Has your favorite yard been torn up?

[Angela Pusztai-Pasternak]

TRAINS January 2005 issue features the railroad blueprint: Maybrook, N.Y. Has your favorite yard been torn up, too? What abandoned yard do you miss the most? [:(]

[gabe]

After remodeling my house my favorite yard was tore up pretty bad.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

For me, the Hammond yards of both EL and Monon are distant memories, both were torn up in the mid-70's. Elsdon Yard of the GTW, while not exactly a favorite, closed in the early 80's in favor of Clearing and has been torn up and built over.

[CShaveRR]

Yes.

The GTW yard in Grand Haven wasn't big, but it was home. The concrete coal dock remains. The track on which the equipment is displayed (PM 2-8-4 1223, PM box car, PM caboose, GTW caboose) was laid some time after the yard was torn up, and probably doesn't follow the alignment of any of the prior tracks.

My least favorite yard (C&NW 40th Street, in Chicago) is also gone. I could barely walk between the tracks there--and those were skinnier days for me!

[MP173]

CShave:

Where was the CNW 40th street yard? Obviously on or near 40th street, but was it near the Conrail Ashland Ave yard?

ed

[Anonymous]

The old BN yard at Wichita,KS. It was built in 1953 by Frisco and closed in 1998. Ten trks in the yard and only one isactually used (for car storage). Old yd office still standing but with boarded up or broken windows. Quite sad to see compared to just a few yrs ago when it was still an active place

[alcodave]

no its still in service,but not on the same scale as in its glory days.the former Erie railroad yards and diesel shop at Marion,Ohio. CSX stills operates out of the east end of the yard the west end is abandoned.Union tank car company (UTLX) reporting marks has a tank car repair operation in the old diesel shop and still operates some of the old yards for storage of cars.

[Anonymous]

I miss the old SEPTA yard in Paoli, Pa., on the Main Line. The last building in this once-busy commuter storage yard and shop was torn down just this year.

Last time I visited, the place was a superfund site and fenced in completely, with lots of hazard signs posted around the property. How the mighty have fallen....

Matt Van Hattem
TRAINS Magazine

[cpbloom]

Not yet, may Conway yard live forever!

[Nora]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cpbloom

Not yet, may Conway yard live forever!

I will second that!

[oskar]

QUOTE: Originally posted by alcodave

no its still in service,but not on the same scale as in its glory days.the former Erie railroad yards and diesel shop at Marion,Ohio. CSX stills operates out of the east end of the yard the west end is abandoned.Union tank car company (UTLX) reporting marks has a tank car repair operation in the old diesel shop and still operates some of the old yards for storage of cars.

they have a Diesel shop is it where they park the units are further down the yard also it's a good place to go




kevin

[slotracer]

Erie/Salamanca.....EL Bison Buffalo........LV Sayre.....Erie/Susquahanna, DL&W / Groveland.......Some that come quickly to mind......

[mudchicken]

PRR Undercliff Yard - Cincinnati (near Lunken Field)

[CShaveRR]

CNW's 40th Street Yard wasn't near 40th Street (on the south side), but rather near Crawford Avenue/Pulaski Road (4000 West). It was was in an area surrounded by the CNW west line on the south, Pulaski on the east, Chicago Avenue on the north, and the BRC on the west. This area was once the home of CNW's main shops. One building, numbered M-19A, still services UP units as well as the Metra locomotives used on all three UP commuter routes.

[louisnash]

Decoursey Yards in Latonia Ky. Kenton County. The largest of the L&N system.

Brian (KY)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by sammythebull

The old BN yard at Wichita,KS. It was built in 1953 by Frisco and closed in 1998. Ten trks in the yard and only one isactually used (for car storage). Old yd office still standing but with boarded up or broken windows. Quite sad to see compared to just a few yrs ago when it was still an active place

HMMMMMM..... Do you live in wichita? I live just outside of wichita by the old frisco tracks and they aare being torn out through andover now!

[JoeKoh]

The small coach yard behind the jr high in Defiance. never really had too many cars in it at any one time but they liked to park MOW equipment there when it was in town.still a great place to take pictures.
stay safe
Joe

[jeaton]

Markham Yard on the Illinois Central in south suburban Chicago. I believe it is still a major yard for the Canadian National operation, but it has been substantially altered with the decline of "loose car" railroading.

