Freight Trains & UP Bailey Yard,
History Channel video crews recently visited Bailey Yard in North Platte to
film daily operations for the program, “Modern Marvels: Freight Trains.”
“Modern Marvels,” a show celebrating man-made wonders on a grand scale,
features Union Pacific in the 30-minute episode on freight trains. Bailey Yard will
be shown in the opening segment.
During the 13-hour video shoot July 13, crews filmed trains arriving into the
yard, locomotives, car repair, cars being classified and assembled for
outbound trains, and trains departing North Platte. The video crew also visited the
Burlington Northern Dispatch Center in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as the GE
locomotive manufacturing facility in Erie, Penn.
“Modern Marvels: Freight Trains” airs Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 9 p.m. CDT.
Cameron Scott, North Platte Service Unit general superintendent; Larry Odean,
manager-locomotive maintenance; Casey Dyer, director-mechanical maintenance;
and Jake Linderman, yardmaster, explained to the video crews how the yard
works on a daily basis.
“I’ve always enjoyed the History Channel and the ‘Modern Marvels’ program,”
Scott said. “We were honored to represent Union Pacific and Bailey Yard when
doing the interviews. The History Channel crews were a pleasure to work with,
and we are excited to see the final product.”
“Modern Marvels: Freight Trains” is scheduled to air Wednesday, Sept. 20, at
9 p.m. CDT.
Thanks for the heads up, Wayne. The History Channel produces some pretty good stuff, and I will make a note to remind myself to watch this program Wednesday night. Some years ago, the History Channel produced a program about railroad police, and I have that on tape which I purchased from the History Channel over the internet.
Thanks for the heads up. I try to keep up with the History Channel and Modern Marvels, as they do run shows or segments of shows on the railroad industry, but I missed this one. They’ll probably rerun it a few times over the next 3-6 months, too.
I grew up just 20 miles east of SFD in Hills. Watched a lot of GN back in those great youthful days. Are you originally from Sioux Falls?
Back in 2001 my wife and I honeymooned on the rocky mountaneer tourist train on CP rails between Calgary and Vancouver. Saw some fantastic scenery during our two day trip. I was really impressed on the twin spiral tunnels since I had never heard of them until our trip.
Only got the last 20 minutes, great from what I could see. Sounds like they gonna need a lot more engineers, maybe that’s why they are thinkin about goin to one man crews. Too bad I can’t stay up very late to catch the re-run.
Although filled with a lot of generalities, it still managed to convey the basics of what a yard does, and why.
The UP, of course, used it as a promotional tool, but then, who wouldn’t.
I loved the “pit crew” comment about the locomotive service pad…just about choked on my coffee…but the guys is paid to say stuff like that, so.
Yes, I saw the Chinese GEs in the plant; wish they had pointed them as part of the program.
Over all, a good industry introductory piece, and I thought it was about time some “documentary” managed to get it right on how a trains air brakes work…for the amount of information they managed to convey in a 45 minute program, they did a pretty good job.
I would recommend the show as a primer, written as it is on a high school level.
Good show, they seemed to get a lot of things right. For me it conveyed a better understanding of the magnitude of modern railroads. I’ve seen the yard at North Platte, but calling up the dispatcher now takes on a whole new meaning and the ways they’re using RFID tags and laptops was interesting as well.
i was wondering what those other locomotives were in the GE plant. I thought it was very informative, gave a good understanding of railroading, the pit crew comment was pretty funny.