#humpyard

Fifty Years Hence (5 of 8)

Being in Indianapolis for a conference last weekend, I made a series of down and dirty before and after work: the Big Four in Indianapolis, west of town to Avon Yard, and beyond just past Danville, Indiana.

This fifth pair was made at the west end of Avon Yard (which is located west of Indianapolis by ten miles or so). The vintage image here was made when Conrail was but one month old.

We rail enthusiasts were excited as motive power from several eastern roads (which had been folded into the new consolidated railway) suddenly populated this Midwest engine servicing track and piloted trains on the mainline. Here we have a pair of Reading GP35s running a train westward on the Big Four/NYC toward St. Louis.

And the new image shows that not much had changed here for whatever reason. Prior to this trip, I had thought the hump may have been removed (they seem to have fallen out of favor over the last decade or two), but we now see that it's still alive and well. However: the two engines shoving cars over the top were remote control operated, which is different from the time of the vintage image.

Fifty Years Hence (6 of 8)

Being in Indianapolis for a conference last weekend, I made a series of down and dirty before and after work: the Big Four in Indianapolis, west of town to Avon Yard, and beyond just past Danville, Indiana.

This sixth pair was also made at the west end of Avon Yard. The vintage image here was made when Conrail was nine days old. Both the old and new here highlight the use of the hump yard for classifying rail cars. With this model, a long string of cars is slowly shoved over the hump with a person disconnecting them at the top; the cars then roll via gravity to this track or that, depending upon their destination.

As mentioned in the previous post, the locomotives doing the shoving seem to be remote control operated (note the flashing yellow lights on the lead unit). Unit 4010 was built as an SD40-2 for the L&N in 1979, while 8462 was built in 1969 for the Missouri Pacific as an SD40.