Before we continue, I have three pieces of business to take care of.
First, it is the Missouri River not the Mississippi River that separates Omaha, NE from Council Bluffs, IA.
Second, I mentioned last week about the Sioux Indians. In Pierre, SD at 900 Governors Drive is this unique building that is built into a hill.
It is the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center. From their website:
“The center brings history alive through exhibits, educational programming and research services. You'll experience everything from early American Indian cultures to the arrival of white settlers, riverboats and railroads. Walk through a sod house and hear stories told by a pioneer woman, see a Lakota teepee up close and witness the workings of a replica gold mining operation.
“Of particular importance is the museum's collection of 1,339 Native American objects. The collection, which focuses on the Sioux Indians, is noteworthy for both its quality and its documentation.”
I visited this place back in 2001 and it is well worth the price of admission.
Third…well, I haven’t gotten there yet. Anyway…
As I travel east to Kearney, the drizzle continues. Just past Maxwell is this auto junkyard.
But the closer you look, the more ‘50s and 60’s cars you see.
And the closer I looked; I came across 2 models that my Dad has driven. One looks like a Plymouth Desoto:
And the other may be a French Renault.
I would safely say there are probably about 400 autos on site.
Down U.S. Route 30 and I come across the pedestrian overpass at the village of Brady. The drizzle is starting to roll back but the crispness in the air really makes your breath quite visible. Up on the overpass and you get a great view of the rails. And the coal trains keep on moving. Empties going west:
And loads going east:
And just as a reminder: two of those loaded coal cars are burned each hour at that power plant in Sutherland. These cars have the reporting marks of OMAX for the Omaha Public Power District.
And now the third piece. That neat sign in Cozad. The first one I posted wasn’t all that good and I’d figured let’s try that one more time.
Further eastward and we are at the crossovers at West Darr. Below is the view looking west to Cozad:
Below is the view looking east to Darr.
And notice the black cover in the middle of the crossover. With a network of natural gas pipelines and duct work interconnecting the crossovers, there are remote controlled lighters that ignite the natural gas and the duct work distributes the hot air to keep the crossovers from freezing up so trains can be moved from one track to another without having to keep a maintainer on site to sweep the switch points free of snow.
We head further east to the intersection of Highway 30 and Road 437:
and what turns out to be a new hot spot to watch the action in between the crossovers at Silver Creek just east of Lexington. And the drizzle is done.
No sooner am I here but we have a meet at the grade crossing.
And take a look at those hopper cars. Notice the rounded bottom of the cars. Normal hopper cars have vents at the bottom of the car to drop their loads of coal. But these special hopper cars are called rotary dump hopper cars. When a loaded coal train, such as this one, arrives at a power plant, the cars are pulled thru the coal bins via locomotives or an extremely powerful hydraulic winch. Each car is centered in a large unloader. Once the locos or winch position the car and it is locked into place in the unloader, the car is literally turned upside down by the unloader. This occurs because the end of each car has rotary couplers, which allow the car to swivel inside the unloader. Once the car is emptied, the car is uprighted, the holding device releases its grip, and the next car is positioned for unloading. A reminder that each car, including the car weight and the coal weight, weighs in at 116 tons.
We arrive at Kearney at about 3:30pm CDT and enjoy the trains rolling by. And one more word about unit trains.
These are auto carriers. Each car is 90 feet in length and holds 12 pickup trucks or up to 18 automobiles depending on how the car is configured. These cars work both ways. Going west are U.S. cars for sale on the West Coast and coming east are cars from Japan and Korea for sale in the East.
We call it a day at 5pm CDT. The skies have improved to show scattered patches of blue. Temps are to be in the mid 60’s for Saturday.
Tomorrow is our last full day in Nebraska as we wrap things up before heading home to Connecticut on Sunday. Here’s hoping for those Sky Blue horizon-to-horizon skies.
I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Kearney, Nebraska.
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