(The following article by Jane Palmer was posted on the Omaha World-Herald website on April 6.)
OMAHA, Neb. — Modern railroads roll into the spotlight in a new permanent exhibit at the Union Pacific Railroad Museum. The exhibit debuts, with special activities, Saturday and Sunday in Council Bluffs.
The finishing touches are put on a piece of the new exhibit in the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs.
“We wanted to let our visitors know how a modern-day railroad operates with computers and lasers,” Museum Director Beth A. Lindquist said. “It’s a little bit unusual for us because we’re a history museum.”
Interactive displays help visitors understand the operation of such things as hybrid diesel-electric locomotives and the computer-operated dispatch system used to direct train traffic.
Exhibits explore the building and maintaining of track, the inspecting and testing of track and the selecting of freight cars for different kinds of loads.
Visitors see the engineer’s vantage point in a simulated locomotive cab, learn how trains are put together at switching yards and explore how laser beams check for passing trains. Among the high-tech tools on display is a locomotive remote-control box.
John Bromley, director of historic programs at the museum, said visitors could discover the “secret” of railroading.
“The contact surface between a steel wheel and the rail is only about the size of a dime,” Bromley said. “That’s why it’s possible to pull milelong trains with one locomotive and also why it takes a long distance for them to be stopped. Once you get them going, it’s great. But it takes a while to stop.”
The modern railroad exhibit occupies half the top floor in the three-story museum.
Special activities Saturday and Sunday include Operation Lifesaver with a demonstration on braking a train. The presenter has a locomotive control stand and a simulation video to show the time and distance to stop a train. Railroad safety mascots “Sly Fox” and “Birdie” are attending the weekend activities.