Travel: Kenefick Park

Kenefick Park is home to the greatest locomotives to power the Union Pacific Railroad, and it’s right beside the Lauritzen Gardens and the Marjorie K Daugherty Conservatory. These trains are massive, let’s climb the stairs and check these beasts out.

We almost didn’t visit the park, the stairs (there’s a lot of them) looked daunting after a long morning in the sun and I’ll admit, we were hungry. Knowing we probably wouldn’t be visiting Omaha again, we hustled up the stairs and were pleasantly surprised. I love reading the placards and learning new things.

Okay, time for photos!

Kenefick Park

The black locomotive is known as Big Boy and he has a top speed of 70 miles per hour. Also, 40 of them were built in 1941, yes 40! The guy below is one of five additional Big Boys built in 1944 and his last run was in 1959. He’s massive and has been on display in Omaha since 1975.

This yellow beauty is an EMD DDA40X and can travel up to 90 miles per hour. The first one was built in 1969 and is just under 100 feet long. The United Pacific Rail had 47 of these beasts built between 1969 and 1971 and they were all retied by 1986. Out of the 47, 11 are on display, one is in storage, another pending donation, and the other 34 have all been scrapped. They had a good run!

Okay, time for some info on these two beauties and a few more photos.

First, who is John Cooper Kenefick? He’s a hardworking railroad worker (mechanical engineer) who worked his way up to become president of Union Pacific Rail.

All in all, worth the visit, don’t you think?!

Have you ever stumbled across an interesting site on your recent travels? I’ll admit, this wasn’t on the list, yet I’m so happy we checked it out.

Thanks so much for stopping by and happy travels!!