You kind-of have to use your imagination, though, since they found that building the observation tower in the shape of an actual spike was too difficult and expensive. It's really more like the top half of a spike...
But the views from the top are awesome! That's the maintenance building down there. There were 45 engines in view while we were there, but the volunteer at the top told us that there were many more inside, and they rotate out regularly as repairs are made.
And those are the sorting lines from the west 'hump'. Basically a 'hump' is a series of elevated lines that cars can be pushed to so that gravity does some of the work. There they connect and re-connect to make the long trains that cross the US. There were thousands down there!
Inside, there were several really cool info boards about various uses of the trains early on. The kids and I were fascinated by the stories of the orphan trains, and how they brought city kids out to farm families.
There was also a timeline of the Union Pacific and the transcontinental railway. This was particularly cool since just a couple days ago we had been at the actual golden spike location in Utah.
An enterprise of the Union Pacific - a corn maze they have next door. The kids wanted to go, but I had to refuse, as we had many, many miles yet to go this day...
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