Bailey Yard

Robbin Ahrold

America was great grandad’s goal in 1862,

Old country left behind for the promise of the new

He changed his name to Henry, began our family over here

He caught the first train headed West, no money and no fear

Wed a blue-eyed Irish beauty; took a railroad job for life

On the plains out west of Lincoln where the Platte runs strong and wide

At a rail yard they called “Hell on Wheels” life there was so hard

Union Pacific had another name, called it Bailey Yard

Hell on wheels and all damnation

A thousand men, buildin’ a nation

Gamblin’ fightin’ whiskey and ladies

Sweat and steel and makin’ babies

At Bailey Yard

In ‘69 the Golden Spike joined rails from east to west

New York to San Francisco in just a week or less

And so my grandad Henry, they called him Henry Two,

Helped the nation push on westward, as the railyard grew and grew

Hell on wheels and all damnation

Two thousand men, buildin’ a nation

Gamblin’ fightin’ whiskey and ladies

Sweat and steel and makin’ babies

At Bailey Yard

And in his turn his son stepped in, saw steam fade and diesel gain

He watched the Yard grow to eight miles long a thousand switches sort the trains

That was my father Henry; they called him Henry Three

Became Yard Master over all those trains as far as eye could see.

Hell on wheels and all damnation

Three thousand men, buildin’ a nation

And now it’s me sortin’ all those trains

At a legendary switchyard named

Bailey Yard

Sweat and steel and makin’ babies. . . .

About the song

Bailey Yard, in North Platte, Nebraska is the largest railroad switchyard in the world, and has held that honor for more than 150 years. It was founded in 1866 to answer the need for a switchyard for the rail lines reaching westward from Omaha. . .eventually reaching San Francisco in 1869 when the “Golden Spike” joined tracks from east to west at Promontory, Utah, and the transcontinental railroad was born. The Union Pacific Railroad established Bailey Yard, and owns and operates it today, with a staff of more than 2,500, many of them third or fourth generation railroad men and women.

The story of Bailey Yard is the story of the opening up the American West, made possible in significant measure by the availability of the railroad to take immigrants into unsettled territory, and move agricultural products back east. Many of those settlers were from Germany and Ireland landing on American shores in the second half of the 19th century, a sturdy, hard-working community searching for. . .and often finding. . .the American dream.

This song is about these immigrants, these men and women, their children, grand-children and great grandchildren. Inspired by my research on the railroads while visiting Lincoln, Nebraska in 2018, it imagines a German/Irish couple and their descendants from the founding of Bailey Yard to the present day; now a switchyard eight miles long that handles 14,000 train cars every 24 hours in a network of 1,500 switches and turnouts.

Credits

Music and Lyrics by Robbin Ahrold. Instrumental track by Brian Simms (keyboards) and Marco Delmar (guitars, bass, percussion). Vocals by Robbin Ahrold. Recorded at Recording Arts Studios, Arlington, Virginia, February 2020.

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