Do Railroads still hump cars in the yards

[railfan619]

I was wondering if the railroads still humped their cars to sort the trains. I have been wondering this for a while but never thought of asking the question.

[chad thomas]

Yes they do. Here are a few places out west:

West Colton,Ca.
Barstow,Ca.
Roseville,Ca.
Hinkle,Or.
Pasco,Wa.
Ogden,Ut.
North Platte,Nb.

[rvos1979]

Chicago area humps I'm aware of:

Bensenville
Proviso
Clearing
Kirk
Blue Island


Randy

[SALfan]

NS has a hump yard in Linwood, NC and CSX has one in Waycross, GA. There are probably several more in the Deep South that I've missed.

[BaltACD]

Class I railroads would come to an operational stop without their Hump yards. Hump Yards are a critical element in rail freight transportation in the handling of car load freight.

[JoeKoh]

Conway is a nice big yard!
stay safe
Joe

[ChrisBARailfan]

Kansas City still has hump yards, I believe two for Argentine yard and several for UP in the 18th St. yard and the yard off Gardner at Chouteau.

[therailnut]

We also have one here for the BNSF in Galesburg, IL.

[cgrubb80]

Belen, NM does not have a hump yard

[Anonymous]

Norfolk Southern's Inman Yard in Hot'lanta has at least one hump...

[Anonymous]

Oh - and CSX has a hump at Cumberland, Maryland...

[tatans]

Calgary, Alberta , Canada

[CShaveRR]

If we ever stop humping, would somebody please let me know so I can go home?

[jeaton]

Carl

At least you weren't forgotten. We'll give you the word before we turn off the lights.

Jay

[Green Bay Paddlers]

Isn't there a hump yard at the BNSF Cicero Yard?

[Anonymous]

idiot question, what exactly is humping?

[railfan619]

Humping is were the railroad sends a car over a hump some where in the yard so the car can be put with it's next train and it also. Saves time because without humping it would take many men and other equipment to sort the cars espically in the really big cities like chiacgo and other big cities.

[richardy]

BNSF Cherokee Yard in Tulsa, OK.

[MP173]

Elkhart, Indiana on NS

[lnn6574]

queensgate, csx, cincinnati
osborn, csx, louisville
avon, csx, indy
willard, csx, ohio
stanley, csx, toledo
radnor, csx, nashville
boyles, csx, b-ham
tilford, csx, atlanta
hamlet, csx, hamlet nc

[route_rock]

Ok hump yards are great. Sned a car up AEI reads it the computer decides which train its going in and its assigned track. Down the hill it goes switches throw automaticly for the car(s) and retarders put pressure on the wheels of said car to slow it to the proper speed for load or mty.
Many men? two at the hump engineer at the loco 3 guys. another possible 6 guys running both ends of the yard maybe more to run non humpable cars to the tracks themselves. those 6 broke down to 2 switchman and a n engineer crew or just 2 switchmen with an RCO
Some yards are flat switched. two on the ground one in the cab or as above. one throws switches one reads bills and pulls the pin. off the car goes...........KER-BANG! Not as pretty but its what you have to do sometimes.

[Big_Boy_4005]

QUOTE: Originally posted by railfan619

Humping is were the railroad sends a car over a hump some where in the yard so the car can be put with it's next train and it also. Saves time because without humping it would take many men and other equipment to sort the cars espically in the really big cities like chiacgo and other big cities.

That's not the clearest definition of humping I've ever heard. Try this: the cars of arriving trains are pushed up a small hill known as a hump. At the crest of the hump the cars are uncoupled and allowed to roll down into the classification or bowl tracks, based on destination. As they roll down, they pass through retarders which slow the cars so they don't slam into the stopped cars too hard.

This is BNSF Northtown just north of downtown Minneapolis. The retarders are the tracks between those green fences.





The CP also has a hump yard east of downtown St Paul. The UP has only flat yards in this area.

[Paul Milenkovic]

I guess the original question really meant, "since so much of rail traffic is unit trains and intermodal container trains, how important is carload freight in the present day?" Yes, the railroads have hump yards and do carload freight, but what part of the big picture?

[TH&B]

Willard Ohio still uses skates !!! How does that work anyhows?

CN Symington (Winnipeg), CN MacMillan (Toronto) has two humps.

CN Flatrock (Detroit), CSX Frontier (Buffalo)

[jeaton]

If I am not mistaken, quite a few hump operations have been closed over the past couple of decades. I am not sure just how the economics work out, but at some point, a drop in total volume of loose car business or the number of separate blocks (a block being a group of cars for the same destination) makes flat yards more economical.

I have heard that flat switching can be as efficient as a hump yard operation. If edblysard come on here, he may have more insight.

Jay

[dehusman]

Each one of those yards that have been mentioned as hump yards probably hump about 1500-2000 cars per hump per day. A double hump yard like N Platte (one for east, one for west) will do double that. The UP probably humps 30-40,000 cars a day.

Dave H.

[shrek623]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Green Bay Paddlers

Isn't there a hump yard at the BNSF Cicero Yard?

Green Bay,

There used to be one in Cicero til I think mid 90's sometime. It is now strictly an intermodal yard. No more humping here![:D]

Shrek

[Anonymous]

Well flat switching is a fuel guzzler, and I doubt that it will ever be as efficient as a well run hump yard. As for north platte, they actually hump about 7 to 8 thousand cars a day...UP loves to expand on this number, but the truth is between putting stuff on the ground and managers getting in the way. my friends tell me a 7 thousand car day is good there. As for the biggest, somewhere I read that a yard in Hamburg, Germany averages about 11,000 cars a day.

[daveklepper]

Wait, I read that Hamlet had been made into a flat yard when the SAL line was downgraded and most traffic routed over the line through Florence. Can someone check on this for me?

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lnn6574

queensgate, csx, cincinnati
osborn, csx, louisville
avon, csx, indy
willard, csx, ohio
stanley, csx, toledo
radnor, csx, nashville
boyles, csx, b-ham
tilford, csx, atlanta
hamlet, csx, hamlet nc

Here's a couple more CSX humps

Selkirk near Albany NY
Frontier - Buffalo NY

NS humps are:

Allentown,
Enola (near Harrisburg PA),
Conway (near Pittsburgh),
Elhart IN,
Bellevue OH,
Roanoke VA,
Linwood NC,
Chattangooga TN,
Birmingham AL,
Macon GA,
Sheffield AL
Knoxville TN

Conrail humps:

Oak Island (Newark NJ)
Pavonia (Camden NJ)