Cedar Hill Yard
41°19′39″N 72°53′39″W / 41.32750°N 72.89417°W
![An overview of Cedar Hill Yard, as of 1977. A large collection of railroad tracks can be seen in the foreground. At the center of the image is a large coaling tower, and behind it is a roundhouse. Railroad tracks extend off to the left, as well as off towards the horizon across the Quinnipiac River.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/New_York%2C_New_Haven_and_Hartford_RR-_East_New_Haven_Shops_and_Yards._East_New_Haven%2C_New_Haven_Co.%2C_CT._%28Not_on_NEC%29._-_Northeast_Railroad_Corridor%2C_Amtrak_Route_between_New_HAER_CONN%2C5-NEWHA%2C37-81_%28cropped%29.tif/lossy-page1-260px-thumbnail.tif.jpg)
Cedar Hill Yard is a classification yard located in New Haven, North Haven, and Hamden, Connecticut. It was built by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NYNH&H) in the early 1890s in and around New Haven's Cedar Hill neighborhood, which gave the yard its name. Electrical catenary for electric locomotives was added to the yard in 1914. To handle increasing traffic as a result of World War I, the yard was greatly expanded between 1917 and 1920 with additional construction along both sides of the Quinnipiac River. The construction project added two "humps" where railroads cars were sorted into trains by gravity. The yard was further modernized in the 1920s, becoming one of the busiest and most state-of-the-art railroad yards in the United States, and the most important yard in the entire New Haven Railroad system.
At its peak during World War II, Cedar Hill Yard routinely classified more than 3,000 railroad cars each day, and on particularly busy days handled more than 5,000. Following the end of the war, the yard's importance began to decline as freight traffic across New England shifted to truck transport, and heavy industry left the region. Much of the yard began to fall into decay following the New Haven Railroad's bankruptcy in 1963. Following the construction of the new Selkirk Yard near Albany, New York in 1968, much of the traffic formerly handled at Cedar Hill Yard was directed there instead, and car float service between Cedar Hill Yard and New York City ended.
In 1969, the Penn Central Transportation Company took over the yard as part of its purchase of the New Haven Railroad. The yard's new owner promptly removed the electrical catenary and shut down one of the yard's two humps to save money. Penn Central in turn went bankrupt itself in 1970, and the yard continued to deteriorate from deferred maintenance. Under Penn Central, the yard's importance further declined when the Poughkeepsie Bridge, the yard's key link to the rest of the United States, burned in 1974 and was not replaced. Conrail, a new freight railroad formed by the United States Government to reverse the fortunes of Penn Central and other bankrupt Northeastern United States railroads, took over operations in 1976. The yard's new owner initially made some improvements, but in 1980 decided to close the yard's remaining hump and move more operations to the yard in Selkirk. Cedar Hill Yard continued to be used to classify freight trains, but was turned into a flat yard, with trains built up and broken down by switcher locomotives.
Cedar Hill Yard was operated by Conrail until 1999, when CSX Transportation purchased Conrail's New England operations. In the first decade of the 2000s, CSX expanded the yard's operations by constructing a bulk cargo transfer facility, where bulk commodities are transferred between trains and trucks. CSX was joined in the yard by other railroads, including Amtrak, which uses part of the yard as a base for maintenance of way operations on the Northeast Corridor. Two other freight railroads also operate freight trains to and from the yard in the 2020s, including the Providence and Worcester Railroad and Connecticut Southern Railroad.
