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Freight Yards: What Are All Those
Tracks?, Part II
by Richard Lake
The last article centered on receiving tracks and the
major classification yard, the train yard, and the role
these tracks play in railroad operations. Receiving
inbound freight and reblocking for outbound trains is a
major operation in any yard, but it is by no means the
totality of yard operations. Some of the loads and
empties received will not be forwarded to another city.
In any train there will be cars which have reached their
final destination. Some of these cars must be delivered
to other roads for final delivery, some are empties
being returned to a home road, and some are for local
delivery. All these operations create a need for more
yard tracks.
Transfer Yards
Large Operation
The train yard has a dedicated switch crew. Their
only task is to block and build outbound trains. In the
midst of the cars they work with are cars and/or blocks
of cars which will not be going onward. When these cars
are encountered in switching, the crew sets them aside
into one or two empty tracks in the train yard for other
crews. Many of these cars are to be transferred to
another road for delivery. In the late 50’s and early
60’s there were at least 10 railroads that the Rock
Island interchanged with from Armourdale. The switching
operation for these deliveries took place on a separate
yard lead from the train yard. This was commonly
referred to as the transfer yard. I don’t remember how
many tracks there were, but I know there were more than
ten. The transfer yard also had a dedicated switch crew
whose only task was to collect cars set aside in the
train yard, pull them into the transfer yard, and
complete the sorting for delivery to other roads. The
switching operation in the transfer yard was fairly
simple. Each track was designated to receive cars for a
specific railroad such as the MoPac, GM&O, CB&Q,
etc. The yardmaster provided a switch list to the crew
foreman. This list spelled out what cars (by road and
car number) were going to which roads. With that list in
hand the switching operations begin. The only criterion
for switching here was the receiving railroad. No
blocking was necessary. The main concern was speed. Get
the cars sorted and transferred. The longer you had
these cars the more it cost you. It is the task of the
receiving road to determine whether these cars were for
local, wayfreight, or through freight delivery. That is
a job for the yardmaster and switch crews on the
receiving road.
In a perfect world with unlimited space for a yard
(prototype or model) there would be room for a dedicated
track for every single railroad which would be served by
the transfer yard. In reality space is costly. This
results in some tracks being used solely for one
railroad while other tracks might serve as many as three
different roads. The determining factor for this
decision is the amount of interchange traffic a
particular road generated. In Kansas City, I made
numerous transfer drags to the MoPac and the
"Q" but relatively few hauls to KCS or
C&NW. We had tracks assigned to the MOP and the
"Q" but used a single track to handle both the
other roads at the same time. In operations it was
common to make two or three drags to the MOP in 24 hours
while making only one trip to the KCS in that same time.
And if the KCS had a delivery to make to the Rock Island
and the timing was right then their crew would take the
cars from our yard.
Small Operation
Not every yard is an Armourdale. The Rock Island’s
yard at Carrie Avenue in St. Louis was small, especially
when compared to Kansas City. While I never worked
Carrie Ave. as a switchman or fireman, I did spend a
couple of summers working on the section crew out of
there and had plenty of opportunity to observe yard
operations. The traffic into and out of Carrie was
relatively light. There was only one switch crew working
at Carrie and no more than a couple of trains received
and dispatched along with at least one westbound local
and some transfer traffic. This is based on 8 a.m. to
4 p.m. observations since the section crew only
worked nights when there was a catastrophe, like the
flood and washouts at Gumbo flats in June of 1957, but
that’s another story. Carrie Avenue probably had a
designated receiving track but the rest of the yard
consisted of numbered tracks (numbers start with the
first yard track closest to the main and go up from
there) used for outbound classification, building the
local, and setting out transfers. Priority would depend
on the schedule. If you have an outbound freight due to
leave two hours after an inbound arrival then the crew
would be working fast to get it ready. If there were
five or six hours before departure but the early local
was due out then it would get priority. No pressure on
for local, wayfreight, or through freights meant that
the crew set up interchange traffic, spotted the freight
house or riptrack, or some other small jobs that always
needed doing.
Factors for Transfer Yard Design
The same factors shaping the prototype yard should
play a major role in yard design and operations on a
model railroad. The same questions apply. Who are the
interchange roads? How many cars per day are you
receiving that will need transfer? How much motive power
do you have for transfer operations? How often will you
make a drag to an off layout road? If you are modeling
the Arkansas/Louisiana Division of the CRI&P, the
answers to these questions come from sources like
employee timetables (which show crossings and
interchanges with other roads), annual reports, and
other printed materials prepared by the CRI&P. If
your railroad is freelance then there is a need from
somewhat more research. It’s necessary to find out
what railroads operated in the part of the country you
model in the time you are modeling. Then you have to
consider the route you are following and determine which
roads would be likely for interchange.
Another factor which adds interest to the whole
process of interchange is finding others whose model
railroads also operate in the same area and establishing
interchange freight with them. I know that the eL&eL
(our freelance railroad) will interchange with Bob
Amsler’s railroad, based on the MoPac, and Richard
Schumacher’s road, the St. Louis Southern, which is
freelanced. Ultimately this may mean a yard track
dedicated to the MOP because of considerable interchange
traffic, but Schumacher’s cars will be mixed in with
those of the Reader (a short, short line in the swamps
of southern Arkansas) and other roads which won’t
generate much traffic on the eL&eL.
Train Frequency
One last issue to consider in designing and operating
a model railroad yard is the frequency of trains. If you
plan to run 4, 5, or 6 mainline through freights on
every eight hour shift then the receiving yard and train
yard are will have to be "huge" and your train
yard crew is going to be racing constantly to keep up
with the demands of mainline traffic. Then consider how
may wayfreights will be scheduled in the same period.
Add local freights to that and then add interchange to
that. Every time you add one of these freight moves to
the timetable the workload will increase and the number
of crews needed will also increase. To enable crews to
get the job done one lead or yard ladder won’t work in
a heavy traffic yard. Every time there is a departure
from the yard the switching lead will be tied up and
operation in the yard will shut down. Shutting down
means the crew falls behind, trains are delayed,
customers are upset, and revenues drop off. Determining
the size of a yard is very complex issue and I still
haven’t covered all the tracks found in a yard. But
that is material for another issue.
Until next time, keep the crews happy and the trains
on time.
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