Western Railroad Discussion > UP Nebraska Triple Track (North Platte area) Train Count

Hi all. I visited the campus UP “Triple Track” area around North Platte today for the first time, and noticed it to be fairly slow in terms of traffic (I had heard years ago this line saw close to 120 trains a day here). I know PSR and dwindling coal loads are probably eaten into that, so I was wondering what the approximate number of daily trains is on this segment of the Overland Route in 2023. Thanks!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/23 19:58 by RiverLineProductions.

When I rode my bicycle across the U.S. in 1994, and camped in my tent in some small town parks along the tracks, the trains were endless.  Some were slow, because of more trains in front of them.  Probably much quieter now....

A very rough estimate :  45 to 60 per day currently.    Corrections welcome. 
Some are "double" coal trains and crazy long manifests in the 3 mile range. 

My favorite program from October 2001 titled
"144 Trains in 24 hours - UP's Triple Track Main"
Now it's a sham with all the double coals and huge manifests as already mentioned.

!44 Trains in 24 Hours - UP's Triple Track Main was my program.  It was done in 2001.  And that count doesn't include light engine movements, locals or work trains.  I have videotaped along UP's maain line across Nebraska several times since.  And the train counts have steadily dropped.  The last time was in 2016 and the couny was aorund 85 in 24 hours.  That was before the full implementation of PSR so the numbers meantioned above wouldn't surprise me.
Dick Eisfeller
Big "E" Productions
Greenland, NH
www.trainvideos.com
bigeee@trainvideos.com

I was also going to say 45-60.
 

TO’s "SD70M” recorded 170 trains in a day in 2007, a train every 9 minutes.  TO’s Andrew gave a 5/20 list of the scheduled UP trains on the Kearney Sub going east out of North Platte here-  https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5030170,5030170#msg-5030170  The average was 51 trains per day in pandemic times.  A month later in early July 2020 my count averaged 59/day-  https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,5062561,5062561#msg-5062561  It wouldn’t take too much work for someone to replay and count the trains now on the Kearney railcam-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4ruBo4NWK0

mapboy

Train count might be down but what about total length?