Location
As built, the yard was situated where three railroad lines met, all of which remain in service as of 2021: the Shore Line Railway, which travelled east along the Connecticut coast past New Haven; the Hartford and New Haven Railroad, which travelled north to Hartford and Springfield; and the "Air Line" (New Haven, Middletown and Willimantic Railroad) which travelled northeast from New Haven towards Middletown.[1] By the time the first instance of Cedar Hill Yard was constructed, all three companies were part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, which controlled nearly all railroad traffic in Connecticut.[1] Two other railroad lines formerly entered New Haven near the yard: the New Haven and Northampton Railroad (the "Canal Line") diverged northward from the Shore Line Railway less than a mile west of Cedar Hill Yard, while in East Haven the New Haven and Derby Railroad connected New Haven to Derby.[1] The New Haven and Derby line was abandoned in 1938, and in 1987 the connection with the Canal Line was cut due to low clearances that blocked modern railroad cars from entering and exiting the line.[1]
In the 21st century, the former Hartford and New Haven Railroad line is now Amtrak's New Haven–Springfield Line, the Air Line is part of the Providence and Worcester Railroad, and the Shore Line is part of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.[1][2]
History
Before 1900
The first instance of Cedar Hill Yard was built in the early 1890s by the New Haven Railroad just north of the city of New Haven, on flat lands adjacent to the Quinnipiac River.[3]
In 1896, tensions with labor reached a breaking point. Due to the construction of Cedar Hill Yard, train crews had to stop their trains within the yard as opposed to the yard in New Haven proper, which reportedly increased their shifts by several hours. Employees demanded extra pay for the longer hours, but the railroad refused, leading several train crews to walk off the job. One railway man was quoted by a local newspaper as saying:
We think that it is no more than fair that extra pay be given us for all work over eight hours for yard men and all over ten hours for through men. Those men who run into New Haven and were ordered to take their trains to Cedar Hill, were done an injustice. It takes at least two hours to sidetrack a train there and get back into the city and I do not blame the men for refusing to do it unless paid for extra time.[3]
1900 to 1917
Operations at the yard came to a halt on November 21, 1901, when approximately 125 switchmen and brakemen went on strike in solidarity with strikers at Mott Haven. The New Haven's president John M. Hall asserted the strike would quickly end, as the strikers had no grievances and they would return to their jobs as soon as they understood the situation.[4]
On July 31, 1904, a deadly train collision occurred just outside of Cedar Hill Yard. The NYNH&H's White Mountain passenger train collided with the rear of a freight train attempting to pull into a siding by the yard, resulting in the death of the White Mountain's engineer, while the train's fireman survived with severe injuries. A coroner found the crew of the freight train criminally responsible for the crash, as they had neglected to send a flagman behind their train to warn the White Mountain, which they knew was due to arrive, that the tracks were not clear. As a result of the crash, operations were changed so that all northbound trains entered the yard at the south end.[5]
In 1914, the New Haven added electrical catenary to the yard as part of its electrification program; operations with electric locomotives began in October of that year.[6][7] By 1915, it was apparent the existing yard was not large enough to handle the amount of freight it was receiving. A local newspaper reported that "There were so many freight cars lying in the yard that switchers could not travel from the north to the south end of the yards."[8] Freight congestion was so bad that it was delaying the New Haven's passenger trains through the area as well.[8]
The yard is expanded, 1917 to 1920
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Cedar_Hill_Yard_1917_Railway_Review.png/220px-Cedar_Hill_Yard_1917_Railway_Review.png)
The New Haven Railroad purchased approximately 500 acres (2.0 km2) of land in the Cedar Hill area in 1917 for constructing a new classification yard.[9] Originally, the company had planned to build a new yard in nearby Woodmont, but instead built it at Cedar Hill due to local opposition. Construction began the same year.[9] The expansion project was initially budgeted at $10 million (equivalent to $172,057,522 in 2020), but upon the United States Railroad Administration's takeover of all U.S. railroads in December 1917, the federal government doubled the project's budget to $20 million and allocated government engineers to assist in construction.[10] This greatly increased the scope of the project, with the terminal and facilities estimated to take up more than 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of land in total upon completion.[10]
