Just wondering what is the size of the railyard in the town that you live in?
I live in Nelson, B.C. It is nothing like it used to be up to 70’s and 80’s Most of the rail yard has been torn up and what is left is primarily used as storage. Part of it has been replaced by a lumber transload center built after the Kaslo - Slocan run was abandoned in 1993. Burlington Northern pulled out of Nelson around 1989 but they were only coming to Nelson maybe twice a week. West of Castlegar was abandoned in 1991.
But the biggest blow was in the late 60’s - early 70’s, I believe, when frieghts out of Cranbrook were sent up to the Canadian Pacific mainline at Golden. Too bad they didn’t have the foresight to see what the congestion these days is on the Canadian Pacific mainline. I was thinking that if the line was still down and upgraded between Nelson and Spences Bridge, at the top part of the Fraser Canyon, coal trains out of Sparwood/Elk Valley could have come though here.
Both the Erie Lackawanna and Monon yards in Hammond have been taken up completely, the EL main is long gone and the Monon main at that point is only an industrial lead. South Shore’s Burnham yard still has most of its track, but the catenary over the yard tracks has been removed and the interchange traffic through that yard has all but vanished.
I live in elkhart IN , we have the largest yard in the NS system we have a hump yard with 72 tracks and 15 receiving tracks along with 13 departure tracks along with a local yard and few more
csx tore up the small railroad yard behind the jr high school here after the conrail takeover.(it was only a few tracks anyway).Hire road yard has 6 or 7 tracks varying in length.The maumee & western has about 3 usuable tracks in their yard. alot of work needs to be done there.
…Muncie has what I hear called {on my hand held scanner}, the east and west yard. I haven’t visited either one very close but crossing streets one can see the west yard, or parts of it.
I believe it’s just avg. size for our medium size city and perhaps it’s just a fraction of the size it was back in the more industrial age around here. I do hear action especially while listening in early evening for incoming thru trains while watching from McDonald’s parking lot which is right at the ROW of the NS Frankfort line.
I hear NS local’s talking to New Castle DP about some movements around the Muncie area. Overall, I’m sure it’s no where the size it was 50 years ago.
Since the CR breakup, NS has begun to rebuild and expand it’s Oak Street Yard in Mansfield, OH. It’s about 12 tracks, and they just built a new overpass at one end of the yard to eliminate a grade-crossing that caused traffic jams. Also had an oil company put in a new tank farm on the West side of the yard. However, I’m not sure why NS is rebuilding their yard here, being as though it’s at the end of a tangent of track. They interchange with CSX and CF&E a few miles west of town in Crestline, but this is pretty much the end of the line for them here in North Central Ohio. It doesn’t hold the same value it did under Conrail.
CSX sold the Potomac Yard right before I moved here to the city for development. It is now stores and a movie theatre, and they are getting ready to start on more housing too. They sure do wish they had it back from what I have read. They have been trying to find a new place to put a yard south of the Potomac between DC and Richmond. I have to settle for the yard off Benning Road (Anacostia Yard). They mainly use it for storing loaded coal hoppers, which are cut into manageable strings and then taken to the various power plants around here, and collecting the empties. It is interesting because one day the yard will be full of empties, the next it will be empty, and the next full of loaded cars. The one track from the yard leads up to the B&O Old Main line where it wyes to either Baltimore or off to Western Maryland. At the same end the original yard hooks into the NEC. South goes through DC to Virginia and down towards Richmond.
The yard here in Oshvegas is mainly for storage but occasionally there’ll be some switching there. IIRC it’s 5 tracks on the east side of the main and one or two on the west side of the main. I’d call this a small yard.
The CN yard at Neenah is considerably larger. Trains get sorted there and some cars get stored there. I’d call this a small-medium yard.
Fond du Lac has a much, much bigger yard. There’s classification, storage, an engine terminal, more classification, and ready tracks for trains waiting for power. I’d call this a medium yard.
I live in Dallas, TX, and we have quite a few yards. None of them are really big. Go figure, huh, a city with 2-3 million+ people and no really large yards.
I will try to go largest to smallest, and all yards are in the city of Dallas, actual.
UP Miller Yard. About 15+ tracks, about one mile long.
UP Browder Yard. About 10 tracks wide, about a mile long.
DGNO Mockingbird Yard. About 12 tracks wide, less than a mile long.
KCS Dallas Yard/IMF. About 12 tracks, maybe less, less than a mile long.
UP CJ Yard. 10 tracks wide, half a mile long.
DGNO Cadiz Yard. Maybe 4 or 5 tracks, about a half a mile long.
Now the suburbs of Dallas (Carrollton, Irving, Mesquite, Wilmer, Arlington, Wylie, etc) also have yards, but they are also rather small and Dallas, TX is technically my hometown. Ft Worth side of things is where all the big yards are, but I’ll save those for someone actually from Ft Worth.
