10-25-08 On The Road, The Last Part

The sun is out. Just a zephyr of a wind. And the clouds have this incredible zigzag pattern. Most likely the contrails of jet airliners as they criss-cross the Heartland.



It is my last full day in Nebraska. And I must say this has been quite the trip. Maybe even one of a lifetime. Today’s agenda is just watching the trains roll by and doing some reading.

I mentioned last week about the ornate bricks and designs of one of the inns I stayed at.



This is the outside of the Midtown Western Inn in Kearney. There are those concrete blocks I spoke of with some very nice white iron railings. And at the base of each floor where you see the red bricks, the mortar to hold them together just oozes out. Not scrapped clean. Quite original if you ask me.

As I finish my trip, some observations.

We truly live in one great country. A country with fertile soil, hard working people, and immense beauty. When one flies over the mid-section of this country, you see those huge farms below. These are not rich people by any means. That was confirmed to me by a woman at the Kearney Post Office yesterday. A gentleman standing in line was concerned about some folks that he knew that hadn’t yet completed their harvesting due to the snow that befell the area on Thursday. And you thought the stock market was risky. After all the toil and sweat thru the harvesting season, the farmers do maintenance on their machinery during the winter and get ready for the new growing season in the spring. And it never hurts to ask for divine intervention. I see all of these little churches in these towns and cities. From Catholic to United Methodist to Lutheran and more. These are God-fearing people. And I am sure they ask God for a little help. Farmers deserve our gratitude and appreciation. Goodness knows where we would be without them.

Then I look at the scenery and endless countryside I have driven thru. If you have lived around suburbia all of your life, you very much deserve to come out here to the Midwest and see what this part of the country has got to offer. No developers. No salesmen. Just beautiful, virgin country. And by all means, follow U.S. Route 30. If you like trains like I do, they’ll be the icing on the cake. If not, just bear with them but see what this country of ours has to offer off the Interstate pace. You don’t need any four or five star hotels to stay at. The ones that I have stayed at are all quite comfortable. You have all of the amenities. And a nice comfortable bed to sleep in at night. Once again, good hard working folks who will keep the light on for you and take good care of you.

And to finish out this trip: some last views of Nebraska.

The ubiquitous coal train at Central Avenue crossing in Kearney:



As far as the eye:


Can see.


One wayward locust:


That horizon to horizon sky, as seen at Gibbon Junction:

To the North:



To the East:


To the South:


And to the West:


And one very funky view near Shelton, NE:


Check out that deep blue diaginol slit in the eastern sky.

And the last shot as seen from Duncan, NE:



That says it all.

I hope you have enjoyed my journey. I hope it has been fun to read as it has been for me to write and photograph. In the morning we meet up with the Friendly Skies of United at Eppley Airfield in Omaha, go thru Chicago’s O’Hare, and be back home at Bradley Field in Windsor Locks by late Sunday afternoon.

Thanks for reading and take care.

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

10-24-08 On The Road, Part Fourteen

Fine drizzle and very overcast skies are the rule of the day this morning. The Weather Channel says blues skies and temps near 65 will be here on Saturday. I’ll take it for my last full day on the Prairies.

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.

10-23-08 On The Road, Part Thirteen

They always say, “Be careful what you wish for”. And they also say, “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature”.

With that in mine, may I officially welcome you to winter:



Out on the Prairies.

It was 32 degrees when I loaded up the Avenger this morning. The wind was only sucking half as hard as yesterday but that is a good thing.

A check of the Weather Channel this morning showed the center part of Nebraska with snow on the radar. I ran into the leading edge of it at the village of Sunol. I was trying to catch up with an eastbound double stack when I look up and see a westbound double stack. The right front of the leading locomotive was fully covered with packed snow and the snow was all over every single container on that train. Seems this westbound had a fun time after it left Bailey Yard in North Platte.

As of 11am MDT, the park in the town of Lodgepole still has the colors of autumn. But this snow is of the powdery content so fear of power failures would seem low. Per AM 880 KRVN, there are several hundred customers without power.

Next town up is Chappell and the snow still abounds as you can tell from the U.S. Route 385 Bridge looking southeast:



It is definitely winter. Pretty, eh??

Route 385 traverses southeast and then you wind up in the upper northeast corner of Colorado and the town of Julesburg. At the intersection of Route 385, you bear left onto U.S. Route 138. The snow must have been coming down at a good clip earlier because it appears they had the snowplows out.



