Northup Avenue Yard (also known as Northrup Avenue Yard) is a

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

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

and

Pawtucket, Rhode Island Pawtucket is a city in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 75,604 at the 2020 census, making the city the fourth-largest in the state. Pawtucket borders Providence and East Providence to the south, Central Falls ...

, in the United States. The location has been the site of a rail yard since at least 1899. It was significantly expanded by the

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

between 1918 and 1921 and made into a

hump 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 ya ...

. The hump was removed around 1970, after

Penn Central Transportation Company The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

took over the New Haven in 1969. Under Penn Central, the yard was downsized and the hump removed.

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 ...

superseded Penn Central in 1976 and sold off the yard to the

Providence and Worcester Railroad The Providence and Worcester Railroad is a Class II railroad operating of tracks in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, as well as New York via trackage rights. The company was founded in 1844 to build a railroad between Providence ...

in 1982. In the early 1980s,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

established facilities at the yard to support its

maintenance of way Maintenance of way (commonly abbreviated to MOW) refers to the maintenance, construction, and improvement of rail infrastructure, including Railway track, tracks, ballast, grade, and lineside infrastructure such as Railway signal, signals and sign ...

operations along the

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Philadelphia, Wilmington, a ...

. A layover facility for

MBTA Commuter Rail The MBTA Commuter Rail system serves as the commuter rail arm of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's transportation coverage of Greater Boston in the United States. Trains run over of track to 141 different stations, with 58 statio ...

was constructed at the yard in 2006.

History

Original Northup Avenue Yard

Northup Avenue Yard was originally built jointly by the

Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the Rail transport in the United States, first rail ...

and

. The

(The New Haven) maintained a yard at Northup Avenue from at least 1899. A widening program was launched in May 1904, which increased the size of the yard to .

Design and construction

Design

A greatly enlarged Northup Avenue Yard was designed and built by the New Haven as a

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 ...

to sort freight trains in the

area. Construction was announced in 1918. The new yard's design, along with that of

Cedar Hill Yard Cedar Hill Yard is a classification yard located in New Haven, North Haven and Hamden, Connecticut, United States. It was built by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (often known simply as The New Haven) in the early 1890s in a ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, was created after a survey of recently built classification yards across the United States, to incorporate best practices. The general design of the yard was influenced by the long and narrow parcel of land the New Haven owned in Providence and Pawtucket, with of width available as opposed to of length. The new yard was designed as a

for rapidly classifying railroad cars. Two humps were placed adjacent to one another; these were known as the 'winter' and 'summer' humps. The 'winter' hump was built several feet higher than the 'summer' hump; this extra height compensated for winter temperatures slowing the

journal bearings A plain bearing, or more commonly sliding contact bearing and slide bearing (in railroading sometimes called a solid bearing, journal bearing, or friction bearing), is the simplest type of bearing, comprising just a bearing surface and no roll ...

of freight cars, as well as increased winds. If traffic warranted, both humps could be used simultaneously to increase classification speed and capacity.

Construction

To build the yard, it was necessary for the existing main line between Providence and Boston to be relocated. The original alignment of these tracks passed through the central portion of what was to be Northup Avenue Yard. As construction progress permitted, first the eastbound (towards Boston) tracks were realigned to the south, while the westbound (towards Providence) tracks received a new, temporary alignment that crossed through the north end of the yard, before ultimately being moved south with the eastbound tracks. Northup Avenue Yard's construction relieved significant congestion within existing rail yards in Providence. Were it not built, the New Haven would instead have expanded six existing yards in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

Freight operations

Upon opening, Northup Avenue Yard received up 44 freight trains per day, with a peak of five trains per hour. The two humps saw on average 2,000 railroad cars per day pass over them for classification. Two

switcher A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...

locomotives operated at the yard full-time to send cars over the humps. In 1929, the New Haven began the installation of retarders at Northup Avenue Yard, following a successful 1926 installation at

Hartford Yard Hartford Yard is a classification yard located in Hartford, Connecticut. It was originally built by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The yard was greatly expanded between 1925 and 1926 to alleviate congestion in the railroad's nearb ...

in Connecticut. The installation included 19 sets of retarders, plus two new control towers to operate them. As part of the project, 34

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 ...

were also linked to the towers, enabling their remote operation by tower operators. Construction began on April 10, 1929, and the new facilities first operated on August 15 of the same year. Upon the opening of the retarders and other improvements for service, Providence newspaper ''The Evening Tribune'' described Northup Avenue Yard as "the finest in the New Haven system". The company subsequently reported in 1932 that the new retarders resulted in 35 percent less time being required to classify cars while also eliminating the need for employees to ride the cars down the hump to set their brakes manually. The New Haven was merged into

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American Railroad classes, class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania Railroad ...

at the end of 1968, making Penn Central the yard's new owner and operator. Around this time, the hump was removed from the yard, returning it to a

flat yard Flat or flats may refer to: Architecture * Flat (housing), an apartment in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and other Commonwealth countries Arts and entertainment * Flat (music), a symbol () which denotes a lower pitch * Flat (soldier), ...

with trains assembled and disassembled by switcher locomotives. When, in 1973, the

(P&W) became independent of Penn Central, some operations were transferred to

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popu ...

, as the P&W became the operator of most rail service in Providence. The P&W was also given overhead rights to enter the yard to interchange with the

Moshassuck Valley Railroad The Moshassuck Valley Railroad (reporting mark MOV), founded in 1874, was a shortline railroad in Rhode Island, United States. Built from 1876 to 1877, it operated on a long line between Lincoln and a connection to the Providence and Worcester ...

. Penn Central was merged into

in 1976. The Providence and Worcester Railroad became the owner of the freight portion of Northup Avenue Yard, by that point Conrail's primary yard in the state of Rhode Island, on May 1, 1982.

Passenger use

indicated interest in building a

facility in Northup Avenue Yard in 1977. As part of the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project, the maintenance-of-way base was constructed and opened by 1982. Amtrak built a spray wash building at this site in 2006 to clean maintenance of way and work vehicles. A six-track layover yard was built at Northup Avenue Yard in 2006 for

trains to be stored.

References

External links

Edward J. Ozog's website about Northup Avenue Yard, with photos
{{Portal bar, Trains Amtrak facilities MBTA Commuter Rail New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Rail yards in Rhode Island Providence and Worcester Railroad