feeding the east bowl and the west bowl. The east bowl has 64 tracks, while the west has 60. There are also eight tracks where unit coal trains are staged heading west, awaiting a slot at a mine in the Powder River Basin. UP maintains a large diesel shop
in the yard, with three sections in the shop — the inspection line, light repair, and heavy repair. General Electric maintains the locomotives on site. More than 700 locomotives visit the shop each month. Another 8,000 locomotives stay on their trains and are serviced as they pass through. Bailey Yard is the primary line of defense for unit coal trains (and to a lesser extent, unit oil trains), with a close eye kept on the wheels of each 110-car train. The car shop changes out about 10,000 wheelsets each year, and cars in unit coal trains aren’t even taken out of the train; they are jacked up in place in the consist. Empty unit coal trains get a thorough inspection in the yard, and that inspection starts some 20 miles to the east. A high-tech defect detector at Gothenburg, Neb., checks each wheel, so by the time the train arrives at Bailey the shop crew already knows what needs to be done. Also in the yard is a building that
houses ultrasound equipment than can check an entire train’s wheels as it rolls
BELOW: The East Hump of Bailey Yard can be easily seen from West Front Street, just west of the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center. Standard cab power sits on the hump, waiting for the next train to classify.
BOTTOM: The locomotive shop at Bailey Yard is best viewed from the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center. The eighth floor provides an all-weather enclosed viewing area, while the seventh floor has an open balcony.
36 FEBRUARY 2016 •
RAILFAN.COM
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