why big cities don't want railroad yards inside their city limits . after all cities grew with railroads.
Cities prefer their real estate is used for housing (property taxes) or commercial/industrial (taxes and jobs). Railroad yards produce relatively few jobs for the amount of real estate, and may lower adjacent property values. RR yards tend to be located on less valuable land outside city cores as the RRs themselves don't want to pay the high taxes.
So the RR puts a big yard way outside of the city limits and hires a few people to work there. Many employees like to live close to where they work, so some of the employees build houses near the rail-yard. They have families, so there are now people in the area that might like to eat out and so a diner opens between the housing area and the rail-yard. Then those same families need other services (fuel, groceries, home improvement items, clothing, etc.) and so stores and gas stations and other commercial businesses open up in the area, and all those commercial enterprizes also need employees who like to live close to where they work so more housing is built and more commercial businesses are built to serve all those additional people.
And families grow!... So a school now needs to be built for the children.
There are also public services that need to be governed, so a few people petition the state to form a town and elect a town council. The Sheriff says he cannot put a deputy in the area all the time, so they Council hires a police department. Of course those one or two policemen also have families.
It is not long, but what there is a good sized city surrounding the Rail-yard and everybody is complaining about how bad it is to have a rail-yard right smack dab in the middle of town and how the stupid trains are always blocking intersections and the children are trespassing and getting hurt on the "attractive nuisance" and that dastardly Railroad is at fault for all this trouble and they oughta be run out of town!
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
I'll beg the question... I think cities DO want RR yards. They just don't want them on high value land. RRs don't want to pay for high value land, either. So, the RR winds up on the outskirts of big cities where land is cheap, but labor is available.
Some good examples: Austell Intermodal yard outside Atlanta. New Intermodal yard in Memphis. New intermodal yard in Birmingham - all part of Crescent Corridor. All new within the past 10 years.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
It depends on the situation. Where the yard is a significant employer like North Platt, NB they even celebrate the yard with an observation tower and feature it in tourist ads. In tony suburbs like the affluent outer ring of the Chicago area, they fought reviving the EJ&E by the CN. I think SEMPER VAPORO's scenario is more indicative of the steam era when workers lived near their work because they walked to it. Workers in modern yards commute from dozens of miles around and the only likely business to set up near the yard is a convenience store so the workers can get beverages and snacks for the trip home. If little used facilities become museums, they may receive popular support. Problems usually center around downgraded yards and shops, where abandoned parts of the property become more than just an "attractive nuisance", and instead attract criminal activity.
If anything, railroads probably do a study on location based on traffic volume and number of customers within a certain radius...best location built to suit.