railroads issue explores the lore Guard unit, but by accident turned the Canteen into one and excitement of railroads in of the largest volunteer efforts of World War II -- serving more than 6 million troops passing through North Platte! North America. Next stop is at one of the largest railroad museums in Each year we visit tourist railroads, North America, the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. railroad museums, and railroad stations Located in Strasburg in Lancaster County’s Amish that have been transformed from anothfarm country, it houses one of the most significant coler era, to relive the golden days of the passenger train in lections of historic railroad artifacts in the world. American history. You can even step back in time -- and across the street In this issue, we begin our journey in Branson, MO, -to take a journey on the historic Strasburg Railroad with a visit to the Branson Scenic Railway. The Ozark when visiting the museum. Zephyr recreates America’s Next, we visit Louisiana’s romance with vintage passenger Outback, where we travel the train travel through the foothills of Creole Nature Trail All-American the Ozark Mountains in both Road in Southwest Louisiana/Lake Missouri and Arkansas. Charles. DeQuincy is a community The Branson Scenic Railway strengthened by the Kansas City explores territory inaccessible by Southern Railroad. automobile and offers scenic Located near Lake Charles, LA, views that are unattainable by any between Houston and New other means of transportation. Orleans, DeQuincy has always Next, we travel north to Kansas been a railroad town and railroadCity, to visit one of the great railing continues to play a major role road stations in American history. in the town’s economy and civic With some 850,000 square feet, it structure. was the second largest station in The DeQuincy Railroad the U.S. Passenger traffic reached Museum chronicles the history of record levels during World War II, the railroad from construction, to but after the war with the emerand the importance of the KCS gence of the airline industry and The Golden Spike Tower Railroad to the local economy. the automobile, the station saw a In Northeast Oregon, we discovprecipitous drop in use. Multiple er two excursion trains, operating efforts to demolish the station were averted, and a major within 100 miles of each other. The Eagle Cap Excursion redevelopment was completed in 1999. Today Union Train and the Sumpter Valley Railroad provide very difStation is again a train station, serving as a railroad staferent but equally delightful rail experiences. tion, with six Amtrak trains per day, its basement houses In What’s Happening, we visit one of the most unusua major post office, and a variety of family friendly al attractions anywhere. We came upon it on a visit to attractions have been developed. North Platte, and it’s located in nearby Alliance, Freight train traffic continues as a major force in transNebraska. It’s called Carhenge, and is modeled after portation today, and nowhere is there a better place to understand its role than at the Golden Spike Tower in Stonehenge in England. We’d like to try and describe it North Platte, Nebraska. Not only does the tower cele- to you, but we better just let you look at the pictures to brate the joining of the country by rail, the tower over- understand! We hope you enjoy this issue of Byways, and look forlooks the Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard, the largest ward to more North American travels in our next issue. classification yard in the world. This is a must stop for anyone interested in the railroads, past, present or future. While in North Platte, visit the Lincoln County Historical Museum to learn about the North Platte Canteen. This remarkable story about a group of local 4 • Byways
Volume 31, Issue No. 1, 2014 On the cover. America’s romance with the vintage passenger train lives on through excursions on the Branson Scenic Railway aboard a collection of unique passenger cars that travel through the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. To learn more about America’s railroad history and heritage, turn to page 8. Great American Railroads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Branson Scenic Railroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Kansas City’s Union Station . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Golden Spike Tower & Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard Brings Visitors to North Platte . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Remarkable Story of the North Platte Canteen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 From Bayou, Rail to Car: Journey Through Louisiana’s Outback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Oregon’s Northeast Corner Offers Two Great Scenic Train Experiences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
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Nebraska’s Carhenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Coming in future issues of Byways…. . .Mountains and Valleys, Rivers and Lakes, Ocean Views, Great American Roads, and much more! At right: Mountains and Valleys will be highlighted in the next issue of Byways.
