This article is a list of important rail yards in geographical order. These listed may be termed Classification, Freight, Marshalling, Shunting, or Switching yards, which are cultural terms generally meaning the same thing no matter which part of the world's railway traditions originated the term of art.
These are important marshalling yards for the formation of freight/goods trains, and/or with a large volume of traffic, and/or with a very extensive track systems; including classification yards, hump yards, freight handling yards, and intermodal (container) terminals.
By state in alphabetical order:
Within the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland there are no notable marshalling yards still extant. North Wall yard in Dublin is used for loading permanent way materials trains and stabling unused stock. Also host a small wagon repair shop used to maintain ore and container wagons.
British Railways undertook a major programme of investment in marshalling yards in the early 1960s, some of which were arguably obsolete before they even opened. [5] [6] [7] Many have since been closed entirely. Those that remain have been substantially dismantled. None retain hump facilities and instead see only very limited flat-shunting.
As of 2009[ out of date ], DB Schenker Rail (UK) operates the following marshalling yards, [8] defined as sites "where trains can be marshalled or re-marshalled using resident pilot locomotives, ground staff and train examination staff".
In Germany due to ongoing consolidation it is likely that some yards will close. The ones likely to continue in operation are marked in bold.
CSX Transportation, known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km) of track, it is the leading subsidiary of CSX Corporation, a Fortune 500 company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Silver Star is a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak on a 1,522-mile (2,449 km) route between New York City and Miami via Washington, D.C., Richmond, Virginia, Raleigh, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Jacksonville, Florida, and Tampa, Florida. The Silver Star and its sister train in the Silver Service brand, the Silver Meteor, are the descendants of numerous long-distance trains that operated between Florida and New York for most of the 20th century.
The Belt Railway Company of Chicago, headquartered in Bedford Park, Illinois, is the largest switching terminal railroad in the United States. It is co-owned by the six Class I railroads of the United States — BNSF, Canadian National, CPKC, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific — each of which uses the switching and interchange facilities of the BRC. Owner lines and other railroads bring their trains to the Belt Railway to be separated, classified, and re-blocked into new trains for departure. The BRC also provides rail terminal services to approximately 100 local manufacturing industries. The company employs about 440 people, including its own police force.
A joint railway is a railway operating under the control of more than one railway company.
The Paducah & Louisville Railway is a Class II railroad that operates freight service between Paducah and Louisville, Kentucky. The line is located entirely within the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis is a Class III switching and terminal railroad that handles traffic in the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is co-owned by five of the six Class I railroads that reach the city.
Memphis, Tennessee has developed into a major Mid-American commercial and transportation hub because of its location on the Mississippi River and a convergence of numerous rail and highway links. Four rail and highway bridges cross the Mississippi River at Memphis. In addition, Memphis International Airport has become the world's largest airfreight terminal.
The Midway Subdivision or Midway Sub is a 12.4-mile (20.0 km) railway line in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The line is part of BNSF Railway's Northern Transcon which runs from Chicago, Illinois to Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon. This is former Great Northern Railway trackage, and now forms the southern set of BNSF tracks running through the Twin Cities. The companion route running slightly to the north is the St. Paul Subdivision, former Northern Pacific Railway tracks. The Midway Subdivision hosts about 24 trains per day as of September 2015.
The Pittsburgh Line is the Norfolk Southern Railway's primary east–west artery in its Pittsburgh Division and Harrisburg Division across the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is part of the Keystone Corridor, Amtrak-Norfolk Southern's combined rail corridor.
The North Bergen Yard is freight rail yard and intermodal terminal in North Bergen, New Jersey parallel to Tonnelle Avenue between 49th and 69th Streets. Located within the North Jersey Shared Assets Area, the facility is part of CSX Transportation (CSXT) and the origination point of its CSX River Subdivision at the southern end of the Albany Division. On its west side, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYSW) runs the length of the yard and operates a bulk transloading operation immediately adjacent to it.
Little Ferry Yard is a railyard and intermodal terminal in the Port of New York and New Jersey served by the CSX River Subdivision (CSXT), New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYSW), Norfolk Southern Railway and Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CRCX).
The Chillicothe Subdivision or "Chillicothe Sub" is a railway line running about 229 miles (369 km) from Chicago, Illinois to Fort Madison, Iowa in the United States of America. It is operated by BNSF Railway as part of their Southern Transcon route from Chicago to Los Angeles. The Chillicothe Subdivision is a high volume route connecting three principal yards in Chicago in the east and the Marceline Subdivision in the west which continues to Kansas City.
Barstow Yard is a classification yard operated by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BNSF) in Barstow, California. With 48 directional tracks and a total area of approximately 600 acres (240 ha), it is the second largest classification yard west of the Rocky Mountains after the JR Davis Yard. Today, almost all freight traffic to and from Southern California runs through the junction.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, doing business as CPKC and formerly known as Canadian Pacific Railway Limited until 2023, is a Canadian railway holding company. Through its primary operating railroad subsidiaries, Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) and Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS), it operates about 32,000 kilometres (20,000 mi) of rail in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, and is the only single-line rail corporation ever to connect the three countries. CPKC is headquartered in Calgary and led by President and CEO Keith Creel.
Bensenville Yard is a Canadian Pacific Kansas City freight and switching yard located in Bensenville and Franklin Park, Illinois. It is located 15 miles northwest of Chicago, below O'Hare International Airport. Its origins date back to the first freight yard of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1916, which by the early 1950s had grown into a large marshaling yard with 70 directional tracks. The Milwaukee Road was taken over by Canadian Pacific in the late 1980s, which rebuilt and modernized the facilities. Today, Bensenville Yard is CPKC's largest freight and marshaling yard in the USA.