"switch" yard?

[NKP guy]

I'm putting together a map for our local historical society of the Erie yards in my city circa 1940-70 and want to know how railroaders refer to a yards area. One map I'm using has "switch yards" over the 35-track yard, but I don't think that's a common term; maybe redundant.

To what extent is "switch yards" correct (or not)?

Have any of you ever examined Sanborn Insurance maps of the railroad facilities in your town? I find them really interesting.

[pennytrains]

I've seen coach yards, transfer yards, sorting yards, hump yards staging yards, repair yards...all kinds of yards of just about any description you can think of.  I wonder if it was left up to the mapmakers to determine the nomenclature?

[Overmod]

"Switchyard" (one word) or "switching yard" are familiar terms from my youth (1960s, largely informed by Trains Magazine).

I believe 'switchyard' was also in use for electric power utility equipment, both near generating facilities and in distribution locations.

[York1]

I grew up in the 1950s, and I think that was a pretty common term back then.

[BaltACD]

There are as many 'yards' as there are descriptors for their puropse or their relation to history.

At B&O's Locust Point yard when I was ATM in the 1970's - You had - New Yard, Old Yard, Hopper Yard, Brunsiwck Yard, Riverside Yard, the Fruit Pier - additionally there were Interchange Tracks with the Western Maryland Railway's yard known as Port Covinvton.  I was never responsible for Port Covington, with that being said in their hey day WM had a Coal Pier, Grain Pier and traditional docks for traditional ocean shipping in the days before containers; I feel certain that WM employees had a number of names for the various areas within the overall yard.