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Golden Spike Tower & Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard Bring Visitors to North Platte
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The vast Union Pacific classification Bailey Yard can be seen from the top of the Golden Spike Tower Visitors Center in North Platte, Nebraska. Photo courtesy Nebraska Tourism. Byways • 19
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The Golden Spike Tower & Visitor Center. Photo courtesy Nebraska Tourism.
hy the Golden Spike Tower? Why North Platte, Nebraska? The answers are fairly simple. This is where east meets west on Union Pacific's rail line, just as east met west in Promontory Summit, Utah, when the Transcontinental Railroad was 20 • Byways
built. Both Union Pacific, building from Omaha, Nebraska and Central Pacific, building from Sacramento, California, met and drove the golden spike to open up the west.
Golden Spike Tower Buffalo Bill Cody The idea of the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center Buffalo Bill Cody was a mainstay in North Platte for was first conceived in the mid-1990s as Union Pacific's 30 years with his Scout's Rest Ranch and Wild West viewing platform was falling into disrepair. Community Shows. A showman to be sure, Buffalo Bill was both a leaders thought it a good idea to erect a tower that would scout and buffalo hunter before becoming his era's allow visitors to get a birds-eye view of Bailey Yard. The equivalent of a true show business star. His home and Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center opened on June show barn are still available for public tours. From 1883 26, 2008. to 1886, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show toured the counThe Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center features a try, and was hugely popular. The rail line was the key to courtyard proudly flying the 23 flags representing each transporting the show throughout the country. state Union Pacific Railroad serves. The Memorial Brick Pavilion honors members of the community, employees Union Pacific Bailey Yard Union Pacific's Bailey Yard is the world's largest rail of Union Pacific and others with commemorative bricks embossed with the name of the person for which the yard with activity around the clock, every day of the year. Union Pacific has made it possible for generations brick was purchased. Nestled at the confluence of the North and South Platte of North Platte families to prosper, while the railroad Rivers, North Platte has always been a railroad town. Or itself hauls the cargo that touches each of our lives in should we say: It was a railroad town before it was North every way, every day. The Golden Spike Tower overlooks the Union Platte. Union Pacific's Grenville Dodge platted the area in 1866, and by 1867 main line operations began in what was at the time called, "Hell on Top photo. The Engine Repair Facility at Bailey Wheels Town." He also began a repair facility Yard. Below, a Union Pacific coal train passes through Nebraska. on the site where Bailey Yard is today. It wasn't until 1874 that North Platte officially became a city. It was a rough and tumble community with railroad workers and their tag-a-longs populating the area. North Platte was also the ending point for the Texas cattle drives with cowboys herding longhorn cattle. It was said that there were so many longhorn cattle in North Platte that it was unsafe to cross the street.
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Buffalo Bill’s home and show barn are available for public tours in North Platte. Photo by Steve Kirchner.
Pacific's Bailey Yard, named for former U.P. president Edd H. Bailey. It's where east meets west on the Union Pacific line, and where 10,000 cars are handled each day on 2,850 acres of land stretching out eight miles. It is the world’s largest railroad classification yard, where locomotives and rail cars are serviced and repaired and freight trains are assembled. An average of 139 trains a day pass through every day. More than 3,000 cars are sorted daily in the eastward and westward yards. These yards are nicknamed "hump yards" because they utilize a mound (hump) ranging in height from 20-34 feet. An average of four cars per minute are sent gently down the humps where they're united with trains going to one of dozens of destinations.
can repair up to 20 cars per hour, 24 hours a day. All told, 14 million gallons of fuel are pumped each month at Bailey Yard to keep the trains moving.
Command Center All train movement throughout Bailey Yard is handled through the on-site command center with the latest computerized control systems. The Bailey Yard command center is tied to the Harriman Dispatching Center in Omaha, which controls hundreds of intercity trains daily throughout the company's 23-state rail system.