The +/- four mile long yard had a classic hump setup for both northbound and southbound traffic. That is to say there was a receiving yard, hump, classification tracks and pull down tracks for outbound train makeup in each direction. I don't recall when it was built, but that story would be found in books written about the IC.

Jay

[cabguy]

The NAR's Dunvegan Yard in Edmonton was always my favroute. I once rode runaway loaded tank cars all the way to the Government Elevator. An interesting place to work.

[dmitzel]

Mobridge, South Dakota on the former Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension mainline, now BNSF as far west as Terry, Montana. All that's left of this former division point is a couple of storage tracks along the main. Also, Marmarth, North Dakota is gone too.

Oh well, at least (BNSF) trains still roll through town - much more than can be said for the remainder of the Milwaukee west of Terry. I imagine there's not much left in Othello, Washington anymore. I do recall that Avery, Idaho only has the depot left where a highway now occupies the old ROW, and Harlo (Harlowton, Mont.) is just a grassy field.

As another know RR author has said, "Dust in the wind..."

[MP57313]

Old SP facilities in the LA area...Cornfield/Bullring (walking distance from LAUPT/LAUS); ...a few miles up was Taylor Yard (Metrolink and UP engine facilities remain, plus a tower an an old cantilever signal frame)

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by slotracer

Erie/Salamanca.....EL Bison Buffalo........LV Sayre.....Erie/Susquahanna, DL&W / Groveland.......Some that come quickly to mind......

LV Sayre, EL Port Jervis, LV Manchester, PRR Corning, EL Elmira...

LC

[Anonymous]

RDG Rutherford

[Anonymous]

Pittsfield. At least that's what I'm told it was called. Was actually just a passing track betweeen Hillsboro Road and Woodlawn drive in Nashville, Tenn. The Tennessee Central Ry. stashed cars there regularly in 1955-56. I walked or cycled over to watch TC's RS-3s and an occasional Baldwin trundle by and stop to switch. One morning a red and yellow Alco FA went by westbound with a few red coaches. I miss the yard, the innocence (being able to go "anywhere" without worry) and the surprise that red train created. Gone since the late 1960s.

[Anonymous]

What about the PR's Pitcairn Yard (essentially replaced by Conway 40+ years ago?) some 10 miles east of downtown Pittsburgh & now used mostly for intermodal loading & unloading?

[Anonymous]

I'll agree with MP57313...the old SP yards in the LA area were my favorite, too...I first started visiting Taylor back in the early 1960's as a kid with a brand new driver's license, eventually found Cornfield/Bullring, Midway, then I continued down Alameda to find PE's 8th St. and Butte St. yards and their squads of EMD SW1's...except for a few tracks here and there, everything's gone...great memories, though...

[ozzy01]

While not my favorite,the CSX,ex L&N yard at Ravenna,Ky. It's down to the main,4 yard tracks and a truncated siding used for storage,m.o.w. and a rip track. It's used now as a crew change point only. Still plenty of coal trains,though.

[jabrown1971]

You have all mentioned the rather large yards that dominate the landscape-I belive Potomac Yard has also fallen by the wayside. Just south of DC it was where north met south. HOWEVER-small yards are just as neat, if not more so. The old ITC LeClaire Yard in Edwardsville, Il. I wish I could have seen the good old days with electrics steam and diesel all there. The old water tower stands on the old StL T & E Line to Troy Jct., but except for that it is all gone, even the few tracks from when I was a kid have loong disappeared. Of course the NS and UP pulled out their tracks a few years back. Of course most of the roads around St Louis use either A & S Gateway or TRRA Madison Yard. NS Luther Yard is still impressive and busy and the UP is still in Dupo.

[Anonymous]

Grand Trunk Western's Stevenson St. yard on the west side of downtown Flint, MI was an interesting little yard that served Chevrolet Flint Manufacturing (later Delphi Flint West). Wedged into a curve on the old main line down "in the hole" by the Flint River, I remember it full of hi-cube boxcars, switched by SW-1200's (in later years GP-38's). The engines struggled to drag the cars out of the valley, with the skyline of Flint in the background. Alas, it's all gone now. The last train left in Sept. 2000, and everything has been torn up. Delphi Flint West is completely gone now.

[Anonymous]

i would say for me, it was sad to see the yard in Eugene, Oregon go. While there is still some interchanging with the Central Oregon and Pacific, most of the tracks have been taken out, and you only see a few trains left there. It is very sad.
Brad