Columbus, OH: NS/Pennsy Buckeye Yard and N&W Watkins Yard

Buckeye: (Satellite) A CSX intermodal yard is just east of the NS railyard
Watkins: (Satellite) Has a NS intermodal yard

According to the comments the hump yard was closed in 2009 and NS now plans to "scrape the land" and sell it. I see from the satellite image that Columbus urban sprawl has swallowed this yard.  I include Watkins Yard in these notes because that is where NS does the little classification work that remains in this area.

The yard is not on a 1962 topo map, but it is on a 1966 topo. A 1965 historic aerial photo shows just farm land, but the next photo, 1971, does show the yard. Of note, the 1965 photo does not have any interstates, but the 1971 aerial does have them. It turns out the 1966 topo trusted the plans that the 4.5 mile long yard would be built because it wasn't started by PC until 1969 and it wasn't completed until 1970.  This site contains a lot of interesting information from a PC booklet developed for its employees.

Diagram via penncentral.railfan

JB Ward posted
A blast for m the past, 1968. I spent my career there from 1972 to 2009. It shows best when you magnify it.
Allen Whitaker It's a shame what it is now. That's one of the easiest yards to navigate.
Matt Fisher JB Ward , they just retied Groups 3-5 in the bowl for Storage before they decided to put it up For Sale. I don’t think anyone will buy it with the tracks intact. It’s supposedly only For Sale for Non-rail related endeavors and potential buyers probably don’t want to have to clean up the stuff and remove all the tracks. Only portion they plan on keeping is 7-8-9 Departure which supposedly is to keep CSX from buying any of it to expand the Van Yard and have a couple tracks for Camp Chase Industrial RR to interchange.
JB Ward I agree with you on the clean up, it could be a toxic mess after all the years of operations. I was involved on many clean-ups throughout my tenure. I personally know of 2 evacuations over my time there. That not to diminish the fact that there are thousands of miles of underground fiber optic and other cables buried throughout the entire yard.
[So NS severed the hump tracks, restored the hump tracks, then decided to sell it. I doubt if NS created all of that track work to provide jobs for their MoW personnel. I'd bet on incompetent planning. There seems to be a race between NS and CSX as to whose so called PSR can be stupider.]

JB Ward commented on his post
Steve Pajak Nice aerial shot! What railroad or contractor owns the two motors in the picture?
Matt Fisher Steve Pajak , Camp Chase Industrial RR. They interchange with NS here several times a week.
Steve Pajak Matt Fisher thank you. Where else does the Camp Chase operate?
Matt Fisher Steve Pajak , old NYC line between Miami Crossing and Lilly Chapel

Photography by BT posted
An aerial view reveals the emptiness of Norfolk Southern's primarily closed Buckeye Yard in Columbus, Ohio. CSX continues to use the van yard on the northeast side and the Camp Chase Industrial Railroad can be seen making their interchange in the receiving yard.
11/20/2019
Ed Bell It was made irrelevant by a combination of Conrail abandonments and the later split of CR between CSX and NS.

Richard Stewart shared
Nicholas Thurn Where does NS do their operations now?
Matt Fisher Nicholas Thurn , Buckeye Yard was idled in May 2009 as an active classification yard. It became a storage facility for cars afterward. What little classification work was left was shifted across town to Watkins Yard. Today Buckeye is for sale. Rumor has it all non rail related so most of the tracks and buildings will be demolished and removed.

Once again, I capture a satellite image of a hump yard because it is going to disappear from future satellite images. it already looks like the yard tower has disappeared.

Satellite

Satellite

Street View, looking North   We can see just the lead track to the hump up the middle of this photo.

Street View, looking South

A photo of a Conrail coal train being shoved over the hump The caboose is between the engines and coal cars. This photo does catch a glimpse of the yard tower. I thought by Conrail's time that all coal trains were unit trains, so a coal train being classified was quite a surprise for me.

safe_image for 8:41 YouTube Video
"Xebec realty released news of buying the yard. As of August of 2021 Xebec, A Dallas based Industrial real estate firm has acquired 405 acres of the former Buckeye yard. Plans are to develop the property into a warehouse complex and will allow for Norfolk Southern to maintain rail service to the facilities."