Mott Haven Yard operations of the late 1950s

Adam,

On the Hudson side: North Wye to Tk. 7, and South Wye to Tk. 5

At E. 149th St., there were 2 leads from the Hudson side into MO Yard that crossed the Wyes on diamonds.

I've incorporated information from a variety of new sources into the 1950's track plan on my web site. I've also included links to the new materials (hardcopy for order, unfortunately): The TRRA issue (which has some inaccuracies below 153rd st), NYC single line plans, and NYC station track diagrams from Railroad Paper Collectibles. All the new links are in yellow:

http://geocities.com/akohorn/mypage

In the track diagram, the area of the yard I don't have multiple sources on to confirm the configuration is highlighted in blue. As usual, you'll need to click on the "expand to regular size" icon that pops up when your pointer is over the image in order for the details to show clearly. View/full screen alone doesn't quite get you there.

Anyway, it appears as though trains being pushed back from the washracks at High Bridge would have access from both wye tracks into yard B at the eastern side of the facility. Were the trains serviced and dispatched back to GCT from yard B, or did they have to get pulled down through the leads to 144th street in order to be pushed up to yard W where the commissary was? Seems like a lot of moves. What's the distinction between the usage of the various yards within Mott Haven?

Also, were the long distance trains broken up in GCT before going to the washracks? I'm thinking some of the cars were turned and some not in order to maintain a westward view for the passengers while cruising along the Hudson.

Lastly, sounded like the services for the long distance trains were starting to move from Mott Haven over to GCT by the late '50s or early '60s. It was also at that point that the overbuild started to consume air rights over the yard. When did the structures at the west side of the yard come down? Looks like there were car shops, commissary, etc.

Adam-------------------------------------------