10-11-08 On The Road: Part One

It all began back in 1959, at the age of 4½. My family and I were heading up to Cape Cod and somewhere along the way I saw this railroad bridge with these huge boxcars on top of it, wondering what they were. A few years later I was at my Nana and Nunu’s summer cottage in Niantic, Connecticut and come to find out that the New Haven Railroad was right down the street. In fact, there was this green house down the street with a back yard that was near the tracks and it made the perfect place to watch the trains as they rolled by. From that year on, I was hooked.

Fast forward to present day and I am in the town of Columbus, Nebraska. According to the mile marker at the grade crossing near the Sleep Inn were I am staying, we are 83 miles due west of Omaha, what was then the eastern terminus of the great Transcontinental Railroad. It was built west from Omaha by the Union Pacific and built east from San Francisco by the then Central Pacific and joined together in Promontory Point, Utah, north of Salt Lake City.

But I digress.

What brought me to the middle of the eastern prairies of Nebraska?? Trains…lots of trains. My love for Nebraska and the Union Pacific Railroad started with the October 1995 issue of TRAINS Magazine. The issue was dedicated to the UP main line following CBNP, a manifest freight train that runs daily from Council Bluffs Yard in Council Bluffs, IA, just over the Mississippi River from Omaha to Bailey Classification Yard in North Platte, NE. Two years later, I was able to save enough money to fly into Chicago and follow the eastern end of the now UP main line thru northern Illinois, central Iowa, and the eastern half of Nebraska. In 1998, I flew into Omaha and did a detailed trip from Omaha to Cheyenne, WY with a side trip up into the coalfields of the Powder River Basin in eastern Wyoming. Trips in 2000, 2001, and 2002 followed. There was a 6-year hiatus while my Mom and Dad and I went on trips to meet the fine men and wives of the 720th, 721st, 722nd, and 723rd Squadrons of the 450th Bomb Group of the 15th Air Force of WWII and taking care of 4 years of college tuition for my number one daughter. After much debate amongst myself and with a little push from a colleague at Newschannel 8, I have returned to my adopted and second “home state”. And how sweet it is!!

If there is a railfan out there who wants to find the mother lode of railroads, Nebraska is the place to be. As this journey continues for the next 2 weeks, I’ll let you know some fun facts about the Union Pacific Railroad and a few other non-railroad items and pictures will also be provided. Not that I want to bore you to tears about my love of trains, but there are other things that I will see and tell you about.

For example, did you know that college football is BIG time here in the Cornhusker State?? The University of Nebraska, based in Lincoln, has a HUGE following around these parts. So huge, it takes two 50,000-watt radio stations to get the word out. And I mean big. In Omaha there is AM 1110, KFAB. Its four-tower array, seen below,




is among the cornfields of Papillion, about 12 miles south of Omaha.



It covers eastern Nebraska, western Iowa, and northwestern Missouri. The other is AM 880, KRVN, located in the center of Nebraska in Lexington. It too has a 4-tower array and its signal pretty much covers all of Nebraska, southern South Dakota, and the upper half of Kansas. If you think the UConn Huskies are big in Connecticut, the Cornhuskers of Nebraska have us beat hands down. Any of the local newspapers throughout this state will be blazon in red ink with numerous articles and many a fan will be wearing a red sweatshirt with a big white N on the front and “Go Big Red” on the back. I don’t even think the Dallas Cowboys would come that close. Still, college football is the big event every fall weekend here in the Heartland. I’ll have more about KRVN later in the week.

Anyway, time for me to wind down from my long day of flying and driving and watch my Boston Red Sox in the ALCS. I hope you will find my journey fun and entertaining as I wind thru Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado. And thanks to my brother Paul for the inspiration for the title of my journey. I’m sure Mr. Kuralt would approve.

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Columbus, Nebraska.