How did the former-ACL Acca Yard in Richmond, VA get its name? I was hoping someone would know. Many thanks.
About 100 years ago there was a horse farm in the area where Acca Yard is now, called the Acca Stock Farm. The name Acca comes from the well-to-do owners favorite horse, an Arabian named “Acca”. Acca was also the name of a fabric made in Syria woven of silk and gold. As the railyard was hard-by the horse farm the name migrated over to the yard and stuck.
There’s a website, www.csxaccayard.com that tells the story. Check it out!
The names of major yards can be fascinating. Clearing Yard was intended by A. B. Stickney to be a great clearinghouse of cars for Chicago railroads. Proviso Yard is mostly located in Proviso Township, although IHB’s Blue Island Yard is only barely in Blue Island, almost all of it is in Riverdale.
I’ve been curious how two major rail yards in northern New Jersey, Oak Island Yard and Croxton Yard got their names. There’s no Oak Island in the Hackensack Meadows that I’m aware of, and no town named Croxton in the same general area.
Many locations take their name from nearby streets, roads, trails, creeks, rivers etc.
One territory I worked had a point named ‘Turnpike Bridge’, which was where the states turnpike crossed over the railroad. The point was used in formulating train orders.
Firelock - Thanks for the link. I will check it out. I would like to know the origins of the Oak Island and Croxton names too.
Croxton Yard is named after a person, not a place. (IIRC Philip Croxton).
It is possible that there was an Oak Island in the area at one time, although if would probably have shared the general fate of Shooter’s Island long before the LV built the yard. (Is there an LV fan who knows whether Oak Island Junction was built with the yard, or was ‘there’ previously for the yard to be named after?) There is an Oak Island further south along the Jersey Coast, which is now a bird sanctuary; I only mention this because the climate and topography in its area is not that different from what might be found in the Newark Bay region… in the 1600s…
Thanks for the info, Overmod! I was wondering if Croxton was a person, i.e. Joe Croxton, Jake Croxton, or Tom Dick or Harry Croxton.
The biggest mystery of all is why the Hacensack Meadows are called what they are. Meadowlands my foot, it’s a SWAMP!
A common feature we point out to our riders here in the Adirondacks is the “beaver meadow.” The beavers flood an area resulting in all the big trees dying off, leaving a large open area that certainly resembles a meadow.
Very often, however, it’s a pretty soggy meadow. Otherwise known as a swamp.
Farmers would often go in when the water was lowest (ie,the swamp was dry) and cut the grass off it as hay.
I’d opine that such is the case there.
One more point to make. While ACL freights used Acca Yard, it was the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac that actually owned and operated it.
SAL freights also went into Acca, because RFP was both RR’s connection to PRR and B&O.
The cited link appears to be incorrect. Try this: http://www.csxaccayard.nlms.info/