Anybody know whats going on with the train yard? I havent heard anything at all in months. I heard a rumor that it has been sold? I was just curious if anyone had any info regarding to it?
Hi- Here's a article I found. Norfolk Southern is no longer using the yard.
The latest news making the rounds tonight is the imminent closure of Norfolk Southern's Buckeye Yard . The last train out of the yard is scheduled to be this coming Sunday night (May 3rd). It will be closing officially May 4th. Recently the classification yard had been reduced to only 1 shift during the day. The past couple of weeks there had been rumors swirling about NS possibly closing the yard, but I'm sure this comes as a shock to many people.
It's unclear at this time how permanent the closure is to be. There's always a possibility of reopening the yard in the future. However with the current economy and the related decline in rail traffic this looks to be unlikely (at least in the near term). All locals and other originating and terminating trains will be moved to the ex-N&W's Watkins Yard on the other side of Columbus. The classification load is expected to be picked up by Bellevue and Sharon (Cincinnati) yards. However there is also the possibility of many trains being outright dropped. Right now it is too early to tell.
The yard, located on the west side of Columbus Ohio, was planned by the Pennsylvania and built by the Penn Central in 1968. An unfortunate victim of circumstance, the yard made sense for Conrail but is located far from Norfolk Southern's mainlines. Buckeye Yard is notable as one of the few capital improvements the Penn Central made to its system. It was also one of the first classification yards to use computers and automated retarders in its hump operations.