And then I hear the muffled roar of a GM built locomotive and up comes a westbound double stack.


And I can confirm it was snowing at a good clip. The windswept snow really pelts my face as I take these snapshots.


And as crazy as it may sound, this is winter to me. Trains still running at track speed and the beauty of fresh falling snow. Can’t get any better than that.

Once in downtown Julesburg, I am on a mission. To find the store that has these fantastic homemade grinders. And there it is: Julesburg Family Market on Cedar Street off U.S Route 138 at the cross street of 3rd Street. The store is half supermarket and half general store. Get the nuts and bolts and whatever hardware you need while you grinder is made up. You take a 4 by 6-inch piece of paper with the listings of roll lengths and types, cold cuts and all of the condiments. Circle the items you want for your grinder and watch it being made. Get it cut in two, wrapped in red and white checkerboard paper, and then it’s all put in a clear plastic bag and twist-tied. Now that is service. And if grinders are not on your menu, fresh made pizza and fried chicken are also available.

After getting my lunch, it is over to a local park. Like the view of my “lunch room??”
To the East:



To the South:




And to the West.

It is snowing but it has let up a bit. And yes, trains do provide some of the entertainment this afternoon.




BTW, like my new “train set”??


After lunch, it is the continuation of my journey on U.S. Route 30 towards North Platte. Upon arriving in Ogallala, the snow has stopped but the clouds still have an eerie gray appearance to them. And as we cross into Keith County, we bid ado to the Mountain Time Zone which has hosted us since Sunday afternoon and say “hey” to the Central Tine Zone.

At about 3:00pm CDT, I am now between Sutherland and Hershey and my next train-watching place called O’Fallons. The snow has melted on the farmlands but one thing you can’t help but notice is the snow that was impacted into the north side of all of the telephone poles along the mainline.



This confirms just how strong the snow was blowing earlier today when I passed that snow encrusted double stack near Sidney.

And the trains just keep on coming. The next northbound empty coal train to the Powder River Coal Basin rolls by.



The hopper cars carry the railroad reporting mark “WSPX” for a corporation called Wheelstar associated with a power company in the state of Wisconsin.

Add to that an eastbound loaded coal train with the railroad reporting marks “OGEX”, for Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company going to a power plant somewhere in Oklahoma.



And to finish out our day at O’Fallons:


A westbound manifest freight heading to Cheyenne, Wyoming and:


An eastbound loaded coal train heading towards Bailey Yard in North Platte.

Finally, a couple of bits of trivia.

Bit One: yesterday in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, I came across these old, rusted out gas pumps.




I am dating myself because I remember what some of these old pumps looked like. Many of them come from before the “please pay first” days and the current processor-controlled, credit card units of today. A good many of these pumps cannot go above 99.9 cents per gallon. Boy, what a blast from the past that is!!

And Bit Two: today is Johnny Carson’s birthday. He was born back in 1925. And although Norfolk, Nebraska claims the status as Mr. Carson’s hometown, he was actually born in Corning, Iowa; 60 miles east southeast of Omaha.

At 5pm CDT, we call it a day and head to the Rodeway Inn in North Platte. In all of the times that I have been out here to Nebraska, the last couple of days take the cake as the most blustery. I still love the idea of that energy-generating windmill. Right next to my radio shack UP caboose.

Tomorrow we head to Kearney for one last hurray as our return to Connecticut comes soon. Hopefully we get sunny skies and a little less wind.

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

10-22-08 On The Road, Part Twelve

I think my brother Jay would enjoy this morning in Denver. Morning temp was 34 degrees and the wind was definitely sucking backwards. Many broken-off trees branches in the Motel 6 parking here in Greenwood Village, CO, just southeast of Denver.

Traffic on I-25 north is moving along at track speed. No slow downs. I started to think that the rebuilding of the Interstate seemed to have passed mustard but a few miles up just past the junction with I-70, the southbound traffic into Denver was near a crawl’s pace. And once again, one gets to see the well-known icon of the Mile High City and that is, of course, Invesco Field At Mile High Stadium, home to the Denver Broncos.



Once I am north of Denver, it’s northeast on I-76 for a short bit and then north onto U.S. Route 85 which eventually ends up in Cheyenne. Traveling on Route 85 is a little less rushed than traveling on its I-25 counterpart just west of here. As you travel north, you quickly leave the suburbs of Denver and are back in the prairies. What makes it even more interesting is that you have the Rocky Mountains further to the west.


