A rail yard , railway yard , railroad yard (US) or simply yard , is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives . Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or unused locomotives stored off the main line , so that they do not obstruct the flow of traffic. Cars or wagons are moved around by specially designed yard switcher locomotives (US) or shunter locomotives (UK), a type of locomotive. Cars or wagons in a yard may be sorted by numerous categories, including railway company , loaded or unloaded, destination, car type, or whether they need repairs. Yards are normally built where there is a need to store rail vehicles while they are not being loaded or unloaded, or are waiting to be assembled into trains. Large yards may have a tower to control operations.
23-557: ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey . The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has been overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , which works in partnership with other public and private stakeholders . As of 2019, four ExpressRail facilities were in operation, with
46-426: A fuelling point and other minor maintenance facilities. A good example of this was Newport 's Godfrey Road stabling point, which has since been closed. Stabling sidings can be just a few roads or large complexes like Feltham Sidings. They are sometimes electrified with a third rail or OLE . An example of a stabling point with third rail would be Feltham marshalling yard which is being made into carriage sidings for
69-694: A major US coach yard is Sunnyside Yard in New York City , operated by Amtrak . Those that are principally used for storage, such as the West Side Yard in New York, are called "layup yards" or "stabling yards." Coach yards are commonly flat yards because unladen passenger coaches are heavier than unladen freight carriages. In the UK, a stabling point is a place where rail locomotives are parked while awaiting their next turn of duty. A stabling point may be fitted with
92-543: A total built capacity of 1.5 million lifts. Various switching and terminal railroads , including Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CRCX) on the Chemical Coast Secondary connect to the East Coast rail freight network carriers Norfolk Southern (NS) and CSX Transportation (CSX). Overall, the entire Express Rail system handled 433,000 containers in 2012, about 12 percent of the port’s total container volume. In
115-698: A week: Port Newark ( 40°41′38″N 74°09′26″W / 40.6937949°N 74.1572903°W / 40.6937949; -74.1572903 ), lies north of the Elizabeth Marine Terminal, on Newark Bay in Newark , and handles containers and roll-on/roll-off shipping of automobiles. The intermodal yard consists of two tracks for loading of containers. It originates CSX Q163 and L163 to Syracuse-DeWitt and terminates CSX Q114 and Q162 from Syracuse-DeWitt. In conjunction with installation of three new rail-specified, rubber-tired gantry cranes ExpressRail Newark
138-698: Is being expanded from two to four, doubling the rail track to 10,000 feet, and adding a new fly-over bridge. Work is expected to be completed in 2015. In addition to containers, Port Newark is a major import/export center of automobiles using roll-on/roll-off operation between ship and rail. The adjacent Doremus Avenue Auto Terminal I & II is owned by Conrail and serves CSX and NS trains. The yard occupies 87 acres and has ten unloading tracks and ten holding tracks to serve multilevel autorack cars. Port Liberty New York at Howland Hook Marine Terminal ( 40°38′21″N 74°10′52″W / 40.6390858°N 74.1811125°W / 40.6390858; -74.1811125 )
161-574: Is located at the mouth of the Arthur Kill at Newark Bay on Staten Island , a borough of New York City . Its on-dock ExpressRail facility consists of seven tracks which connect to the adjacent Arlington Yard , from which trains travel over the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge to connect to the Chemical Coast line at Elizabeth . Staten Island does not originate or terminate trains, but cars from
184-690: The British Rail Class 701 EMU . Arlington Yard 40°38′00″N 74°10′28″W / 40.6333°N 74.1745°W / 40.6333; -74.1745 ( Arlington yard ) Arlington Yard is a freight yard located on the North Shore Branch right of way of the Staten Island Railway in Staten Island, New York , United States. It lies west of the former Arlington station , east of Western Avenue, and north of
207-778: The Staten Island Expressway in the Port Ivory neighborhood. The yard leads into the Travis Branch of the railway, the Howland Hook Container Terminal , and the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge to Elizabeth, New Jersey and the Chemical Coast and is part of the ExpressRail network. The 2007 opening of the Staten Island Transfer Station and the ExpressRail facility, along with the reopening of
230-553: The Arthur Kill bridge, has reactivated the yard. The use of the Howland Hook Container Terminal to transfer containerized municipal waste from barges to trains, servicing roughly half of New York City's barged trash volume, has added to the rail traffic handled by the yard. (The facility that handles the other half is located directly across Arthur Kill.) The yard opened in 1886. The name of the neighborhood Arlington
253-534: The adjacent Port Liberty Bayonne semi-automated container terminal. Greenville Yard ( 40°40′44″N 74°04′24″W / 40.67892°N 74.0734°W / 40.67892; -74.0734 ) is located on Upper New York Bay in Jersey City at the border with Bayonne . It is served by New York New Jersey Rail to reach the National Docks Secondary to access the national rail network. The yard
