Leadership Lincoln County Transportation Day
October 15, 2024 | submitted by Becky White, North Platte Surgery Center
 
As the leaves start to change, pumpkins are everywhere only means that fall is among the community.  On a nice brisk day, the Leadership Lincoln County group boarded a bus from MPCC to learn about various types of transportation.

We traveled to the Union Pacific Railroad to get a fabulous tour of the machine shop and railyard.  We stopped at the diesel shop which has been around for 25 years and currently has 136 locomotives on site.  The railyard is about the size of 900 memorial stadiums and still has room to spare!  Trains from North Platte go all over the US, however most of them come from Cheyenne, WY and Morrill NE to get to North Platte.  Once in North Platte they train cars go through the humps and get dissembled according to their air tag to determine where they go next.  A train can go from coast to coast in 48 hours!   Today we know it as Bailey Yards, named after former Union Pacific president Edd H. Bailey, is the world’s largest train classification yard, was developed around 1886 and currently has 1800 employees with 900 switches within the yard.
After the railyard we traveled to Public Transit to learn that 12 buses supply rides to all ages in the Lincoln County area.  The buses get their orders from 2 dispatchers that work 14-hour days taking hundreds of calls a day.  All 12 buses are the same and give as many as
2- 300 rides a day.  They have several people that ride the buses daily, so the drivers get to know their regulars.

From buses we went to airplanes in our day.  We got the privilege to see the Trego – Dugan aviation, which has been around for more than 50 years!  They offer ground handling, maintenance and jet charter with all airplanes that come in the North Platte Area. They have had several famous people come through from Luke Wilson to Bret Favre on their jets.

From airplanes to trucks, our day brought us out to the weigh station on the east side of town on interstate 80.  The weigh station has a weight in motion before getting to them that determines if a truck needs to come in to get a more accurate weight.  Trucks weight is based off the axles, meaning the more axels the more weight they can carry. The reason for making trucks be a special weight is so the damage of roads decreases.  It has been shown that 9200 cars are the same as semi’s damaging the road. 
We left the weigh station and took a ride to Walmart DC for a tour of a building that services 118 other Walmart’s in 8 states. There are roughly 560 employees and another 186 drivers that help distribute goods and services for Walmart. The employees work 4 different shifts 7 days a week and average about 12 miles of walking in an 8-hour day!

Transportation is a big part of Lincoln County not only for individuals but business from all over.

View photos of the session here.