I used to enjoy a glossary of railroad terms at http://www.icrr.net/terms.htm, but this link seems to have disappeared.
The glossaries that I have found either are not as comprehensive as the one above, or seem to focus on US vs UK / overseas language differences.
Can someone help me find what I am looking for, or perhaps help track down the above "missing" web site?
An example of a term that the "icrr.net" list had was "gauntlet".
My current "word search" concerns various types of RR "yards". A friend (former military but not a railfan) used the term marshalling yard for the facility in his "hogger" gr-grandfather's home town, and I pointed out that "marshalling" is not used in US railroad terminology. I was wondering what various "yard types" might be called. I can only think of "classification yard" (which I think of as a relatively large facility) and perhaps "local yard".
Thank you,
Ray Quisenberry
I rescued that content from the Internet Archive, you can find it at http://jcbd.com/rrterms.html ...hope that helps.
Ray,
Yard nomenclature is highly variable and idiosyncratic.
You can talk about them in terms of how they work, flat yard and hump yard, being examples, or the function or traffic they support like coach yard (for passenger equipment) or "house yard" supporting a big city freight house.
They often have names. Great Northern's Interbay in Seattle for example lay between to bays, hence the name. Interbay was later renamed Balmer Yard to honor a retired official. Stacy Street was the NP's do everything carload freight yard in Seattle. Today the site is SIG, or Seattle Intermodal Gateway. I believe SIG handles intermodal containers only. South Seattle was and is the NP/BN/BNSF domestic trailer and container yard a few miles south of downtown Seattle.
In my hometown of Wenatchee there were two yards, one that I call uptown, and Appleyard newer and larger built in 1922. To railroaders the uptown yard was really the west yard and the east yard. This because the main track and the W-O main ran through the middle. The west yard was/is on the geographic, not railroad, west side of the main tracks and the east yard was/is on the east side of the mains. If you were going to switch out a track it was important to know which yard the track was in.
This is just a small sample.
Mac McCulloch
Yard names are (and were) often functional - "Boat Yard" in Detroit served ferries (Wabash, I believe).
A nearby military base has a "coal yard," once used to stage hoppers for unloading. The coal was used chiefly to heat buildings. Another yard there is currently called the marshalling yard, and butts up to a loading ramp.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
flat yard, hump yard, COFC/TOFC Yard (Ramp), Holding Yard, Storage Yard, Storage In Transit (SIT Yard), Coach Yard, Scrap Yard, Intermediate Yard, Sorting Yard, Interchange Yard, Transfer............
Aren't we forgetting the old standby's - Old Yard & New Yard.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
At La Junta Santa Fe had a 'Klondike Yard' adjacent to the Ice Plant where refrigerated cars were refilled with ice before continuing their journey east with fresh produce.
Something not yet mentioned that might be of interest is when a railroad renames a "yard" something else, like a "facility", that doesn't have that ol' connotation of a bunch of rusty tracks with boxcars banging into each other. For example, at BNSF's Tennessee Yard here, the part with the cranes and underframes is the "Memphis Intermodal Facility", and CNIC has an "Intermodal Gateway".
It might be interesting to note which of these are indeed new facilities worthy of a differentiated name, and which shade over into being rebranded 'yards' made attractive by the marketing department...
diningcar At La Junta Santa Fe had a 'Klondike Yard' adjacent to the Ice Plant where refrigerated cars were refilled with ice before continuing their journey east with fresh produce.
Add to the list: cleaning yard and stockyard (which both were at La Junta at the east end)
BaltACD Aren't we forgetting the old standby's - Old Yard & New Yard.
Inbound yard, departure yard, class yard, relay yard, west yard, east yard, "1" yard, "2" yard, etc..
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Not so much on yard variants, but an interesting listing of railway terms:
http://www.bnsf.com/customers/pdf/glossary.pdf
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