| Posted by Dan I. on October 24, 2021 | |
Kearney, Nebraska is located southwest of Grand Island, Nebraska along U.S. Highway 30 with the Union Pacific having three to five parallel tracks in town. The trains fly through especially on the outskirts of Kearny most of the time. Since the Union Pacific generally follows U.S.30 for several hundred miles in Nebraska, my wife, before she passed away in 1994, and I would drive my old Mack truck along U.S. 30 rather than Interstate 80 just so that we could see the scenery and watch the trains including the Nebraska Central. At times, we would pace a UP train at 70 to 75 MPH and sometimes have a horn blowing contest every now and again just for fun. My old 1977 Mack truck air horns versus Union Pacific locomotive air horns. UP won every time in making more noise. I believe the engineer or conductor had fun as well as he always waved. On the other end of the State, one place that we really enjoyed watching the Union Pacific trains go through town at a much slower pace was Ogallala, Nebraska especially on the west end of town where I would park my rig overnight near a grainery. If one were to follow the tracks in the picture, they would go through Ogallala eventually. I miss seeing the western part of the country along with the large and small railroads there such as the Nebraska Central. Just about anywhere along U.S. Highway 30 from one end to the other end of the State, there are trains constanly crossing Nebraska. I was told some years back that 150 or more trains a day are running the rails in a 24 hour day along this line. I used to park my truck next to the main line where I could just to watch the trains when I stopped driving for the day usually in the smaller cities and communities located along Highway 30. Since I retired a little over a year ago, I doubt that I will ever see a lot of Western railroads again since I reside in upper East Tennessee. At least, I got the CSX KD Subdivision tracks directly behind my house. Even that has really slowed down considerably since CSX went into this "precision railroading" mode. I think CSX has somewhat abandoned the KD Sub and are routing trains around mostly due to the steep terrain and having to use pushers. Even the CSX railyard in Corbin, Kentucky looks vacant now the last time I was there. Lot of tracks but very few railcars or locomotives. If you are a railfan, Nebraska is the place to visit. A lot of cities have built small parks dedicated to train watching along Highway 30 such as the town of Sutherland. You will get your money's worth in watching the trains. No doubt about it.
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