I live in Dallas also. But, as far as some of the other railroad yards around close to dallas goes here they are.
BNSF Irving Yard looks like about 4 or 5 tracks acording to the aerial photo.
There is another small part to the BNSF Irving located to the North but I believe it is still in Irving. Looks to be about 4 tracks, not including the main in the middle.
Trintiy Railway Express also has there yard for the commuter trains in Irving
By the looks of it going by on the TRE it looks to be about 7 or 8 tracks wide. This could be wrong. I am not to sure but It looks about like it.
DGNO Carrollton Yard is only 7 tracks wide. Track 7 is actually used for Engine servicing and anything mechanical.
If remebering correctly only tracks 1, 2, 3 are the only tracks that go thru. The others are only accessible from the west end. There is one track on the North side closest to the BNSF Madil Sub Main that is used to store and switch tracks. With this track included then there are 8 tracks.
CP’s mitchell yard here in miwaukee is pretty big it has i do beleave it has 20 or more tracks and it starts at just east of 16th st and it goes to just west of 35th st it always has a great number of cars coming and going.
We had 3 yards. Down Town Yard (Milwaukee Roads) and South Yard (CNWs), and West Yard(CNWs). When WC got Lakes States Division They acquired the Down Town yard. But CNW still had the South Yard and West Yard. But by 1995 or 96 CNW/UP sold the Wausau Trackage/Shanowo Sub to WC. So WC moved it’s yard to the better South Yard. And used the West Yard for 3M and the industerial park. Both yards Which is 4-6 tracks. WC Ripped up the Down Town Yard but kept the 2 tracks going through it. But When CN acquired WC they only kept the main. There is a remnant of the Down Town yard left. There’s Cross Buck From MILW Still says Five tracks!
in new london thiers only the old gbw & the cnw lines are their. they come by every tuesday night & saturday day & switches acf centerflows at curwood & the old gbw siding stores log cars & trucks load them up & the railroad takes them away when they are ready to go. once in a while on the old cnw siding they will store gondolas thier but i dont know the purpose of that. the gbw main ends by wolf river lumber which used to ship out lumber by rail but i havent seen a box car their in a year or so. the stevens point yard is quite big. id say anywhere from 20-25 tracks correct me if im wrong. green bay has the old cnw yard thats about 15 tracks i think. the old gbw yard is just car storage. the green bay milwaukee rd yard has been long gone since the soo bought them.
My hometown, Denison, Texas, once boasted of many yards. Kansas, Oklahoma & Gulf had a long, slender yard that it shared with tenant Texas & Pacific. The KO&G rearranged the makeup of trains arriving on both roads. Frisco had a very small yard used mostly for car staging; its main yard in the area was about nine miles south at Sherman. Southern Pacific had a short yard that necessitated pulling cuts of cars from several tracks to make up a train. All these yards were in or near downtown, and all are now gone. Katy had a four-yard twin-hump complex at Ray in the far northwest area of town. In later years, two of the yards were joined end-to-end to accommodate the ultra-long freights favored by william n. deramus, iii. Many of the tracks were removed, and this yard is mainly used for arrivals and departures and for assembly of trains from cars classified in the fourth yard. A third yard was removed to make room for a continuous welded rail plant. The fourth yard still remains to handle what little classification work is still done at Ray/Denison. Denison was a major terminal for all the roads except the Frisco, which had a crew-change point at Sherman. The Texas Electric Railway “yard” was a spur off the TERY/MKT interchange track, its freight traffic being minimal.
The only yard is for the short line in town. two of three tracks and a wye. Then there is the yard for the Tropicana plant in Bradenton just north of here.
small. four tracks wide but extemely busy with sometimes all four tracks loaded with coal trains waiting to get out on main line after walmart trains go by. these trains use pushers to get them out. this is in bulls gap, tenn.
There are several train yards near the area where I live. One is located in Waterbury, Connecticut and does not (as far as I know) get much use. Metro North has a station there and Pan Am (formerly Guilford Rail System) uses the yard every so often. Another yard is located in Plainville, CT which is also owned and used by Pan Am. They have an assortment of cars parked there with a locomotive. I don’t know how much use the yard gets. Then there is Hartford Yard in Hartford which is used by Connecticut Southern. Amtrak trains haul through the yard daily so catching a view from the train is always a possibility. Occasionally CSO leaves cars parked close to the north end of the Hartford train station’s platform as the yard is a short distance away. There are also a few yards located along the Northeast Corridor in Connecticut. CSX’s Cedar Hill Yard and Metro North’s maintanence facility are a couple. Amtrak also uses a few tracks within view of the New haven train station where they park and servive their equipment. The Naugatuck Railroad has a train yard where they store equipment for their tourist trains called Chase Yard and are constructing another yard in Thomaston where their locomotive shop is being constructed. The last yard I know of is located in Danbury is used by the Danbury Railroad Museum. It is a nice large yard with an operating turntable.