I was looking through the rail pictures I’ve been collecting over the years. Two are the Bensenville Yard in Franklin Park and the Barstow Classification Yard. Has an yone here seen these two yards? They look impressive in those pictures. What other large rail yards are there?
Belt Railway of Chicago has a huge classification yard (Clearing) in Bedford Park, Il, just south of Midway Airport.
Proviso Yard (UP) is in the western suburb of Northlake, Melrose Park, Bellwood (take your pick). Carl of our forum was an employee there for years.
Those are the two big hump yards in Chicago. Many many more flat yards in the area.
Ed
Don’t know where you live or practice, Doc, but you seriously need to visit the Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, Nebraska. Once you’ve seen UP’s yard there, those other yards won’t look like much.
Bensenville is a hump yard as well. I don’t know from how long ago your photographs were taken, but Bensenville has changed considerably from its old MILW days. And, if the reports are true, it will change again in the next few years,
Other active hump yards in the Chicago area are the IHB’s Blue Island yard (actually in Riverdale, Illinois), and CN’s Kirk Yard (on the northern edge of Gary, Indiana).
Probably longer ago than I think, but within the past few years, Trains’ Map of the Month dealt with hump yards remaining across the country. That would give you a start for finding big yards…there are some good-sized flat-switching yards besides.
If you get a city location for these yards, Google it and look around. You’ll see how complicated–and big!–these places really are.
(As Ed says, yes, I have a bit of experience with a big one. If I were to go back now, I might feel lost.)
Pretty sure Barr Yard (also in Riverdale, parallel north of IHB Blue Island) has a hump also. Bensenville’s hump will be shut (if it hasn’t already) as part of the CP operational changes. Cicero Yard in Chicago also used to have a hump, but was shut down in the 90s (I believe) when the yard went 100% intermodal.
Other notable midwestern hump yards:
-
Galesburg (IL) - BNSF
-
St Paul (MN, formerly Pig’s Eye) - CP, this one increases in importance as CP shuts down many humps in Chicago, Toronto, Winnepeg and Calgary.
-
Northtown (NE suburban Minneapolis) - BNSF
-
Elkhart (IN, formerly Robert R. Young) - NS
-
Bellevue (OH) - NS
-
Willard (OH) - CSX
-
Gateway (IL, east of St Louis) - Alton & Southern/TRRA - I think this yard has an operational hump but I’m not sure.
Anyone know if Argentine (BNSF) and Neff (UP) in KC still have an operating hump?
I’d recommend using Google Earth to view several of these yards and compare them for size.
And just for fun…
Enter these coordinates:
41° 8’37.57"N, 100°49’37.93"W
and rotate the heading to 90 degrees (grab the “N” in the upper right corner and drag it counterclockwise so it is on the left of the compass rose). and zoom in to about 300 Meters altitude.
If you change the date of the data you can see the farmer has done other tributes in a similar manner
Norfolk Southerns Enola Yard accross the river from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is a large yard. NS rebuilt it and restored both humps with both the north and south lead tracks redesigned to allow easier acces to either of the humps. Very busy yard since both the main east west line from Philadelphia to Chicago is just north of the yard and the line from Hagerstown, Md to Buffalo runs by the yard.
Barr Yard is a good-sized facility, but it does not have, and never did have, a hump.
Just a few . . .
CSX’s Selkirk Yard just (formerly New York Central )about 6 miles southwest of Albany, NY, at: N 42 33’ 10" W 73 49’ 57"
NS is expanding its Bellvue, Ohio yard (ex-Nickel Plate) about 2 miles northeast of town, at: N 41 17’ 31" W 82 47’ 43"
See: http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Media/News%20Releases/2012/ns_bellevue.html
NS’ Inman Yard about 5 miles northwest of Atlanta, GA, at: N 33 48’ 0" W 84 27’ 1"
NS’ Conway Yard (formerly Pennsylvania RR) about 20 miles northwest of Pittsburgh, PA, at: N 40 39’ 38" W 80 14’ 20"
NS’ Enola Yard (also formerly Pennsylvania RR) about 3 miles northwest of Harrisburg, PA, at: N 40 17’ 24" W 76 55’ 40"
There are many others . . . [swg]
- Paul North.
