Yard Capacity

Does anybody know the former/current capacities of the yards on Pan Am?

Can I say that's an odd question? That's an odd question. Like, do you want to know how many cars the classification tracks can hold?

First of all- which locations are you talking about? Can you please be specific as to what you consider to be a yard?

Second of all you asked for current and/or former? Which would you prefer? And what date do you consider "former?"

Well, I was mostly curious on how many tracks are left at Lawrence and Lowell, and how many have been removed since their height.

I can tell you that the last time I drove by on Andover St., Lawrence yard was practically empty. My guess would be 6-8 yard tracks, plus the runner [former eastbound main] and the main.

Rockingham Racer wrote:I can tell you that the last time I drove by on Andover St., Lawrence yard was practically empty. My guess would be 6-8 yard tracks, plus the runner [former eastbound main] and the main.

In the past week Lawrence Yard has had a HUGE boost in traffic using the yard. In fact for most of the week their were 2 YES 2 Lawrence Switchers opperating in or arround that area (LA-1 and LA-2)

The largest yards are at Waterville, Rigby, Lawrence, Nashua, Ayer, and East Deerfield. East Deerfield is probably the biggest. All are probably about the same size, although slightly smaller perhaps, as they were at their height. Lowell is down to just two turnouts, with one of the mains used as a yard track when needed. The former Bleachery Yard is all gone. Mechanicville and Boston yards are both gone. There is nothing at Mechanicville now although it's rumoured a siding is being built there for intermodal trains. Boston still has a local, and they use a couple of tracks near the MBTA engine house. Other notable downsized yards are at Manchester and Concord, NH.
Yards are a necessary evil for railroads, and most small margin regional roads like Pan Am really can't afford to operate them. Hump yards like Mechanicville and Boston were using up resources like crazy, and it's no surprise they were the ones that got hit the hardest. You can't make money banging cars around from track to track, but try as they might, the railroad can't find any way around it.

Here's a slice of what it was like in Manchester in 1977. Looks like a fairly busy place to me...

http://railroad.net/articles/railfanning/adayonthebandm

-otto-

Lawrence will now be VERY busy.

By the way, they also have yards at No. Maine Junction, Danville Junction, Fitchburg MA, Gardner MA, and Mohawk in NY.

Mick, Do you know if the new intermodel yard will bring any more trains to any of Pan Am's districts, other than 4?

cpf354 wrote:The largest yards are at Waterville, Rigby, Lawrence, Nashua, Ayer, and East Deerfield. East Deerfield is probably the biggest. All are probably about the same size, although slightly smaller perhaps, as they were at their height. Lowell is down to just two turnouts, with one of the mains used as a yard track when needed. The former Bleachery Yard is all gone. Mechanicville and Boston yards are both gone. There is nothing at Mechanicville now although it's rumoured a siding is being built there for intermodal trains. Boston still has a local, and they use a couple of tracks near the MBTA engine house. Other notable downsized yards are at Manchester and Concord, NH.
Yards are a necessary evil for railroads, and most small margin regional roads like Pan Am really can't afford to operate them. Hump yards like Mechanicville and Boston were using up resources like crazy, and it's no surprise they were the ones that got hit the hardest. You can't make money banging cars around from track to track, but try as they might, the railroad can't find any way around it.

According to the Downeaster Schedule Booklet, Rigby is the largest Freight yard in New England with the ability to hold 1500 cars.

Seconded.
Rigby is the largest by far, then ED. None of the other yards mentioned come close. I can't speak for Mohawk or Mechanicville, but I've been to the rest and speak from experience.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the yard at Bangor. Bangor used to have a major yard there, but it was mostly removed in the 80s. Now all that is left is passing siding for the Bucksport job to reverse and two storage tracks (which are usually full, but the cars rotate often). Northern Maine Junction does have a fairly good sized yard (about 5 tracks on the east end, 3 on the west. The yard at Danville Junction is shared with the SLR. I don't know how the ownership of the tracks break down, but the yard parallels the SLR main south of the diamond.

Bangor > good one... used to be a good size, with engine facilities and everything.

Another one that's gone was Woodsville.

emd_16645 wrote: Northern Maine Junction does have a fairly good sized yard (about 5 tracks on the east end, 3 on the west. The yard at Danville Junction is shared with the SLR. I don't know how the ownership of the tracks break down, but the yard parallels the SLR main south of the diamond.

That's the Guilford main that parallels the Danville yard, and crosses the SLR main at the diamond. I thought the whole yard belonged to the SLR. Their line to Deering (the one that dead-ends behind B&M Beans in Portland, at the burnt-out Tukey's Bridge) emerges from the south end of Danville yard and parallels Guilford's main for many miles. (Interestingly, mapquest's map of the Danville layout is wrong.) There is a crossover at the south end of the yard that enables Guilford to get into the yard, but I've never seen it used for switching. Perhaps westbound freights use it. The MO for eastbound Guilford trains dropping cars at Danville is to bypass the yard, drop the back half of the train before the diamond, pull past the diamond, back the cars they're dropping into the yard, pull forward, back over the diamond to get the rest of the train, head east.
NMJ is more like two or three small yards nested together. The best known side is along rte 2 where the MMA office is, but there's two customers and a side yard off of a road closer to Dysart's truck stop, the name is either Starch Plant or Logistics Rd.