Out of Our Rut: Planes, Trains and More

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As we were planning our travels from Florida to Colorado earlier this year, we had looked at places along the route to determine where we may want to stop and how long we might want to stay. We had decided that Omaha Nebraska looked like a good place to stay for a few days. There aren’t a lot of camping options in Omaha or across the Missouri River in nearby Council Bluffs Iowa. Often, when there are few camping choices in an area, the campgrounds that are available aren’t all that great. But just 10 miles outside of downtown Omaha is Walnut Creek Recreation Area - a very highly rated campground. The only problem is this is a first come first serve only campground and there are only 44 sites. We had carefully planned our days prior to coming into Omaha so that we would arrive on a Sunday hoping that this would improve our odds of finding an open site.

The drive from the Cameron Missouri Elks Lodge to Walnut Creek was just over 170 miles. It was a very windy day, so the drive wasn’t all that relaxing but we made it in one piece. We had left early enough Sunday morning so we would arrive at our destination around lunchtime. We hoped this would be late enough that those folks leaving would already be out but early enough to beat the others trying to get a spot. It seemed to have worked. We picked a spot that backed up to a small pond that had 50 amp electric. None of the sites have water or sewer but there is water and a dump station within the campground.

Our Site at Walnut Creek

Chris was starting to overcome her head cold although I was starting to feel like I was next. We had a pretty afternoon and rain was expected the following day, so we headed out to check out some of the walking trails that loop around Walnut Creek Lake. The main trail is just over 3 miles but we added a bit to that distance tackling a few geocaches along the way.

Beautiful Afternoon at Walnut Creek Lake

Red-winged Blackbird

At the Dam

Large Family Out for Swim

Fishing Pier

The weather forecast for the next day turned out to be rather accurate. It was quite rainy and not very pleasant outside. We likely would have visited the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum (SAC) regardless of the weather but fortunately most of its displays are inside so it would be perfect for a rainy day. Admission is $16 per person and is open 7 days a week except for a few major holidays. The museum first opened in 1959 but moved into the present building in 1998. The large, multi-story glass atrium is rather impressive looking however it must not be perfectly watertight since there were buckets here and there collecting the drips.

Approaching SAC Museum

Impressive Entrance

Upon entering the museum, you see a SR-71A “Blackbird” filling much of the atrium space. It’s impressive both from the first and second floors.

Blackbird from Ground Level

Blackbird from Second Floor

We got there while the introductory movie was playing so we had 15 minutes to spend before the next screening took place. We like to watch movies at places like this since they often will fill in facts and descriptions we may not learn otherwise. There are two large hangars on either side of the atrium. We pick the one closest to the theater (Hangar A) and start to wander around. We’ve visited countless air and space museums during our travels and this one was well done. The shear volume of planes and other displays meant we could spend hours exploring. Since we aren’t former military, many of the details are likely lost on us. With our eye on the time, we headed to the theater for the movie.

B-17G "Flying Fortress"

Mask from Horror Movie?

London Subway

Lots of Model Planes

F-101B "Voodoo"

A-26B "Invader"

F-84F "Thunderstreak"

Tailgunner on B-17G

The movie gave a history of SAC. Which basically started after World War II at the beginning of the Cold War. We resumed our tour of the north hangar to see the displays we had missed. There are several exhibits to explore things other than planes. The one regarding WWII and the Holocaust was well done. From the second floor, there is a great view of the numerous planes.

Another Shot of B-17G

F-102A "Delta Dagger"

SAC Logo

ICBM Launch Trainer

RB-45C "Tornado"

What's This Lever For?

View from Above

Model and Its Shadow

Another Second Floor View of Hangar A

Next we headed to Hangar B. A portion of this one is closed to the general public but is where half a dozen planes are being restored. They do have a large viewing window into the area but unfortunately nobody was actually working on the planes.

Strange Looking

View of Restoration Area from Second Floor

F-117A "Nighthawk" Being Restored

This hangar has more planes and some of the space program displays. It was fun to explore and read about various aspects of these endeavors.

