TRAINS January 2005 issue features the railroad blueprint: Maybrook, N.Y. Has your favorite yard been torn up, too? What abandoned yard do you miss the most? [:(]
After remodeling my house my favorite yard was tore up pretty bad.
For me, the Hammond yards of both EL and Monon are distant memories, both were torn up in the mid-70’s. Elsdon Yard of the GTW, while not exactly a favorite, closed in the early 80’s in favor of Clearing and has been torn up and built over.
Yes.
The GTW yard in Grand Haven wasn’t big, but it was home. The concrete coal dock remains. The track on which the equipment is displayed (PM 2-8-4 1223, PM box car, PM caboose, GTW caboose) was laid some time after the yard was torn up, and probably doesn’t follow the alignment of any of the prior tracks.
My least favorite yard (C&NW 40th Street, in Chicago) is also gone. I could barely walk between the tracks there–and those were skinnier days for me!
CShave:
Where was the CNW 40th street yard? Obviously on or near 40th street, but was it near the Conrail Ashland Ave yard?
ed
The old BN yard at Wichita,KS. It was built in 1953 by Frisco and closed in 1998. Ten trks in the yard and only one isactually used (for car storage). Old yd office still standing but with boarded up or broken windows. Quite sad to see compared to just a few yrs ago when it was still an active place
no its still in service,but not on the same scale as in its glory days.the former Erie railroad yards and diesel shop at Marion,Ohio. CSX stills operates out of the east end of the yard the west end is abandoned.Union tank car company (UTLX) reporting marks has a tank car repair operation in the old diesel shop and still operates some of the old yards for storage of cars.
I miss the old SEPTA yard in Paoli, Pa., on the Main Line. The last building in this once-busy commuter storage yard and shop was torn down just this year.
Last time I visited, the place was a superfund site and fenced in completely, with lots of hazard signs posted around the property. How the mighty have fallen…
Matt Van Hattem
TRAINS Magazine
Not yet, may Conway yard live forever!
I will second that!
they have a Diesel shop is it where they park the units are further down the yard also it’s a good place to go
kevin
Erie/Salamanca…EL Bison Buffalo…LV Sayre…Erie/Susquahanna, DL&W / Groveland…Some that come quickly to mind…
PRR Undercliff Yard - Cincinnati (near Lunken Field)
CNW’s 40th Street Yard wasn’t near 40th Street (on the south side), but rather near Crawford Avenue/Pulaski Road (4000 West). It was was in an area surrounded by the CNW west line on the south, Pulaski on the east, Chicago Avenue on the north, and the BRC on the west. This area was once the home of CNW’s main shops. One building, numbered M-19A, still services UP units as well as the Metra locomotives used on all three UP commuter routes.
Decoursey Yards in Latonia Ky. Kenton County. The largest of the L&N system.
Brian (KY)
HMMMMMM… Do you live in wichita? I live just outside of wichita by the old frisco tracks and they aare being torn out through andover now!
The small coach yard behind the jr high in Defiance. never really had too many cars in it at any one time but they liked to park MOW equipment there when it was in town.still a great place to take pictures.
stay safe
Joe
Markham Yard on the Illinois Central in south suburban Chicago. I believe it is still a major yard for the Canadian National operation, but it has been substantially altered with the decline of “loose car” railroading.
The +/- four mile long yard had a classic hump setup for both northbound and southbound traffic. That is to say there was a receiving yard, hump, classification tracks and pull down tracks for outbound train makeup in each direction. I don’t recall when it was built, but that story would be found in books written about the IC.
Jay
The NAR’s Dunvegan Yard in Edmonton was always my favroute. I once rode runaway loaded tank cars all the way to the Government Elevator. An interesting place to work.
Mobridge, South Dakota on the former Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension mainline, now BNSF as far west as Terry, Montana. All that’s left of this former division point is a couple of storage tracks along the main. Also, Marmarth, North Dakota is gone too.
Oh well, at least (BNSF) trains still roll through town - much more than can be said for the remainder of the Milwaukee west of Terry. I imagine there’s not much left in Othello, Washington anymore. I do recall that Avery, Idaho only has the depot left where a highway now occupies the old ROW, and Harlo (Harlowton, Mont.) is just a grassy field.
As another know RR author has said, “Dust in the wind…”