Design
Cedar Hill was chosen as the site for the new classification yard for a variety of reasons. New Haven was the nexus of no less than eight different railroad routes operated by the New Haven Railroad, including lines to New York City, Danbury, Waterbury, Northampton, Hartford, Middletown, New London, and the docks in New Haven south of the yard.[11] Cedar Hill was also the eastern end of the New Haven's electrification, was centrally located in the railroad's system, and at a good location for locomotives travelling between New York City and Boston to stop for servicing. Other factors included the significant industrial activity in the city of New Haven, the high cost of buying property any closer to New York City, and the NYNH&H's existing facilities and land in the area.[11]
The yard's design called for a capacity of 180 cars per hour over the two humps, for a classification capacity of 4,320 cars each day.[11] Significant design work went into planning the height and slope of the yard's humps, so that cars rolling downhill would travel at the desired speeds, accelerating up to 18 mph after passing through the switches.[11] Several tracks were planned that travelled between the humps and the classification yards and accommodated speeders; these were used by the workers who rode along with the cars down the hump and manually applied handbrakes to slow them down.[11] Using speeders to return to the hump instead of walking saved time and allowed for fewer workers to handle the same number of cars per hour.[11] Additional planned facilities included a yard for storing materials and a coal storage yard with a capacity of 100,000 short tons (91,000 t) of coal.[11]
Construction
The site for the new expanded yard largely consisted of marshland, which complicated construction.[12] Over 3,000,000 cubic yards (2,300,000 m3) of fill was required for the project, which had to be delivered from cuts made elsewhere.[12] In particular, the two humps had to be built on the previously flat land, with one of them being 30 feet (9.1 m) in height.[12] To accomplish this, trestles were built and then buried with fill, resulting in the hills needed to allow cars to be moved by gravity for classification.[12] Construction of the trestles required piles to be driven 20 feet (6.1 m) underground due to the soft soil.[12] For moving and transporting soil, the New Haven Railroad purchased 120 side-dump gondolas, and 7 steam shovels worked to fill the side-dump cars at cut sites.[12] Locomotives backed trains of 15 gondolas at a time up the trestles, and dumped fill under them until the fill was level with the tracks, leaving the trestles covered by soil.[12]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e5/Freight_Terminals_and_Trains_Cedar_Hill_North_and_East_Yard.png/220px-Freight_Terminals_and_Trains_Cedar_Hill_North_and_East_Yard.png)
As part of the yard's expansion, a new freight transfer station to handle less-than-car load freight was built, which opened in July 1920.[13] This 11 track transfer facility was equipped with what were at the time very modern battery powered freight tractors to sort freight throughout the facility, and could handle over 300 freight cars per day.[13] As a result of the opening of the transfer facility, located in the center of the yard, the New Haven Railroad was able to close multiple similar but less modern facilities across its system.[13] After several years of construction, the new Cedar Hill Yard opened in 1920. At the time of its completion, Cedar Hill was the largest railyard east of the Mississippi River in the entire United States.[14]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/37/Freight_Terminals_and_Trains_Cedar_Hill_Collage.png/220px-Freight_Terminals_and_Trains_Cedar_Hill_Collage.png)
1920 to 1950
An automatic train stop system was installed from Cedar Hill Yard north to Springfield, Massachusetts in 1925, with it entering operation on the first of September.[15] In 1926, Cedar Hill handled 97,328 cars per month, for an average of 3,200 cars each day.[16] Particularly busy days saw over 4,000 cars classified in 24 hours.[17] By 1928, Cedar Hill Yard and its surrounding facilities occupied 880 acres of land. The massive yards had a capacity of over 15,000 railroad cars.[18]
On August 29, 1928, an attempt was made by unknown person(s) to sabotage an express passenger train travelling from Montreal to Washington, D.C. through the yard. A railroad employee walking along the tracks noticed a railroad spike lodged into the rails in an attempt to derail the train, which was carrying over $2 million (equivalent to $30,143,411 in 2020 dollars) worth of gold along with over 350 passengers. A derailment was averted when the employee flagged down the train, which reportedly came to a stop 30 feet (9.1 m) away from the spike.[19]
