Are you a ferroequinologist?

We stopped for the night Wednesday night at a Harvest Host at the Golden Spike Tower. In the gift shop, they had a glass with the term "ferroequinologist" on it... if I had used my very rusty Latin skills, I may have been able to figure it out without using Google (I used Google) -- can you figure it out? Answer provided later! 

Before our stop... our travel took us through northeastern Colorado... 

We saw this statue on the top of a hill by the interstate -- at first I thought it might be some sort of pole for the power line, but we decided it is a statue of a man carrying a cross. I tried looking up more information about who placed it and why, but I haven't found anything.

Carl was driving and warned me that he was going to pull further over to the side of the lane as there was a wide load passing him...

It was a HUGE tractor on a trailer, and the tractor was leaning quite a bit to the right. The outer duals of the tractor were hanging off the trailer on both sides, the one to the right very close to the pavement. We both thought that the driver was going pretty fast with that large a load, but... we drive pretty cautiously, so we probably should not judge!

After a couple of hours of driving, we entered Nebraska, just up near the very northeast corner of Colorado, going into Nebraska in the chunk that is carved out of its southern border.

We soon got to the Harvest Host where we would stay for the night, Golden Spike Tower -- "The very best view of the world's largest railyard."

We watched a video to set the stage for our visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWuVU6kJHw

The tower allowed us to see the Bailey Yard -- the world's largest rail yard, and Union Pacific's huge train car sorting center! In addition, there were exhibits about all things rail related...

Including... Orphan Trains... 

... from 1854...

... to 1929.

When we got up to the top of the tower (8 floors up...)

... we could see Gracie in the parking area where we would be spending the night!

Information about dining cars

Information about Bailey Yard -- the sorting yard

Information about railroad tracks...

Common gauge used in U.S.

Some of Union Pacific's special locomotives

A glossary of terminology

Remote control used by operators within the rail yard - shown as if hung about the operators neck, looking down at it. All the trains are set up to allow remote operation, so in the yard, the operators run them remotely. They are right there with the engines, but stand on either the front or the back to be able to see everything around them.

The formerly used switchboard (now computerized)

(The photo included above contains only the left side of the bowl.)

Data...

2850 acres, 2 "hump" sorting yards, 8 miles long, over 400 miles of tracks, 11,000 turn outs (note: on the top left of this picture, you can see the tower (from which we were viewing the yard), and just above it is a building which is the diesel maintenance facility.)

Up to 3,000 cars humped (sorted) daily

East hump (for eastbound trains) is 34 feet high, West hump (westbound trains) is 20 feet high.

Up to 150 trains a day, Knuckles connect railcars together, 

18 million gallons of diesel fuel monthly

Information about canteen service by women in Nebraska to military during WWII:

Information about the canteen run in North Platte during WWII

View of the rail yard from the open 7th floor - looking west (the diesel maintenance facility is there on the left)...

... looking east...

... looking north...

Looking at engines that were readied for taking trains either east or west!

Carl with rail yard beyond

One of the best parts about the tower was that there was a retired guy there talking about what we were seeing and answering questions. Based on the reviews I have read, I guess there is always a retired guy on the 8th floor!

Have you figured out what "ferroequinologist" means? 

Ferro -- chemical symbol, Fe, Iron...

Equin -- equine, horse...

...ologist - someone who studies (or enjoys or loves)... 

Iron horses or trains!

 The retired guy on the 8th floor was a ferroequinologist!