HOW RAILROADS WORK Ep. 1: Freight Yards

Railroad freight yards are places to make up and break up trains and can be a beehive of activity. Norfolk Southern's Taylor Yard serves itself and 3 other railroads:

Luzerne & Susquehanna
Delaware Lackawanna
Reading & Northern

It's also the intermodal hub for Northeast Pa. and many parts of upstate and central NY.... It's also our starting point in our journey to understanding exactly how railroads work....

TRAINS SHOWN IN THIS VIDEO:

1. NS K81/K82
2. NS 11Z

NAVIGATING THIS CHANNEL:

Video thumbnails are color coded to help you find the types of videos that interest you most, quickly and easily....
The following is a breakdown of that organizational system:

BLACK TAB = Adventures in Railfanning (Day-to-day train action)
RED TAB = Red Hot Feature videos (45-60 minutes long)
BLUE TAB = Slideshows and Photo documentaries
GREEN TAB = Video Mini Series (multi-video documentaries)
YELLOW TAB = Snippets (short videos - under 5 minutes)
ORANGE TAB = Educational Rail industry videos

[davidbarnett]

Thought I'd stop by for a revisit. Back in the day, I hired on with the SP. After two weeks of OJT, another newbie and I were assigned as part of a road crew to work in Englewood Yard in Houston for three months. Some kind of deal had been worked out by SP and the union that required the road crew off the Houston & Texas Central [SP]. That was an experience. We, the newbies, worked with an old head engineer and conductor. Our job was to walk the 'completed' track and couple cars and then pull them out and spot them elsewhere. After completing said task one night, I gave the engineer the sign with my lantern, climbed the ladder and sat on the edge of a gondola with one leg on the ladder and the other inside with no support. Stupid I know. Now the tracks were supposed to be collared for our safety, yet another car rolls in while we are pulling out and slams into the gondola. That's when my back issues began, but we won't go into that.

The switches in the yard had to have been installed in the 19th century because it took a PHD in switches to make sure you had them aligned correctly.

The funniest event I witnessed, if you want to call it funny, was an autopak car, which in those days was wide open, come off the hump and slam into a line of cars. New Pontiac Firebirds went everywhere. I'm sure all responsible got fired, or at least I would think so.

[dallas_red]

I married a retired engineer and really didn't understand how much work was involved until seeing this. He began sending me videos of trains and I enjoyed them so much told him more...almost 8 yrs married and didn't realize all of this, now off to part two. TY so much for this, really am enjoying it!

[railroad]

Great video.
I have a hard time understanding why anyone would give a thumbs down.
Not just to this but lots of other videos.
If it's not to your liking, simply stop watching it.

[dlwatib]

I'm amazed at how wavy and worn some of the tracks look. And the sound of metal scraping against metal...!

[maryillinski]

Just found you. What a pleasant discovery. My one granddad worked on the Southern Pacific and other granddad worked on the Pennsylvania RR. Trains are in my blood. Nothing in the world like the sound of the whistle in the night. So glad I can hear them still. Thank you for all these great videos.

[robertstonebreaker]

Great video thanks for sharing lot of different stuff going on got to stay alert dangerous jobs

[thomasbarashukis]

If you're a train lover like me you'll love this video. It's super.

[TheSkunk]

My kind of fun watching this vid. Thanks for posting and the description.

[rubenvillanueva]

Excellent photography, and excellent narrative captions. A primer introduction to the operations in a yard. Thank you!

[wayneshook]

I really enjoyed watching some train switching, I used to work for BNSF inTulsa OK as yard foreman and hostler and road brakeman now and then

[dolnick]

Thanks for posting this informative and well-crafted video. Double thanks for omitting the seemingly obligatory railroad bluegrass music. The natural sound commands our attention.

[davidbarnett]

As a kid, I recall the yard in my hometown of Hearne, Texas. The SP lines came through Hearne from East St. Louis. Trains would either take the line to San Antonio and on out west to LA, or they could continue south towards Houston on the old Houston and Texas Central, for which I was assigned as a brakeman back in the day. The yard had 12 tracks, a car shed for repairs, a working turntable, an icing rack for reefer trains, a switch engine, which we called the Dinkie, as well as yardmen who bled off the air for trains to be switched, as well as oiling 'boxes'. The Mop crossed the interlock system on the north edge of town. They did some switching, mostly cotton gin mills, or position cars for unloading at this very large covered shed. About five miles west of Hearne was Valley Junction, where east/west MoP trains could either continue or wye north/south. The MoP did their switching at Valley Junction. At the interlock with the MoP was the depot, where the Sunbeam, complete with yellow steam engine, would stop to take on and drop off passengers. The MoP Eagle would cross the interlock and stop at their depot about a half mile from said interlock. From steam engines of the SP with those round tenders, or MoP steam engines with that flat tender, to F units and on to the Alco's and early GP's, I guess I was very fortunate to have grown up in a railroad town. Today, it's all owned by the UP and the Hearne yard is deader than a doornail. No switching is done at Valley Junction, either.

[donwilliams]

Good job I'm proud to have work for the R.R. 42yr and 19day

[teadyconnolly]

Thank you very much for this perfect Intermodal Taylor Yard video quite a lot of movement and a very busy with the coming and going of Switchers, Locos, Trucks with load loaders, and the Tractor units with Containers, I have to watch part 2 to get the latest follow up thanks again for your wonderful videos and what a fantastic website you have well done

[bethanybarrow]

I will never get tired of this one! Thanks AC.

[lawrencejones]

Very interesting and informative! And I would like to hear about the locomotive fire on train 37T!

[royhoco]

worked for Southern Railway and then NS Railway for over 25 years as a switch man/foreman in a freight classifying yard that operated 24/7 365 days a year. When I started we wore tennis shoes and shorts in the summer, made all switching moves with hand signals or flashlight signals, no radios, no safety gear. we would climb trees and power poles to relay signals around curves or over hills. We ran on the tops of cars (cars that were moving and sitting still) and jumped from one car to another to get better signaling positions. It was common for both switch men and the foreman to be on top of rail cars spread out over a 1/4 mile or more relaying signals. Switching on the hump end of the yard was fast and furious with 5 or 6 cars rolling into tracks at one time. One man kicked the cars up the lead while the foreman kept the switches lined and the third man kept the cars from rolling out of the tracks. On the hump job there was 2 speeds wide open or stopped. It was a dangerous job and we classified a lot of cars in a shift. 12 hr shifts were common and 7 day work weeks were normal. I remember once working 54 straight 12 hr days. I made a lot of money but was exhausted, totally exhausted. Then the railroads got safety conscious and we had to stop doing some of the wild crazy things we were doing. With all the rule changes and supervised enforcement and the new safety rules daily switching slowed to a crawl and became tedious and boring. The railroad went through a lot of changes in my career and for grizzled, tough, hard headed old switch men change came hard. The job lost most of it's fun and excitement and because I felt "too old change" I said "screw this" and just resigned.

[Greasley]

Thanx 4 the video. Always interesting to see a few of the many things that need to be done to move goods from A to B.

[arlandzawilson]

Love 🚂 videos I watch them all the time since I've been little love watching 🚂 now 43 still love watching 🚂 and the videos 💯💯👊👊

[donmcgimpsey]

I am mildly impressed that the graffiti artists don't paint over any of the freight car lettering (tonnage, etc)