In 1929, the New Haven commenced another major project to improve the yard by adding retarders and wiring switches to be remotely operated from control towers, improving both the safety and speed of the classification process. In total, 44 retarders were installed at Cedar Hill, along with 88 switches converted.[20] This allowed an end to the practice of workers riding along each car going down the hump and applying handbrakes, improving safety and reducing the number of workers required to run the yard.[20]
![Three ALCO FA locomotives parked on a track in the yard. A railroad worker is standing near the lead locomotive.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/New_Haven_Alcos_at_Cedar_Hill_1949_postcard.jpg/220px-New_Haven_Alcos_at_Cedar_Hill_1949_postcard.jpg)
By 1941, Cedar Hill Yard held the title of "the world's largest single-railroad-operated freight yard".[21] A tour granted to a reporter for the Meriden Record in 1941 affords a snapshot of how the yard operated at its peak immediately before the Second World War. The reporter arrived at the yard on a train from Springfield, Massachusetts, and observed his train being reclassified over one of the yard's humps. The train was first inspected for defects by eight car inspectors, and then sent over the hump. The 70-car train was fully sorted in 14 minutes.[21] The railroad operated four control towers to run the yard, towers A through D. The towers were linked to each other by a PA system and the world's longest pneumatic tube system, with one tube stretching for three miles and requiring seven minutes for a cartridge to travel from one end to the other.[21] At the time of the reporter's visit, the yard's twin roundhouses serviced 44 freight locomotives, 185 passenger locomotives, and 8 switchers each day.[21]
Cedar Hill Yard was at its busiest during World War II, with very heavy traffic in support of the war effort. In 1943, particularly busy days saw as many as 5,000 cars classified in a 24 hour period. The railroad faced challenges due to labor shortages at this time, as a result of many men being drafted to fight in the war.[22] During the war, a significant amount of traffic travelled between New York City and the yard by car float, moved by the New Haven Railroad's fleet of tugboats.[22]
1950 to 1969
A fire broke out on one of the yard's bridges across the Quinnipiac River on July 5, 1953. The three-track bridge, 300 feet (91 m) in length, was completely destroyed. Traffic was rerouted over alternate trestles until the repairs, estimated at over $100,000 (equivalent to $967,289 in 2020 dollars), could be completed.[23][24]
A 1954 inventory showed Cedar Hill Yard including the following facilities:[25]
Yard name | Car capacity |
---|---|
Maybrook receiving[Note 1] | 924 |
Transfer platforms | 718 |
North and eastbound classification[Note 2] | 1,763 |
Creosoting plant | 430 |
Northbound departure[Note 3] | 502 |
Southbound receiving | 441 |
Material storage | 350 |
Shore Line receiving | 583 |
Westbound classification | 1,854 |
Shore line departure | 857 |
Maybrook departure | 1,436 |
Air line receiving | 403 |
Enginehouse yard | 193 |
![Two electric locomotives pull a caboose across a bridge over the Quinnipiac River. Behind them, several diesel locomotives pull a train across a flyover which leads into the yard.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/New_Haven_EF4_locomotives_at_Cedar_Hill_Yard_1964_postcard.jpg/220px-New_Haven_EF4_locomotives_at_Cedar_Hill_Yard_1964_postcard.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/New_York%2C_New_Haven_and_Hartford_RR-_East_New_Haven_Shops_Roundhouse._East_New_Haven%2C_New_Haven_Co.%2C_CT._%28Not_on_NEC%29._-_Northeast_Railroad_Corridor%2C_Amtrak_Route_between_New_HAER_CONN%2C5-NEWHA%2C37-85.tif/lossy-page1-220px-thumbnail.tif.jpg)
In 1958, the yard handled over 3,000 cars each day.[27] On August 16, 1959, the New Haven was forced to close the western hump after a fire damaged the tracks connecting it to the rest of the yard. Traffic was redirected to the railroad's Maybrook Yard in Maybrook, New York.[28] The remaining hump and the yard at Maybrook were unable to handle all of the traffic, requiring the railroad hastily rebuild the damaged tracks and return the western hump to service.[16] Car float service between Cedar Hill Yard and New York and New Jersey ended in 1968, when Selkirk Yard was rebuilt, resulting in a significant reduction in traffic.[29]
Penn Central takes over, 1969 to 1976
