Bailey Yard

Bailey Yard is the world's largest rail yard. It is located immediately west of North Platte, a small town in the U.S. state of Nebraska almost in the middle of the country, on the railway line ( Oakland at San Francisco - ) Cheyenne - Omaha ( - Chicago) and is operated by the Union Pacific Railroad. The leading through the station section of this route does not have a passenger. It was named after a former president of the railway company, Ed. H. Bailey. In North Platte Union Pacific has more than 2,600 employees.

Predecessors

A first real one-sided rail yard with 42 classification tracks and mechanized hump towards the east was taken here in 1948 as a replacement for a smaller marshalling yard with 20 tracks without the hump in operation and later replaced by the present system.

Present station

Station arrangement

Today's two-sided rail yard has an area of ​​12 km ² and a length of about 13 km and 507 kilometers of track. The two Shunting located on both sides of the continuous main line. The maneuvering the east ( station Part Bailey East) opened in 1968 and comprises 8 break-in, 64 directional and driving out in 7 arranged in succession ladder tracks. The other maneuvering the west ( station Part Bailey West) was opened in 1980 and comprises 8 break-in, 50 directional and 9 driving out in adjacent track harps with hump towards the east because of there vast westerly winds, so here for converting the car during the maneuvering process Sägefahrten over the Ausziehgleise required. Therefore, this station is among the few two-sided marshalling yards at the same place opposite direction of work flow of both systems. Reserve areas for expansion are available. At the East-West maneuvering is to be a further station Part one operating station with 14 long and 18 short tracks front hand for the strong in this area coal block trains.

On the two mechanized humps about 2,100 of the approximately 15,000 daily passing through the station freight cars are assembled into new freight trains daily.

Additional facilities

In addition to the direction of the harp east-west system, there is a depot with a capacity for refueling and maintenance of over 8,500 locomotives and small repairs of around 750 locomotives per month. In the area between the through- route tracks and the east-west system Carriage Workshop daily minor repairs can be carried out at almost 50 freight cars.