I am getting into model railroading and have borrowed a couple of mags and books from a friend that describe yard operations. In the process of learning how yards are suppose to work I came across a section on hump yards and was curious about which rail lines implemented them. I know of the enola yard and the one in (I think) north platte, neb. Did Santa Fe ever build one or consider building one? From the little I have read about them, it seems that most of the hump yards were built on the eastern half of the U.S. Any insight would be much appreciated. [:)]
By the way, I am intreagued (sp?) by steam engines and the pre-diesel era with the smaller cars and such. But we’ll save questions about that for later…
the PRR built the first gravity hump yard in a little railroad town of Youngwood PA…i dont remember the year…and i cant find the book that states it…but i think it was they late 1800s or the very early 1900s…and they took off from thier…
csx engineer
From freight Terminals and Trains by John A. Drorge 1925, reprinted by the NMRA 1998
“So far as can be learned, the first summit yard in this country was constructed by the Pennsylvania road in 1882 at Huffs Station, 2 miles south of Greenbush, VA. Before then, the idea had been applied in European yard design. Germany had a summit yard at Speldorf in 1876, and in 1888 France had two in service on the Paris, Lyons & Mediterranean Railway. There is a record of a gravity yard in Dresden in 1846; in St. Etienne, France in 1863; and one in 1873 in Edge Hill, near Liverpool, England.”
There were “mini-humps” also. The Northern Pacific yard in Missoula MT had one. It was flattened years ago. Now that I think about it, I TOO had a mini-hump. It was flattened years ago as well.
Thank you to all who have replied so far. Any more info on Santa Fe and their use of hump yards? [:D] (Can you all tell that my interest lies in Santa Fe? [:)]
[8D] the ATSF has a few in california i belive barstow and LA a lot of the ex CR yds are hump chicago has a lot of hump yds
the biggest in chicago is BRC’s yd clearing near midway airport
UP’s ex SSW SP & MP
all had hump yds MP had cenntennial yd in ft worth & jenks yd in N Little rock ark SP had a hump yd in Houston tx englewood yd
colton yd & downtown LA’s east yd were hump yds SSW had one hump yd in pine bluff ark the only hump yd on the cotten belt route
i hope this has helped some if not oh well[:D] welcome back[8D]
they forgot a few CR had more hump yds than that
Buffalo NY Chicago conrail yd was hump i think and BNSF yd in ST louis was a hump i think maybe not the hump yd in livonia La is a joke its only 4-5 ft high
When the Illinois Central was truly “The Mail Line of Mid-America” (as opposed to ICG or CN days) its main classification yard in Chicago was Markham Yard. This huge facility which included locomotive and freight car shops extended adjacent to the IC’s six track main for a length of about four miles from the suburban towns of Homewood through Hazlecrest to Harvey. Markham Yard at that time boasted not one but two humps which were busy 24/7. Main line trains arriving from the south were reclassified on one hump into cuts destined for interchange with the roads radiating from Chicago to the east, north and west. The other “south” hump classified cars into trains to be dispatched over the IC’s mains to St. Louis, New Orleans and other southern points. Sadly the humps were closed and Markham Yard greatly downsized sometime during the ICG era of retrenchment.
Well, while I’m not sure exactly who’s ‘hump’ it was to begin with, I do know that the current CSX Intermodal Yard in DeWitt NY, was once a ConRail ‘hump’ yard as my grandparents used to take me there when I was a kid back in the late 1970’s / early 80’s just to keep me occupied as I loved to go there and watch the action.
JP
There is a book called " North American Rail Yards", by Michael Rhodes,MBI publishing,St.Paul,MN. This book has all (almost) the yards of every railroad in the USa. it shows the yards in pictures,and drawings as well. Its a great book to read and is one heck of a reference guide for $35.00 .
ok…i found the book i was looking for when this tread first shows up…
in 1900…the PRR built the first true gravity hump classification yard in youngwood PA…the yard was on the South Western PA branch of the PRR system…
csx engineer
As mentioned elsewhere, Clearing is unique with its bi-directional hump. It is not uncommon for cuts to be pushed over the hump in both directions at the same time.
The hump at Clyde has been flattened and the yard now handles primarily intermodal service.