In 1969, the bankrupt New Haven Railroad was merged into newly-formed Penn Central Transportation Company, which inherited the yard. Soon after, Penn Central shut down the western hump at the yard, leaving only one hump in operation.[16] That same year, electrified operations were discontinued, and the catenary in the yard dismantled.[30][31] Under Penn Central, the yard was largely in a state of decay. The retarders in the yard had never been upgraded or replaced since their installation in 1929, and were no longer able to apply enough force to cars to slow them. The employees came up with a solution that was dubbed "the toothpick machine": workers in the yard placed pieces of wood ("toothpicks") on the rails in front of each car, to reduce their speed as they went down the hump. A 1974 U.S. Senate report assessing issues in agricultural transportation opined that "Considering the price of new lumber these days, it is quite possible a new retarder would be cheaper."[32]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/New_York%2C_New_Haven_and_Hartford_RR-_East_New_Haven_Shops_and_Yards._East_New_Haven%2C_New_Haven_Co.%2C_CT._%28Not_on_NEC%29._-_Northeast_Railroad_Corridor%2C_Amtrak_Route_between_New_HAER_CONN%2C5-NEWHA%2C37-83.tif/lossy-page1-220px-thumbnail.tif.jpg)
Operations at Cedar Hill were severely impacted by a fire on the Poughkeepsie Bridge in May of 1974, which suspended all traffic between New Haven and points west that travelled across the bridge via the Maybrook Line.[33] Despite a directive from New York governor Malcolm Wilson in September of that year to reopen the bridge, the bankrupt Penn Central failed to do so.[33] Plans for rebuilding the bridge were repeatedly delayed, with New York representative Benjamin Gilman calling the situation a "seminar on government procrastination".[34] A legal fight over the fate of the bridge continued for years, with Connecticut's congressional delegation opposed to the federal plan to abandon the bridge and route freight to Cedar Hill via a circuitous route through Albany, New York and Springfield, Massachusetts. A representative of the state's department of transportation observed that freight shipments between Washington, D.C. and Boston increased in time from 6 hours to 31 hours when traveling this inland route.[35]
Conrail assumes operations, 1976 to 1999
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Abandoned_tower_in_Cedar_Hill_Yard.jpg/220px-Abandoned_tower_in_Cedar_Hill_Yard.jpg)
Just one year after acquiring Cedar Hill Yard with the rest of the New Haven, Penn Central declared bankruptcy. The company was merged into Conrail in 1976 along with many other bankrupt or troubled railroads in the Northeast, making Conrail the yard's new owner. Working with the Connecticut Department of Transportation (CTDOT), Conrail began to bring Cedar Hill into a state of good repair, spending over $3 million (equivalent to $16,063,158 in 2023) on track resurfacing and tie replacement in 1976 alone between Cedar Hill and Hartford Yard. The railroad had replaced over 15,000 ties in Cedar Hill by August of 1976, just 4 months after assuming operations.[36] Conrail also rebuilt and reopened several tracks in the yard that had been out of service due to their unsafe condition, a consequence of deferred maintenance.[36]
Conrail initially focused on expanding TOFC (Trailer On FlatCar) service in a joint project with the CTDOT. In August 1976, Cedar Hill averaged 34 TOFC loads per day, and Conrail projected this number to double upon the completion of a clearance raising project for Risley's Bridge in Berlin, Connecticut.[36] Conrail also planned to rebuild the remaining hump to accommodate modern railcars. At the end of 1976, Conrail reported a 37% increase in traffic at the yard for November and December, thanks to the successful completion of the Risley's Bridge raising project, which added 6 inches (15 cm) of clearance.[29][37]
In 1978, 2 years into Conrail's tenure, Cedar Hill was processing roughly 300 cars a day, significantly less than it had in the New Haven days. At this point the yard employed 200 workers, down from its peak of 1,000.[29] Traffic declined precipitously due to the opening of the newly built and computerized Selkirk Yard, which took the majority of Cedar Hill's previous freight.[16] Primary commodities entering the yard at this point were traprock, metals, food, chemicals, and general merchandise.[29]
Despite previous plans, the end of hump operations at Cedar Hill arrived in April 1980, when Conrail took the remaining hump out of service permanently. Short on funds and operating at a loss, Conrail downsized the yard in favor of the newer yard at Selkirk. From this point on, all operations were done by flat switching.[16] In October of 1981, facing continuing financial problems, Conrail announced its intention to file to abandon its line over the Hudson River via the Poughkeepsie Bridge, ending the prospect of the bridge returning to service. With the line abandoned, the key link between Cedar Hill Yard and the rest of the country was severed.[38]