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#1732851243719276-399: The case of all classification or sorting yards, human intelligence plays a primary role in setting a strategy for the switching operations ; the fewer times coupling operations need to be made and the less distance traveled, the faster the operation, the better the strategy and the sooner the newly configured consist can be joined to its outbound train. A large freight yard may include
299-455: The cost. Rail yard Many yards are located at strategic points on a main line . Main-line yards are often composed of an up yard and a down yard, linked to the associated direction of travel . There are different types of yards, and different parts within a yard, depending on how they are built. For freight cars , the overall yard layout is typically designed around a principal switching (US term) or shunting (UK) technique: In
322-440: The following components: Freight yards may have multiple industries adjacent to them where railroad cars are loaded or unloaded and then stored before they move on to their new destination. Coach yards (American English) or stabling yards or carriage sidings (British English) are used for sorting, storing and repairing passenger cars . These yards are located in metropolitan areas near large stations or terminals. An example of
345-411: The oldest and largest ExpressRail facility, opened in 2004. Originally started by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) it is now operated and managed by subcontractor Millennium Marine Rail , a joint venture of Maher Terminals and APM Terminals , the major lessees and operators at the container terminal. The terminal consists of 18 tracks. It originates 2-4 trains a day seven days
368-523: The project with four additional tracks was completed on June 17, 2019. The project began with an initial investment of $ 600 million by the PANYNJ. As of 2014, the cargo facilities charge (CFC) was $ 9.80 for every 40-foot shipping container passing through the port. The charge replaced a user fee of $ 57.50 per container that used the rail system in March 2011. The intention was to encourage use by spreading and lowering
391-409: The project’s $ 356 million cost, $ 320 million will be paid by the agency with the remainder coming from stakeholders. The New Jersey Department of Transportation allocated more than $ 87 million for 2014-2017 fiscal budget for the project and other related work, including land acquisition. The first phase of the project, with four tracks and two gantry cranes, opened on January 7, 2019. The remainder of
414-604: The terminal are attached onto other trains. The North Shore branch of the Staten Island Railway was originally opened in 1860 and was operated by the Baltimore and Ohio between Cranford, New Jersey and the Saint George Terminal . Passenger service on the North Shore Branch ended in 1953. In 1985, B&O successor CSX sold it to Delaware Otsego and rail freight service was continued until 1991. Freight service on
437-511: The western North Shore Railroad right-of-way (ROW) at Howland Hook was revived in 2005. For the first time in 16 years a train crossed the bridge on October 4, 2006, a single locomotive which would take on switching duties. Rail at the marine terminal was reactivated in 2007 with the completion of the single-track Chemical Coast connector. CMA CGM operates the ExpressRail Port Jersey near-dock rail terminal at Port Jersey and serves
460-507: The year period ending October 2014 the total amount of TEU S of Intermodal containers handled at the port included 391,596 rail lifts . Subsequent years have seen further increases in volume, rising to 646,000 lifts in 2018, and to 700,000 in 2020. The Elizabeth Marine Terminal ( 40°40′54″N 74°09′02″W / 40.68155°N 74.1505°W / 40.68155; -74.1505 ), located on Newark Bay in Elizabeth, New Jersey , has
483-548: Was coined after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) purchased a farm at Old Place , on Staten Island's northwestern corner, which would become the Arlington freight yard. The B&O renamed the area Arlington . Following the completion of the Arthur Kill Bridge in 1889, the yard was the first stop for freight trains coming from New Jersey. Arlington Yards was the hub of Staten Island's freight industry for most of
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#1732851243719506-684: Was originally part of the Pennsylvania Railroad Hudson Waterfront operations. That operation is now New York New Jersey Rail, which operates the last remaining car float operation in New York Harbor . Freight cars are barged across the bay to the Bush Terminal Yard and the 65th Street Yard in Brooklyn . Since the 2010 takeover by the PANYNJ extensive work to improve the cross-harbor system has been undertaken, though it
529-707: Was set back due to the effects of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 . PANYNJ broke ground on a $ 365 million improvement plan in December 2016. It opened in January 2019. It features 9,600 feet of working track, 32,000 feet of support track and switches, along with infrastructure to support dual cantilevered rail-mounted gantry cranes . It will initially support 125,000 container lifts a year. The PANYNJ will also build two new rail-to-barge transfer bridges, purchase two new car float barges, each with 18 rail car capacity, and buy four new ultra low emission locomotives, replacing antiquated units. Of
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