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.
7-591: Wellingborough Loco Shed was a stabling point located in Wellingborough , Northamptonshire , England. The depot was situated on the Midland Main Line and was located just north of Wellingborough station . The depot code is WO. The sidings at the north end of the loco sheds once served the Finedonhill Tramway a narrow-gauge railway that carried iron ore from quarries to the south of Finedon to
14-426: 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
21-694: 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
28-399: 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
35-460: The depot. Stabling point 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
42-440: 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
49-626: The sidings. The tramway was in operation from 1875 to 1926. Another narrow gauge tramway, the Wellingborough Tramway passed under the railway immediately north of the Finedon Road overbridge. This line operated until 1966 and was the last narrow-gauge railway operating in The Midlands iron fields. Before its closure in 1984, Class 08 shunters , 25 , British Rail Class 31 , 45 and 46 locomotives , British Rail class 47 could be seen at
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