Rails to the Yards

Some are no more than a few tracks in size and are used more for storage than classifying freight cars. Still, railroads often time need these small yards for storage purposes even if they do no type of classifying. In terms of layout railroad yards are either double-ended, which means a train can enter the yard at one end and exit from the other or stub-ended which means the yard has no exit.

Obviously, the double-ended yard is much more efficient and most classification yards of any size are of this type. The tracks themselves are always numbered or named and are laddered, meaning they are accessed from a main track that is nothing put switches leading into these yard tracks. At one end of the yard is the main line, usually at least two tracks and once a train has entered the yard it is within the "yard limit" meaning there is a restricted speed at all times, usually no more than 5 or 10 mph.

At one corner of the yard there is a diverging siding that is known as the RIP track, meaning Repair In Place for minor issues involving freight cars. There is also usually another diverging siding from the yard tracks for the wash bay to clean locomotives.

The engine terminal itself can usually be found from one of the main tracks itself. In the very center of the yard you will almost always find the yard office or yard tower, depending on the size of the facility. In any event, not every yard is set up this way but historically most are in some way similar to this design.

Here at the yard office the yardmaster controls all movements within the yard itself, such as the switch engine. Also found within the yard limits it the trainmaster, which controls the actual movement of the trains themselves, such as when they have clearance to leave and enter the area. These jobs can best be described as hectic and stressful and are almost never dull. To explain the hump, if a yard is equipped with the device, it basically works on a gravity-fed system whereby it is the highest point in the yard and freight cars pass through a set of retarders, to slow it down a bit where it is then directed into whatever track it has been designated for.

This system is very simple in nature and basically is like stacking blocks. As technologies have improved such as switching from steam to diesel locomotives and mega-mergers which have ballooned the size of Class I railroads, the number of yards has dwindled. Today, Class Is attempt to centralize as many large classification yards as possible not only to become more efficient put also reduce the transit times of freights so that they are spending less time moving through yards and more time out on the open rails delivering their goods.

This is a major reason for the CREATE plan of Chicago, an attempt to build bypasses for those freights which are not heading to the city and circumvent the web of rails and yards located there. A rail yard is managed by the yardmaster who has the responsibility in overseeing the direction of rail cars within the yard and assisting with the re-blocking of trains.

What Is YARD?

A major component of Bailey Yard is the East Hump, where every day, more than 1, rail cars are sorted, taken off one train, and re-routed to another. Locomotives push the cars up a feet-tall mound, where they are then separated and sent downhill, one at a time, onto one of dozens of "bowl" tracks -- each of which represents a specific eastern destination. A corresponding West Hump is also used to used to sort cars heading west, but because most traffic heads east, the bulk goes through the East hump. In addition, the West hump mound is only 20 feet high.

A look at the aerial view of Bailey Yard, from Google Maps. The yard covers 2, acres, and has tracks designated for specific destinations. Locomotive number Y slowly pushes rail cars uphill towards the West hump. Because many westbound cars are empty, or at least carrying lighter loads than their eastbound counterparts, less locomotives are needed to push the cars towards the West hump than for the East hump.

A Bailey Yard worker manually pulls a handle to separate a car from a train at the top of the East hump. After the cars are separated, they roll gently downhill using only gravity toward their designated bowl track. When they pass a so-called "retarder," their wheels are squeezed hard enough to slow them down so that they roll easily and safely onto the proper track for their eventual destination. A computer routes the cars onto the proper track. A closer look at a retarder, which is used to slow the railcars down as they roll unimpeded downhill towards their designated bowl track where they will connect with their intended train at 4 miles an hour or less.

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A Bailey Yard technician monitors traffic passing through the East hump. He and other technicians use sophisticated remote controls to operate the locomotives that push the rail cars up to the humps. The technicians use remote controls like this one to operate the locomotives as they pass through the humps.

The remotes give them all the control they would have if they were aboard the locomotives. Long coal trains sit idle on the tracks at Bailey Yard while a multi-modal train heads in the opposite direction. Often, when trains come into Bailey Yard, their rail cars are separated from the locomotives and are sent off to one of the humps to be re-directed to trains heading to their eventual destination. While that happens, the locomotives are brought to the diesel yard to be serviced. Though Bailey Yard is off limits to the general public, visitors can climb the Golden Spike observation tower, where they can get a panoramic view of the world's largest rail yard.

From the top of the tower, they can see rail cars all the way to the horizon. Many rail cars that roll through Bailey Yard have damaged wheels that must be replaced and repaired. Here, near the maintenance area, dozens of train wheel axles are lined up in preparation for being used as replacements.

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Rail cars that need maintenance are identified at a location a few miles outside North Platte and tagged so that workers at Bailey Yard know that they need attention. Many locomotives heading east are sent through the East service track, where they are loaded up with, among other things, sand that they will use to gain traction when their steel wheels slip on the steel tracks. The sand is shot onto the tracks using nozzles mounted at the wheels. This large tower along side the East service track is filled with sand, which is loaded into special tanks on the locomotives using cranes.

The West service track is much smaller than its eastbound counterpart given the lighter trains that go from east to west. Many people visit North Platte every year just to climb the Golden Spike observation tower and get a panoramic view of Bailey Yard. This special facility -- the only one of its kind in the world -- is designed to inspect railcar wheels for small defects that would otherwise be invisible to the naked eye. Special ultrasonic sensors inspect each wheel to determine if there are problems that need maintenance.