Re: BaltACD’s post above - Some people have waayy too much free time on their hands ! [swg]
To find a bunch of big and important yards - at least as the Class 1 railroads define them - go to the “Railroad Performance Measures” website at: http://www.railroadpm.org/ Pick a railroad and click on its name, then scroll down the resulting displayed webpage to “Terminal Dwell (Hours)” Under that heading you’ll find a listing of the major yards for that railroad. For Union Pacific, there are 13 listed, including 2 at Houston and 2 at North Platte: http://www.railroadpm.org/home/RPM/Performance%20Reports/UP.aspx I presume the results would be similar for the 6 other Class 1’s whose data is compiled there.
- Paul North.
In regards to an above post to where I live, it is in Cranbrook, B.C. To get down to the states requires a passport now. Too much bureaucracy for me. And with the travelling I did in my younger years it burnt me out, I really stay close to home now.
Don’t know, but I believe NS’s yard in Macon, GA (former Central of Georgia) is a hump yard. And don’t forget CSX’s Rice Yard (former Atlantic Coast Line) in Waycross, GA. I’m pretty sure neither is on the list of the busiest in the country, but both are important for their service area.
Only one hump in Enola.
Macon is on NS’s list at the “Railroad Performance Measures” website - see: http://www.railroadpm.org/home/RPM/Performance%20Reports/NS.aspx
NS also includes “Brosnan Yard” on its list of “Major Rail Classification Yards” at: http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/Media/Corporate%20Profile/#5
Waycross is also on CSX’s list at the “Railroad Performance Measures” website - see: http://www.railroadpm.org/home/RPM/Performance%20Reports/CSX.aspx
- Paul North.
Rice yard waycross,ga. is the largest yard in the south… of 12 states . hump is 64 tracks and GE has a major repair shop. 80 to 100 trains roll in and out daily.
I have been to most of the yards west of the Mississippi. Barstow is very large, and exceptionally busy, as it sits on the Transcon junction. Hinkle, near Hermiston OR (approximately 180 miles East of Portland) is also a large yard with a hump. All rail traffic from the Northwest filters through. I have seen over 100 locomotives there at a time. There is a rebuild shop, fueling stations, car shops. Alliance Nebraska has a nice yard, mostly coal trains though. The busiest of them all is North Platte. Massive east and west-bound yards, huge locomotive repair facility, and the Golden Spike Tower. It has to be seen to really be appreciated. I have spent upwards of 6 hours there, and could have stayed all day, such was the traffic going through the yard.
I agree with Carl, once you’ve seen Bailey, all other yards pale in comparison. I was lucky enough to ride on the #844 steam special in Nov. '10. She took us to Bailey Yards, then a diesel was hooked up to take us over the “sheep jump” and head us back to Omaha.
That yards was immense, and to ride through it was a once in lifetime experience. They also have a huge automated hump yards and we could watch the cars rolling and being separated to different tracks.
The Frisco Lindenwood Yards where Dad worked seemed tiny after seeing Bailey. And it is in comparison. But BNSF is still using it, lots of intermodal traffic, so I can still see trains rolling out of there like I did when Dad was still alive and so was Frisco.
Thanks for setting me straight Carl. It’s easy to mix up Barr and Blue Island when crossing both in succession from the I-57 viaduct…
As far as Chicago yards go, I lived within walking distance of the west end of Proviso but am also familiar with Bensenville and Clearing. Out of those 3 by my estimation Clearing is the largest followed by Proviso then Bensenville. I know there are many other yards Barr, Blue Island, Corwith, Markham, Kirk and others that are still fairly large but I don’t know exactly where they fit in to the list.
The rail yards in Cranbrook is about 2 to 3 miles long and less than a quarter mile wide. Most of the train traffic here goes right through to Hinckle and Portland, Oregon.