CH-21B "Work Horse"

Russian Spacesuit

C-47A "Skytrain"

B-29TB "Superfortress"

C-119G "Flying Boxcar"

MIG-21F "Fishbed-C"

One corner of this hangar has a large number of interactive displays. While intended for kids, there weren’t any around as we came through so we didn’t feel too bad trying some of them out. One I found rather unique was the Tennis Ball Launcher. A large heavy ball is raised up in a cylinder and dropped. The resulting air pressure is directed into a smaller tube with a tennis ball at the bottom. It was pretty amazing how high the tennis ball flew and then drop back into the net to fall back into position for its next flight. I caught a picture of the tennis ball accelerating in the tube. With a 1/40 second exposure, my best guess is the tennis bas was traveling just over 25 miles per hour!

Overlooking Kids Area

Tennis Ball Launcher

One last location in the museum, that typically wouldn’t get a mention in one of my blog posts, was the restroom. Before we left, Chris headed to the restroom while I waited. When she came back, she informed me I ‘must’ check out the restroom. The neon entrance sign was only the beginning. I’ll let the picture I took tell the story. If you visit this museum, check out the restroom!

Neon Sign at Men's Room

Not Your Typical Men's Room Decor

We had one more full day Walnut Creek and I was fully consumed by the head cold Chris had shared. She headed out to do some shopping and even offered to get geocaches in a couple of the nearby counties. Since this campground is first come first serve, we debated extending our stop by a day or two. All we would have needed to do was let the camp host know and pay the $16 per day by 10 AM of the day we were supposed to checkout. But after a good night sleep, I was feeling better on Wednesday and we decided to move on west.

Our next real stop was going to be in North Platte Nebraska about 270 miles west along Interstate 80. As luck would have it, there is an Elks Lodge in Grand Island which is practically the halfway point. It’s only 6 miles off of the interstate so doesn’t greatly impact travel distance. And as an added benefit, the lodge has sites with 30 amp electric. We arrived and got situated in the empty parking lot east of the building. They even have a drop box for camping donations. This stop worked out well for us and we headed on to North Platte the following morning.

We arrived in North Platte, and head to I-80 Lakeside Campground. We plan on staying two nights so we can actually do some sightseeing in the area. Most people likely would think “What’s there to see in North Platte Nebraska?” Well years ago, I had watched a YouTube video from an RVer that had stopped here to see the world’s largest rail yard. I didn’t remember the actual city, but remembered it was somewhere in the state and as we formulated our travel plans for 2022, I discovered this was the place to stop. If it had been 75 miles out of the way, would we have detoured to see it? Maybe not, but North Platte is right along the interstate and the Union Pacific Bailey Yard is right in town.

The next morning we head to the visitor center in town to get some information. We had read about a special where we could get tickets for a few of the local attractions at a discount rate. Unfortunately our research was a bit dated and that is no longer an option. Since the train yard was our (really my) only goal, we head to the Golden Spike Tower. This tower is not associated with the Union Pacific Railroad but is adjacent to the Bailey rail classification yard. North Platte is where east met west on the Union Pacific line. The tower is about 100 feet tall and is designed to look like a railroad spike. We arrived to find a school bus in the parking lot - not a good sign in our book. Admission is only $7 per person, so this stop doesn’t break the bank.

Looks Like a Spike

Better View of Museum and Tower

There are some displays at ground level with monitors playing various clips detailing the operations in the yard. Plus there are all sorts of trinkets, hats, shirts, and you name it with a railroad or golden spike theme. The real destination is on the 7th or 8th floors of the tower. Fortunately there is an elevator to get us there easily. We head to the top floor first. it is enclosed but has plenty of windows that allow visitors an opportunity to check things out in the yard below. The good news was the school children were beginning to be rounded up to head back down and out to their bus. There are significantly more displays up here. There is also a docent present to help answer questions. We stayed long enough to get a shift change with the docents. Both were retired Union Pacific workers. We spoke in great length with one of them, once we were the only remaining visitors present. He had held a multitude of jobs in his nearly 40 year career with the railroad.

