The Golden Spike Tower overlooks the Union Pacific Railroad Bailey Yard outside of North Platte, Nebraska. The yard is in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest railroad classification yard. The yard covers an area eight miles long and two and a half miles across and contains over 300 miles of track. In addition to two humps and a huge number of tracks, the facility includes a major diesel locomotive repair shop and a diesel service facility.

The daily traffic through this yard is around 125 trains encompassing 12,000 freight cars. The service facility fuels 300 locomotives a day. You can view it from your computer via a webcam. (Though you do need Flash enabled.)

The tower is eight stories high. The top floor is glassed in, the floor below accesses an outdoor balcony. Yes, there is an elevator! There is also a modest admission charge, but they have really done a nice job here. There is a video on the history of the railroad and on the upper floor there was a PBS video about the Orphan Trains running. There are also models and historical artifacts on exhibit.

This was part of the Grand Tour 2016, a 5800 mile drive through flyover country!