Railroaders' Nostalgia > Fruits of our labors...

For as long as I can remember people in Columbus, Nebraska have been complaining about Union Pacific trains blocking their crossings. Columbus is not only on our double track main line, but it is also the main line connection for three branch lines running off to the north and northwest to Norfolk, Albion and Spalding, Nebraska. Consequently there is a lot of switching in Columbus.

Over the years there have been numerous proposals for overpasses. As usual any businesses on the street suggested for the project objected, fearing the ramps would cut off their businesses. In time we decided we had to come up with some sort of operating plan to mollify the good citizens of the town.

Working with the operating department we came up with what we thought would work. Our director of community relations, Trish Jorgensen, and I jumped a car and drove out to Columbus to meet with the mayor along with Jack Dennis from operating. The mayor was the head of a bank in Columbus and we gathered at the bank to be escorted into his office. Jack, who had ridden a train there earlier, asked me if we would give him a ride back to Omaha. "Sure," I said.

The mayor's office had a large picture window behind his desk with a nice view of a nearby grade crossing. We all sat in front of his desk, while his back was to the window. We began describing our plan to alleviate the crossing problems.

It wasn't long until we saw the crossing lights begin flashing and an engine pulled a string of cars across the street and stopped. The mayor listened attentively as we continued explaining the plan. The engine pushed out of sight but was soon was back. As it kept going back and forth the three of us began to squirm in our chairs. The mayor either was being polite or he didn't notice what was going on behind him but he expressed gratitude for our help. We all rose and hurried away from the scene of the crime.

Some time later my wife and I happened to see Jack in Omaha as we walked into a restaurant for lunch. I introduced him to my wife and we chatted for a moment or two when Jack informed me that we had left him in Columbus the day we met with mayor. We had forgotten all about giving him a ride in our escape that day! Fortunately Jack laughed about it and thought it was pretty funny.

PS: I had the dubious pleasure of experiencing the results of our switching promises one day when I rode the local out of Columbus up to Norfolk and back. Between having trouble starting one of the units and having to wait for time to get out on the main, we were seriously delayed getting the train together and leaving town. I went through two recrews on that trip.

JEB



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/20/12 09:43 by Copy19.

Columbus, NE always hosts a large high school marching band competition each fall. When my kids were in school back around 1998-2006 we would always attend the competition, held on a Saturday morning. There were two parts to the competition, parade marching and the field competition. The parade marching was always held first during the morning, with bands marching down one of the main drags in downtown Columbus that ran a block over from and parallel to the UP main.

The parade marching was an interestingly short march, only about 4 blocks long and entirely straight, right past the judging stand. It was a simple affair, nothing but band after band, with enough time and space allowed between contestants so that they didn't interfere with each others' music and also to allow the judges time to mark their scores. Schools from all over eastern Nebraska would attend, and they ran the gamut from my kids' own Class A high school with a marching band of slightly over 200 members all the way down to tiny Class D schools that had to use junior high kids as well as high schoolers and still be lucky to have maybe a dozen band members.

Of course, with the UP main only a block away, there was always another parade happening on the high iron. At times it seemed that trains rolled through as often as the marching bands. And with all of those crossings in downtown Columbus, with no quiet zone established, there was lots of horn noise not originating from trumpets, trombones or souzaphones. I always felt sorry for some of those Class D schools when they had to compete not only with other schools but with the UP as well. Most of the time they didn't have the strength in numbers to outplay the UP.