Illegal dumping of toxic mercury was discovered in an abandoned portion of the yard in 1988, resulting in an investigation involving the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Environmental Protection Agency being launched.[39] The next year, two men who owned an auto repair shop next to the yard were convicted of illegal dumping of the mercury and sentenced to prison time as a result of the investigation.[40]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Cedar_Hill_Yard_panorama.jpg/220px-Cedar_Hill_Yard_panorama.jpg)
CSX assumes control, 1999 to present
In 1999, Conrail's lines in New England were purchased by CSX Transportation.[41] Following its assumption of operations, CSX began to develop Cedar Hill Yard in the early 2000s for loading, unloading, and transfer of bulk cargo such as lumber and cement between trucks and trains. The railroad has continued the TOFC business that was run by Conrail, but much of it is now moved between Cedar Hill Yard and CSX's West Springfield, Massachusetts yard by truck due to limited capacity on the New Haven–Springfield Line, which is a busy passenger train corridor.[42]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/Cedar_Hill_Yard_sign.jpg/220px-Cedar_Hill_Yard_sign.jpg)
In the late 2000s, a new rail line was built to connect the yard to the port of New Haven. As of 2021, this line is operated by the Providence and Worcester.[42][43]
A fire occurred in Cedar Hill Yard on July 23, 2016. The North Haven Fire Department responded to a report of a hopper car filled with construction debris on fire. The fire was extinguished without incident within a few hours.[44][45]
Cedar Hill Yard today
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Cedar_Hill_Yard_coaling_tower.jpg/220px-Cedar_Hill_Yard_coaling_tower.jpg)
As of 2021, CSX remains the owner and main operator at Cedar Hill Yard. Freight operations take place in the former Northbound Departure Yard and the North and Eastbound Classification Yard, both of which are now used for flat switching.[31] The yard contains a TRANSFLO bulk cargo transfer terminal which handles transloading.[46] From Cedar Hill, CSX operates local trains which serve freight customers on the New Haven Line, as well as the southern portion of the New Haven-Springfield Line.[47] Connecticut Southern Railroad is under contract by CSX to move freight between Cedar Hill Yard and the yard in West Springfield, Massachusetts, on the CSX Berkshire Subdivision.[47]
Another occupant of the yard is Amtrak, which uses it to store equipment and as a base for maintenance of way operations on the Northeast Corridor in Connecticut.[31] Amtrak occupies the portion of the yard west of the Quinnipiac River.[31] The yard also contains the headquarters for the company's New England Division. As of 2016, Amtrak employs approximately 100 people at Cedar Hill.[48] Some of Amtrak's yard is leased to a local manufacturer of welded rail.[31]
The Providence and Worcester Railroad leases a few tracks in the yard from CSX and Amtrak for locomotive servicing and freight use. The railroad also moves dedicated aggregate trains in and out of the yard.[31]
In the 21st century, much of the yard now lies abandoned and is an attraction for urban explorers, despite the dangers of the old buildings and facilities which contain lead paint and asbestos.[49] The former New Haven Railroad coaling tower, built in 1927, stands abandoned to this day within Amtrak's portion of the yard and is a local landmark.[31][50]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Abandoned_tracks_in_Cedar_Hill_Yard.jpg/220px-Abandoned_tracks_in_Cedar_Hill_Yard.jpg)
Future
While as of 2021 the yard currently only operates at a small fraction of its former level of activity, since the 1980s there have been several proposals that would increase traffic to the yard. One reason for the yard's decline in importance is the Selkirk hurdle, which forces trains travelling between New York City and New England to cross the Hudson River 140 miles (230 km) north of the city. This has caused a significant amount of freight traffic to switch to trucks, and much of the traffic that continued to travel by rail to instead be directed to the yard in Selkirk, New York.[51]
The proposed Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel in New York City would result in more usage of Cedar Hill Yard. Since so much of the yard is not in use, advocates have proposed rebuilding the abandoned portions of the yard to handle new rail freight traffic from the tunnel if it is built. Officials in Connecticut have supported this proposal as a means of reducing truck traffic on the frequently congested Connecticut Turnpike between NYC and New Haven.[42][52]
In 2011, a proposal was considered to reintroduce car float service between New Haven and New Jersey, with Cedar Hill Yard as the staging location for the New Haven terminus.[42] As of 2021, no car float service has been implemented.