Schematic of the Bailey Yard

Model Locomotive

I'll admit, I had never considered how the rail cars in an individual train were "assembled". A classification yard like Bailey is where the cars are sorted. There are two "humps" in the yard one for eastbound trains and another for westbound. The term hump is quite literal. The ground has been built up into humps - eastbound hump is 34 feet tall, westbound 20 feet. A string of cars heading in one direction are pushed up the proper hump and an operator is at the top. He has a remote control hanging around his neck with all sorts of switches, buttons, knobs and lights. He is told how many cars to release - 1, 2, 3 or more. As the car(s) crest the hump, they start to roll down the other side where a worker in a nearby tower will control the rail switches to one of 64 eastbound or 50 westbound lines. The operator is able to adjust each car's brake for the given load so the car rolls down the hump at the proper velocity to connect to cars already in each line. This way each train can be "assembled" more quickly with the need for just one dedicated locomotive for each direction.

Control Panel from Operator's Perspective

We head down to the 7th floor which is an open air platform making picture taking much easier. Chris had brought along binoculars as well so she could see things better. Remember this is a big place. From our spot in the tower, it is over three quarters of a mile to the far northern side of the yard. I have attached a snapshot from Google Earth to help visualize the scope of the Bailey yard.

Google Earth View of Bailey Yard

Looking West

Looking East

Locomotive Repair Shop

Looking Down

I took some video of the visit since there is a lot going on and stills don't do it justice. The link below will bring up the YouTube video. We ended up spending over 2 hours here. I suspect that may be longer than most people but we were really enjoying ourselves and learning new things. On the way out to the parking lot is a rail car that looked like something visitors could walk through but it is locked up and almost looks like it is being used for storage.

Locked Rail Car

After finishing up with trains, we had two other spots we could check out. The Lincoln County Historical Museum and the Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park Museum are nearly side by side on the north end of town. We had actually considered camping at the Buffalo Bill Recreation area, but it required day use fees on top of the camping fee and had limited first come first serve sites so we opted with the campground on the south side of town. We first headed to the Lincoln County Museum. We are greeted by a couple of volunteers, paid our nominal admittance fee and are handed a map of the place. We start out in the main museum building exploring the various rooms.

Large Arrowhead Collection

1932 Chevy

I Like Film Projectors

Looks Like Accordion but Stationary?

It's a real mish-mash of things but since it is a museum about the area and not a specific thing, it might be expected. Some areas are setup just like a room from somebody's home. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me that when some 96 year old resident passed years ago, the family "donated" some of her furnishings to the museum.

The Sewing, Weaving and Knitting Corner

Likely "Donated" Living Room

Old Telephone Switchboard

Buffalo

Fancy Gun

Next we head outside where there are a couple dozen buildings on the 5 acre lot. We take our time as we slowly wander the grounds reading about the history of each place. There are definitely some well maintained buildings moved here.

Platte Valley Barn

Windmill and Cistern

Pony Express Cabin

The house that really caught our eyes was the Fredricksen House. Not just because it was a very pretty home, but because what it was. This was an early Sears House. We listen to lots of podcasts as we travel the country and within the last several weeks, one of the stories we listened to was about Sears Houses. Between 1908 and 1940, the Sears, Roebuck and Company sold ~70,000 mail order houses. This particular example actually predates the days of the Sear House catalog. Built in 1899, the materials were ordered from the general Sears catalog and built to the home owner's specifications. This home is open to the public so we headed in to check it our more closely. It is an impressive home with lots of detail.

Fredricksen House

Stained Glass

Fancy Door Hinges

We continued walking around the grounds. The Trinity Lutheran Church dates from 1917. There are lots of farm implements and one of the buildings houses a large number of vintage tractors. The Union Pacific caboose is in decent shape and is open for visitors. We finished up here and debated about heading just down the road to the Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park Museum. But we were a bit tired of the historical theme museum so we decided to skip it and head back to camp.