How one train station in the U.S. is larger than an entire European city

In Nebraska, there’s a freight train yard that swallows up land like few places do. It’s called Bailey Yard. Union Pacific runs it & it spreads across North Platte at a size that’s hard to picture, but it’s larger than an entire European city. But which city? And why is it so big? Here are the facts.

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Built as a hump yard and expanded in stages

Bailey Yard began taking shape in the late 1940s, with Union Pacific rolling out the first big changes in 1948. They added a modern hump yard with new classification tracks. Over the next few decades, construction continued, with an eastbound hump & diesel facilities arriving in the 1960s. They added more upgrades in the 1970s. The yard’s name came from Edd H. Bailey, who once ran Union Pacific.

Footprint bigger than a European city-state

Bailey Yard is more than 25 times bigger than Vatican City. The train station is around 11.5 km², or 4.44 square miles, while Vatican City is just 0.44 km², or 0.16 square miles. Bailey Yard also has about 315 miles of track inside its boundaries. That’s enough track to drive from New York City to Baltimore.

How it stacks up against big U.S. yards

Yes, there are many massive yards across America, but Bailey still dominates in terms of size at roughly 2,850 acres. BNSF’s Argentine Yard in Kansas City is about 780 acres, while Norfolk Southern’s Moorman Yard in Ohio is smaller, too, at 620 acres. That’s even after a huge expansion.

Where it ranks in the world by area

Outside the U.S., only a few facilities come close to Bailey Yard in size. Germany’s Maschen yard is just under 700 acres, and China has some huge classification yards, including Zhengzhou North & Wuhan North. But Bailey Yard is still the largest railroad classification yard in the entire world.

Track layout built for mass sorting

The yard also has a maze of tracks, including over a hundred that are used simply for sorting railcars. It’s arranged east–west, with the “bowl” tracks lining up side by side so that it’s possible to juggle thousands of cars every day. And workers here do it all without the train station getting jammed up. The west bowl alone fits over 5,500 cars.

Twin humps and their measured heights

In the middle of all that track are two mounds, called humps, where cars roll down by gravity to get sorted. The east hump is taller at around 10 meters, while the west one is closer to six. Every day, thousands of railcars glide over those humps and make their way through the train station.

Daily workload in cars and trains

As you might expect, traffic at the station doesn’t stop. More than 10,000 railcars pass through daily & about 4,000 of those are reshuffled for new routes. On top of that, around 32 coal trains stop at the station each day, just for fuel & quick checks. Then, these trains continue rolling west.

Repair work happens around the clock

The yard has a repair zone that never really quiets down, with crews coming in at all hours to deal with whatever’s acting up. Sometimes it’s small stuff like brakes, other times, it’s swapping heavy parts. But the shop never shuts its doors because the trains don’t stop coming. Instead, they handle the problems right there, rather than waiting somewhere else.

Fueling stations are built like mini truck stops

Of course, engines don’t leave here thirsty. Bailey has its own fueling spots that are designed to handle a lot of locomotives without slowing everything down. Workers refuel the trains while they’re still in the yard, and they have the capacity for multiple engines to line up. The whole thing’s timed to keep traffic flowing.

A specialized tower oversees every movement

Above the tracks is a control tower, where a small team keeps an eye on everything going on down below. They’re the ones juggling departures & watching switches to make sure that nothing is blocking an important track. Every train that rolls out of the yard passes through their plans first.

The following sources were consulted in the preparation of this article: