Yards - Switching

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Harry,

Thanks for your reply,

John Rhodes

On 9/18/06, nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org> wrote:

>

>  John Rhodes:

> It's a shame I don't have any *hard* figures I can offer you regarding

> heights

> and lengths.  Following are some estimates, but I'm a poor estimator.

>

> The receiving yard at Bellevue, called the "A" Yard, had eight tracks

> about

> 1.5 miles long, so a crew shoving to the hump might have 150 car *lengths.

> *

> Two hump crews worked each trick except Monday 1st trick (maintenance

> day).  The power for each hump jobs was an  SD-40's and two slugs  Because

> the Ohio Route 4 overpass crossed between the "A" Yard and the hump,

> these units were outfitted with a cab signal because a signal on the hump

> wouldn't be visible.  From the bottom of the hump to the apex - probably

> 10 car lengths.  Height of the hump ?  Sixty feet, give or take a few

> thousand

> feet.  Longest bowl track - 8/10ths of a mile.  There are 40-some tracks

> in

> the bowl.    On the bowl-side of the apex is a sensing pad.  It measures

> seven different factors and adjust retarders accordingly.  SOME of the

> seven factors are:

>

> 1- Length of car

> 2- Cars already in the track car is coded for.

> 3- Free roller ?

> 4- Wind.

>

> Wind is a real problem at Bellevue because when the car crosses the

> sensing

> pad, it may be bucking a 15 MPH head wind off the lake.  The wind stops

> blowing and the car sails into the track and makes a hard coupling.

>

> Portsmouth - certainly not modern, as you specified.  There were only

> eight

> tracks in the bowl (as I recall), but then there weren't that many

> classifications

> to make going west of Portsmouth (when built before merger mania).  Height

> of

> hump - my guess is 20 ft.   Classified only westbound time freight traffic

> and

> only worked one or two shifts/day.  Usually humped Nos. 85 and 77 to make

> Cincinnati's,  Columbus's, Bellevue's, Chicago's, etc. Hump power ?  i've

> forgotten.

>

> "Bowl" was a concoction of the Bellevue people - post NKP merger.  We're

> talking N&W people here - Winston Haynes, Glen Kilgore,  B.J. Hoops.

> They also concocted the name "Spike" -- not the nickname of Abe's father,

> but a reference to an accumulation of "this and that" accumulating in

> the old (original) NKP yard that was recycled to the ""A" yard for

> reclassification.

>                                                               Harry Bundy

>

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