Notes
- ^ Receiving yards are where trains entering the yard are initially stored, before being sent over one of the humps for classification.[26]
- ^ Classification yards are where trains from the receiving yards are classified based on their next destination, by being sent over a hump and switched to different tracks.[26]
- ^ Departure yards are where sorted trains are moved to, before having road locomotives attached and leaving the yard for various destinations.[26]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
References
- ^ a b c d e Karr, Ronald Dale (2017). The Rail Lines of Southern New England (2nd ed.). Pepperell, Massachusetts: Branch Line Press. pp. 45–50, 71–81, 101–110. ISBN 978-0-942147-12-4. OCLC 1038017689. Archived from the original on October 24, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2021.
- ^ Connecticut Department of Transportation (2012). "Connecticut State Rail Plan, 2012-2016" (PDF). Ct.gov. p. 20. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
- ^ a b "Railroad Men Unsettled - Freight Employes Dissatisfied With Hours Of Labor". Sunday Herald. Bridgeport, Connecticut. November 10, 1895. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
- ^ "Strike At New Haven". The Meriden Daily Journal. Meriden, Connecticut. November 21, 1901. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
- ^ "Official Finding: Coroner Mix Gives Decision Regarding Wreck". Meriden Morning Record. August 4, 1904. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
- ^ "Tide Of Business Turns In Favor Of New Haven". The Meriden Daily Journal. Meriden, Connecticut. March 6, 1915. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
- ^ Poor's Government and Municipal Supplement. Poor's Publishing Company. 1916. p. 545. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
- ^ a b "Rush of Freight for New Haven to Handle". The Day. New London, Connecticut. April 19, 1915. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
- ^ a b "Cedar Hill Will Get Railroad Yard". The Day. New London, Connecticut. May 30, 1917. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
- ^ a b "New Haven Will Have Big Terminal". The Day. New London, Connecticut. August 3, 1918. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g Droege, John Albert (1925). Freight Terminals and Trains. McGraw-Hill Book Company, Incorporated. pp. 72–76.
- ^ a b c d e f g The Earth Mover: A Monthly Magazine for Earth and Stone Movers. Burton Publishing Company. 1917. pp. 5–7. Retrieved October 28, 2021.
- ^ a b c "Electric Tractors in Freight Transfer Service". Railway Electrical Engineer. 1921. pp. 455–458. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
- ^ Duff, Beth Longware (October 28, 2003). "Traveling The Rise And Fall Of The New Haven Railroad". The Hour. Norwalk, Connecticut. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved September 13, 2021.
- ^ "Meriden In Safety Zone - New Train Stop System Installed". The Meriden Daily Journal. Meriden, Connecticut. September 1, 1925. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Rhodes, Michael (2014). North American railyards (Updated and expanded ed.). Minneapolis, MN. p. 233. ISBN 978-0-7603-4609-9. OCLC 876669596.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ "New Haven Road Spends $81,000,000 in Decade On System's Improvement". The Day. New London, Connecticut. September 4, 1926. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
- ^ Marteka, Peter (April 23, 2016). "A Trip To The Past Along The Forgotten Quinnipiac River". The Hartford Courant. Hartford, Connecticut. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
- ^ "Attempt To Wreck Express Averted By Section Hand". The Montreal Gazette. Montreal, Canada. August 30, 1928. Retrieved September 18, 2021.
- ^ a b "N. Haven R.R. to Spend $1,750,000 on Yards". Evening Tribune. Providence, Rhode Island. April 3, 1929. Archived from the original on September 16, 2021. Retrieved September 15, 2021.
- ^ a b c d Schmelzer, William (June 10, 1941). "The Freights Roll Over Main Street". Meriden Record. Meriden, Connecticut. Archived from the original on September 14, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2021.
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