If only we could have a tall tower like Eifel or another monster next to Baily yard to look down and watch it like a gian train layout.
Get yourself a plane, a helicopter, a hot air baloon,or your own blimp!
I think that the Golden Spike tower there (which is not a bad place!) was shortened from its original planned height.
The helicopter is probably the best idea, but not for me (who doesn’t even like the thought of being airborne). Just look at the video of Houston’s industry in another thread!
The Skydeck at Big Willy (formerly the Sears Tower) is a good place to get on top of things right in Chicago. Lots of passenger and commuter trains (few freights) visible from there.
The CN Tower in Toronto would have been a good place, but I don’t think there’s much action there any more, at least freight-wise. During rush hour it might be interesting.
If we’re discussing building an elevated viewing platform or structure for the purpose of viewing trains, here are some suggestions:
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Tower 55 at Fort Worth, Texas.
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Somewhere scenic along the western slope of Cajon Pass.
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Maybe near where the Palmdale Cutoff, the Espee Arizona freight main, and the Santa Fe cross each other at Colton, Calif.
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Grand Island, Nebr. where the Q’s Powder River Basin mainline flies over the Union Pacific’s west coast mainline. I’ve read where something is already in the works.
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Someplace in the Twin Cities where the BN, CNW, SOO, and ex-MILW all mix with each other.
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Someplace a short ways west of Kansas City Union Station. Lots of trains there. Whenever you’d smell the fumes from Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbeque, you’d know that a storm’d be brewin’.
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The west end of MacArthur Bridge, Saint Louis.
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The National Museum of Transportation at Barrett Station, MO could use a higher elevated platform for viewing the many trains that pass along the MoPac’s St. Louis-KCMO mainline.
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A four legged reviewing stand with crosswalks and a weather shelter located about 20-to-30 ft. above the diamonds at Lake & Wells Sts., Chicago. This is where the Lake St., Midway, Ravenswood, and Evanston Express 'L lines cross each other.
On one of the bluffs above HorseShoe Curve.
And at ZOO interlocking, about 1 mile northeast of 30th St. Station, in Philadelphia, where Amtrak’s NorthEast Corridor from New York to Washington has a junction with its Keystone Line to Harrisburg, plus many of SEPTA’s former PRR-side trains go through, as well as NS and CSX on the nearby ‘High Line’ freight line to South Philly, plus the ex-RDG/ B&O, now CSX, on the other side of the Schuylkill River, etc.
- Paul North.
There’s a nice bluff above the throat of the yard at Barstow. Unfortunately, it takes a bit of an effort to get there and there isn’t any shade.