And it’s very deceiving. Because of the curvature of the Earth, it looks like the Rockies are slowing rising to the northeast when in fact you are just traveling further north. And some of those higher mountain peaks are covered in snow. Very pretty and majestic.

Near the town of Fort Lupton, I meet up with a southbound Union Pacific manifest freight train.


Not many trains on this single track mainline from Cheyenne to Denver but this one sure brightens up this writer’s day. And again, the mountains behind me to the west look just grand.

As I approach Greeley, I remember a particular radio station called KUNC-FM 91.5, which has a unique history. From the www.kunc.org website:

“KUNC is a community-licensed public radio station, operated by Community Radio for Northern Colorado, Inc., a 501 (c) 3, Colorado non-profit organization. CRNC came into existence in the winter of 2001 when a group of community volunteers raised $2 million in 20 days to purchase KUNC's license from the University of Northern Colorado and preserve the station's independent voice.

“Instrumental in the fundraising campaign were many members of the KUNC listening community, including the KUNC Advisory Board. The Board had existed for many years providing community reaction and guidance to the station staff.

“Following the sale of the station to the community group, a Board of Directors was elected which oversees the operation of the station. The KUNC Community Advisory Board continues to provide community insights to the staff in matters of programming, community service and fundraising.”

Speaking of fundraising, KUNC will run a one-day fall fundraising drive from 5:30am MDT to 7:00pm MDT during Thursday’s broadcast day.

And their play list of music is very diversified. Anything from strings to folk to blues to jazz and then some. And I can attest to that as I drove from Denver to Cheyenne. And of course add to that the usual great programs and the One Minute Past The Hour newscasts from NPR, National Public Radio.

About 5 miles outside of Cheyenne, the shaking of my car is a constant reminder of just how windy it is outside. And for the last few miles, I have seen these windmills in the distance. And I get closer, I have come across a big wind farm on Simpson Mesa near Carr, Wyoming.



There appear to be some 30 to 40 towers with the majority of them spinning at full speed in the very strong winds today. Sure wouldn’t mind one of those guys nearby at home. I remember an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition where they helped his Navajo family. In keeping with the traditions of sun and wind to help them, EMHE added a windmill to their new house. And get this: any extra electricity the family did not use went to the local electric company who in turn paid the family for the electricity. Not a bad deal.

After lunch at the Exxon Truck Stop in Cheyenne, I start the last leg of my trip back east with Omaha in site this Sunday morning. And it seems Mother Nature has a telltale sign of things to come. Remember the snow I mentioned last night?? Well, it appears there was snow in western Wyoming on I-80 and a number of tractor-trailer trucks show the signs of dried road salt spray and many little icicles hanging from the trailers’ undercarriages. Considering we are one month into Autumn, seems Old Man Winter is around the corner.

And there is one neat spot here on the Lincoln Highway. At the border between Cheyenne County and Kimball County, which separates Dix, NE from Potter, NE, is the spot where the Union Pacific mainline, U.S. Route 30 and Interstate 80 are within a stone’s throw from each other.




Nowhere else are all three entities this close.

Just east of the crossovers at Potter, NE is another one of those special unit trains, known as the Double Stack, heading westbound.



Shipping containers used to move goods via merchant marine cargo ships ride the rails to reach their U.S. destinations or travel from one coast to another in the global world of shipping. The train name comes from the fact that containers are stacked one on top of another, hence the term “double stack”.


Although this train came in at under 30 cars, the usual ones are long; very long. At almost 8000 feet when fully loaded out, a typical double stack train will carry up to 280 containers, taking 280 tractor-trailer trucks off the road. As before, this is a very efficient way of moving goods across our country.

And as I am in Brownson writing part of this report, here comes an eastbound unit grain train full of corn kernels for processing into maybe fructose corn syrup (found in every can and bottle of regular soda) or maybe into ethanol or cattle feed.



And that is 97 cars in length.


And before I reach Sidney, my next stop, I pass Point Of Rocks:


It is about 2 miles east of Potter. The point juts out to the south and puts about the only set of curves into what is normally very straight tracks and highway.

The strong winds with their added wind chill factor have taken a toll on me and I end the day at about 5pm MDT. A fresh ham and cheese sub from Safeway and it’s time for dinner.

Tomorrow we continue east on the last leg of our journey. And as I watch KUSA-TV 9 from Denver, their 6pm MDT news has pictures of snow in the I-70 corridor west of Denver. And 2 ski areas have already opened for business. Again, one month into Autumn and Winter is a knockin’.

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