Union Pacific Golden Spike Tower & Bailey Yard

Union Pacific’s Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, Nebraska is a glass-and-steel love letter to railroading on an epic scale. Rising eight stories above the prairie, the tower gives visitors a front-row seat to Bailey Yard—the largest railroad classification yard in the world—where freight cars are sorted with the quiet efficiency of a very loud, very American ballet. Inside, exhibits explain how modern railroading works, from hump-yard operations to dispatching, while the observation decks let you watch miles of track stretch to the horizon. It’s part museum, part control tower, and part proof that logistics can, in fact, be awesome.

Sprawling below is Bailey Yard itself, a 2,850-acre behemoth that handles tens of thousands of railcars every day. Opened in 1962 and still evolving, the yard uses multiple humps, automated switches, and sophisticated computer systems to keep freight flowing east and west across the continent. Diesel locomotives rumble nonstop as cars roll, couple, and fan out toward destinations you’ll never see but definitely depend on. Together, Bailey Yard and the Golden Spike Tower form the beating heart of Union Pacific’s network—and a pilgrimage site for railfans who appreciate big machinery doing big jobs without asking for applause.

Cody Park

Cody Park also preserves North Platte’s deep railroad heritage through a compact but meaningful collection of historic railroad equipment on display. Visitors can walk right up to vintage Union Pacific locomotives and rolling stock, including a massive steam locomotive that serves as a tangible reminder of the era when steam ruled the rails and North Platte was a critical division point. These static displays let you study the size, rivets, running gear, and sheer presence of the equipment up close—no glass cases, no velvet ropes, just iron and history. Set among trees and picnic areas, the railroad exhibits feel less like a museum and more like an outdoor tribute to the machines and railroaders that built the town, quietly bridging Cody Park’s recreational atmosphere with North Platte’s railroading soul.