The Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, NE

June 21, 2023

I was very excited to see the Golden Spike Tower. It is an eight story tower overlooking the largest rail yard in the world.

The tower is not owned by Union Pacific and is operated and owned by a nonprofit organization. The satellite photos of the rail yard are impressive, as well.

We rode the motorcycle to the tower on June 18th (Sunday).

The tower is a self guided tour. There are volunteers on the eighth floor (former railroad workers) who explain the rail yard and answer all sorts of questions about the train engines and railway cars.

You do have to pay to tour the tower, but the outside of the tower is a nice little park that is free.

We went up in the elevator to the seventh floor to the open air deck.

While we were on the seventh floor deck, we got to watch the sorting of train cars. In this rail yard, Union Pacific takes trains apart and puts them together so the new trains can deliver products.

The train pulls up to a hump and releases a car so it has a controlled roll downhill to the new train.

We walked up the stairs to the eighth floor and looked at the exhibits. We also enjoyed talking to a retired GM employee who had worked on the the diesel engines on the train engines. He was very knowledgeable and we enjoyed asking him questions.

We road the elevator back down and bought a couple of T-shirts at the gift store.

We walked around the outside park. There is a flag for each state Union Pacific serves.

This is a must stop for any railway enthusiasts. Watching the trains being taken apart and built was amazing.

We geared up and rode to the Cody Park Railroad Museum. That will be another post.