Conway Yard (also known as Conway Terminal) is a major

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of Track (rail transport), tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for k ...

located in the boroughs of

Conway Conway may refer to: Places United States * Conway, Arkansas * Conway County, Arkansas * Lake Conway, Arkansas * Conway, Florida * Conway, Iowa * Conway, Kansas * Conway, Louisiana * Conway, Massachusetts * Conway, Michigan * Conway Townshi ...

, Pennsylvania, and

Freedom Freedom is the power or right to speak, act, and change as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving oneself one's own laws". In one definition, something is "free" i ...

, Pennsylvania, northwest of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, Pennsylvania, along the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

. It was the largest

freight In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in ...

yard in the world from 1956 until 1980.Edwin Kraft, "The Yard: Railroading's Hidden Half.
''Trains'' Magazine
Vol. 62, No. 6, June 2002. p. 48. It is currently owned by

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

(NS) and is one of the largest yards in the United States and on the east coast.

History

Conway Yard was built in 1884 by the

Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway The Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway was a major part of the Pennsylvania Railroad system, extending the PRR west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, via Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Chicago, Illinois. It included the current Norfolk Southern-ow ...

, a subsidiary of the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as 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. At its ...

(PRR). It was expanded in the early 20th century. In 1905, it had a capacity of 8,967 cars and typically processed 2,300 cars per day. The enlargement yard was part of a major PRR expansion that also added the Pennsylvania yards of Altoona Yard in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Enola Yard in Enola, Pennsylvania, and Harrisburg Yard in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1953, the PRR began a $35 million ($ million today) renovation and expansion of the yard. The new eastbound yard opened in 1956, while the rebuilt westbound facilities opened in stages during 1957 and 1958.Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), Philadelphia, PA (1957)
"Board of Directors Inspection Trip."
Report. Its new capacity was 9,000 cars per day, surpassing Enola Yard as the largest in the United States. Many yards (Dewitt and Clearing Yard, to name just a couple) had larger yards up until 1956. Conway was rebuilt with eastbound and westbound hump

classification yard A classification yard (American English, as well as the Canadian National Railway), marshalling yard (British, Hong Kong, Indian, and Australian English, and the former Canadian Pacific Railway) or shunting yard (Central Europe) is a railway y ...

s, and a total of 99 classification tracks, according to a 1957 PRR publication.PRR (1957)
"Conway Yard on the Pennsylvania Railroad."
Brochure. A 1958 publication describes a total of 107 classification tracks. The westbound hump yard was outfitted with an automatic control system called VELAC, which was designed and installed by the Union Switch and Signal Company.PRR and Union Switch and Signal Co., Swissvale, PA (1958)
"Conway Yard."
Bulletin 172. It was described as the "world's largest push-button yard." The eastbound hump yard was installed with semi-automatic operation. A terminal for transferring coal from river barges to rail cars was located at the south end of the yard.

Current operation

Conway is the only remaining large operation of the four early-20th century PRR yards. NS processes 90,000 to 100,000 cars per month (as of 2003). The site occupies 568 acres, with of track and a storage capacity of over 11,000 cars and is a hump yard. As of 2012, the yard employed 1,400 rail workers, with 60 to 80 trains traveling through it daily.

References

External links

21st century photos of Conway YardPhotos of Conway Yard from the Conrail era (1970s-1990s)
{{Pittsburgh Metro Area Transportation buildings and structures in Beaver County, Pennsylvania Conrail Norfolk Southern Railway Penn Central Transportation Pennsylvania Railroad Rail yards in Pennsylvania 1884 establishments in Pennsylvania

History

Current operation

See also

References

External links