I tranport railroad crew throughout the Minneosta area, and somethings need to work in the Northtown Yard, which is a big yard.
Dose anyone know where one could get a layout of the Northtown Yard tracks, a map.
I know where the 99 is and the mineline tracks, South runners, North Runner, the T yard, but would be nice if there were a map of the tracks, like the D tracks, R tracks, C tracks and so on.
Northtown Crew hauler Vic
I do happen to have an actual copy of the track layout of the Northtown Yard from the executives of BN who were kind enough to provide me with them when I worked in Seattle as a parking attendant. They however informed me that at the time they printed off the copies, that the roundhouse had been replaced and a diesel house had replaced it. I use to reside in the Moundsview area and my grandparents lived on Main St. and 41st just atop the bluff over looking the Northtown Yard (before the 43rd St. bridge was built). I planned on building my HO scale layout to replicate the NT Yard, but would really love to find any info on the roundhouse (size, construction). Maybe we could help each other? Feel free to reply. Thank you George
If you are a crew hauler, you should be able to obtain one by askinng them for one, since it is buisness purposes.
Does anyone even know how to get to Northtown yard? Was there this last weekend and could not find it. If anyone could give me directions and a good location to watch trains in a safe public place would be much appreciated.
Kraig
I would suggest the sidewalk on the 44th Ave NE (?) overpass, right around the hump. If I knew Minneapolis better, I could be specific, but their are roads and overpasses all around the yard. University Ave will get you to the south end.
try 35th Ave, kinda by SHoreham, which is by Central Ave . THat should help you out.
Alec
There are 3 road bridges that go over different parts of the yard. Northtown is between University Ave and Main St NE. The nothern end is just south of 694, the southern end is by St Anthony Parkway.
The best bridge for viewing is 44th Ave which is just north of the hump. You can just see the approach to the bridge in this picture, to the right of the tower.
The other two bridges are are south of 44th. One at 37th Ave, and the other at St Anthony Parkway.
The north end is arrivals, south end is departures, and the east side is engine service. The mains and tower are on the west side.
The 44 Avenue bridge is great to watch the hump operation. We spent about an hour 2 weeks ago watching cars pushed up the hump and then switched to different tracks. I have a “coffee table” book about railyards that has a schematic of the Northtown yard but the individual tracks are not labeled.