Biking

"In the field" railroad history adventures...

Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Cedar Hill Yard

I was mountain biking in the area today and thought I'd visit the Cedar Hill Yard. Not sure if I was actually trespassing but I drove in and briefly snapped a few photos from my car. They're not too good but I hope to go back and document things a bit better. 

Fortunately others have done a great job (see Further Info below).  After watching Jason's excellent video (linked below), I realized I was in the Amtrak yard...


1927 built coaling tower
(This is huge!)

Further Info

Cedar Hill Yard (Wikipedia)
At the time of its completion, Cedar Hill was the largest railyard east of the Mississippi River in the United States. In 1926, Cedar Hill handled 97,328 cars per month, for an average of 3,200 cars each day. Particularly busy days saw over 4,000 cars classified in 24 hours.  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. By 1941, Cedar Hill Yard held the title of "the world's largest single-railroad-operated freight yard".

The railroad operated four control towers to run the yard, which 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.  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.

The Cedar Hill Rail Yard (Atlas Obscura)
I'll have to check out this trail!

Abandoned Cedar Hill Rail Yard (YouTube)
This is excellent!



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