North Platte Today North Platte is not only a bustling community with great historical significance, but also a community Repair Facilities with an eye on the future. It is with this firm understandLocomotive repair is handled in North Platte at one of ing of the hard work and mental fortitude of the past, that Union Pacific's largest repair shops. This shop encom- the future becomes even brighter. passes the same area as three football fields. From To learn more about the Golden Spike Tower, visit major engine repairs to the smoothing of wheels, the shop crew can handle 300 locomotives each day, pro- http://www.goldenspiketower.com To learn more about visiting North Platte, visit cessing more than 8,500 engines per month. http://visitnorthplatte.com The "One Spot" car shop services 50 rail cars per day and replaces 10,000 pairs of wheels annually. The shop 22 • Byways
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Remarkable Story of the North Platte Canteen
orth Platte, Nebraska is a railroad town, home to Union Pacific Railroad’s Bailey Yard, the largest classification yard in the world. But during World War II, North Platte became known for its Canteen in a remarkable story bringing together U.S. and Allied servicemen on troop trains and volunteers determined to meet, greet and feed every soldier passing through the city. Ten days after Pearl Harbor, North Platte residents learned that a troop train carrying Company D of the Nebraska National Guard would be passing through on
their way from Camp Robinson, Arkansas to the West Coast. Family members met the train with food and cigarettes, but were surprised and disappointed that the Company D on-board was from the Kansas National Guard. Everyone stood in disbelief, but finally, one person stepped forward and gave the presents to the troops on-board. Soon, everyone followed. Local store clerk Rea Wilson had an idea, and remembered that the North Platte Red Cross had run a canteen during World War I, and suggested it could be done again. Little did she realize that her efforts would result in one of the largest all-volunteer efforts of World War II. The North Platte Canteen met its first troop train on December 25, 1941. Baskets of goodies were prepared, but when the train arrived troops had to remain on the train for security
reasons. So women handed the cookies, fruit, cigarettes and magazines up through the windows. Before long security lessened, and troops were able to leave the train and enter the station where they were served. The North Platte Canteen was partly a function of the steam locomotive. Before Union Pacific switched to diesels, North Platte was a servicing point for steam engines. A service stop generally took about 10 minutes. During this time, servicemen and servicewomen could jump off the train and make a quick visit to the canteen. As the demands of the war grew, so did the sacrifices
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Soldiers run to the Canteen as their time off the trains was short. of the American people. Rationing and price controls of basic items were instituted. Citizens were given ration books that included stamps that allowed one to buy limited things like sugar, coffee, gasoline, tires and more. Even with these limitations, the North Platte Canteen continued to grow.
Food regularly included sandwiches, fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, pickles, fresh fruit, cookies, doughnuts, pie, coffee, milk and iced tea. And birthday cakes, and Thanksgiving turkey, Easter eggs, and May Day baskets. The canteen never closed one day during its existence. It was open every day, in all weather.
Every soldier disembarking the trains was served. Some days there were 24 trains a day.
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As the war became an all-out effort, troop trains began what these volunteers had accomplished in support of the to pour into North Platte. As many as 24 trains a day War effort. http://www.lincolncountymuseum.org stopped in the city, giving thousands of troops a chance to experience the canteen, requiring more and more volunteers. From 1941 until the end of the war, some 55,000 volunteers from 125 Nebraska communities, some as far as 200 miles away, gave both food and time to the volunteer effort. At war’s end, the Canteen remained open to serve soldiers returning home. With few troop trains arriving, the Canteen closed on April 1, 1946. During its existence, the Canteen served 6 million servicemen, and never missed a single train traveling through North Platte. Today you can experience the North Platte Canteen at the Lincoln County Historical Museum in North Platte. Through exhibits, photos and video, the Canteen is The Canteen on display at the Lincoln County recreated allowing you to gain an Historical Museum in North Platte. understanding and appreciation of Byways • 25
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