Enola Yard
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Enola Yard is a large
rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...
located in
East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania East Pennsboro Township is a township in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 20,228 at the 2010 census, up from 18,254 at the 2000 census. East Pennsboro is the second most populous municipality in Cumberland Cou ...
, along the western shore of the
Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...
at
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in Pe ...
. Built in 1905 and expanded through the 1930s, Enola was the world's largest
freight Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including transp ...
yard in 1956. It remains in operation today, though it has long since been eclipsed in size and traffic, first by
Conway Yard Conway Yard (also known as Conway Terminal) is a major rail yard located in the boroughs of Conway and Freedom, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh, along the Ohio River. It was the largest freight yard in the world from 1956 until 1980.Edwin K ...
outside Pittsburgh and later by
Bailey Yard Bailey Yard is the world’s largest railroad classification yard. Employees sort, service and repair locomotives and cars headed all across North America. Owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP), Bailey Yard is located in North ...
in Nebraska.


History

The yard was built by the
Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...
(PRR) in 1905 with two
hump The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...
classification yard A classification yard (American and Canadian English ( Canadian National Railway use)), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, Australian, and Canadian English ( Canadian Pacific Railway use)) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway ...
s. Initially, the yard processed 7,000
cars A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...
per day. The westbound complex had a 20-track receiving yard and 25 classification tracks; the eastbound, a 21-track receiving yard and 17 classification tracks. There were no separate departure yards. By the late 1920s, Enola encompassed 316 acres and had a capacity of 9,692 cars. Service buildings included a 43-stall roundhouse and a steel car shop. A 240-car yard to handle container freight was added to the complex in 1932.Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Harrisburg, PA (1997). "Enola Yard: A Brief History." Brochure. Starting with the eastbound hump in 1938, the PRR rebuilt the component yards and installed automatic retarders. The eastbound yard was
electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic history ...
with 11,000-volt
alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...
(AC) service. (''See''
Amtrak's 25 Hz traction power system Amtrak's 25 Hz traction power system is a Traction power network, traction power grid operated by Amtrak along the southern portion of its Northeast Corridor (NEC): the 226.6 route miles (362 km) between Washington, D.C. and New York ...
.) The average daily traffic load in 1939 was 11,207 cars, rising as
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
approached to 14,100 daily cars in October 1941. The yard's one-day record was 20,660 cars in June 1943. In 1944, the westbound complex was rebuilt with 16 receiving tracks (enough to hold 1,721 cars) and 35 classification tracks, followed by the eastbound complex with 15 receiving tracks (enough to hold 1,948 cars) and 33 classification tracks. Each had a hump yard that could hold 2,668 cars. The
engine house __NOTOC__ An engine house is a building or other structure that holds one or more engines. It is often practical to bring engines together for common maintenance, as when train locomotives are brought together. Types of engine houses include: * m ...
at mid-century had 46 stalls and two
turntables A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
. A
diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...
shop was added in the late 1940s. In 1953, the yard comprised 145 miles of track and 476
switches In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...
and handled 11,000 cars per day. In the 1950s, PRR rebuilt
Conway Yard Conway Yard (also known as Conway Terminal) is a major rail yard located in the boroughs of Conway and Freedom, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh, along the Ohio River. It was the largest freight yard in the world from 1956 until 1980.Edwin K ...
near
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, which upon its reopening in 1959 became the railroad's major yard for east-west traffic. Traffic at Enola Yard declined. In 1976,
Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...
took over operation of Enola Yard, whose traffic declined as Conrail began to route more trains over nearby tracks of the former
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
and
Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...
rail lines. In 1983, Conrail removed electrification equipment and closed the eastbound hump yard; it closed the westbound hump yard in 1993. The steel car shop closed in 1996.


Current operation

The yard is currently owned by the
Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...
(NS), which has operated a flat classification yard and increased operations since taking over from
Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...
in 1999. In 2003, NS announced plans to resume hump yard operations.Harrisburg's historic Enola Yard is railroad hub
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, press release. 2003-10-13. Retrieved 2010-05-26.
As of 2005, the yard was operating 79 tracks and handled 275,000 tons of freight a day.


See also

*
Enola Branch The Enola Branch is a railroad segment of the Port Road Branch and was a rail line. The Enola Branch railroad segment and the rest of the Port Road Branch is owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The ...
(Norfolk Southern Railway) *
List of rail yards 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 th ...


References


External links

* Enola Classification Yard Track Diagrams as of: *
1963
*

{{Susquehanna Valley Railroads Conrail Norfolk Southern Railway Penn Central Transportation Pennsylvania Railroad Rail yards in Pennsylvania Transportation buildings and structures in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania