Macon, GA: 1966 NS/Southern Brosnan Yard

(Satellite)

A photo of a dedecation plaque    This page has a brief description of the operation of a hump yard and several photos. It also shows the engine servicing and car repair facilities. I could not find overview photos of the yard, so please visit this page for photos.

"In full operation since late 1966, the 960-acre facility has the never-ending job of keeping NS freight moving on schedule 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Some 57 freight trains move through this rail hub on an average day, hauling commodities vital for daily life." [NS posted]

"This was one of Southern Railway's first yards to use computers to sort out cars on outbound trains." [17:24 video @ 0:40] As president, Brosnan implemented some of the industry's first hump yards. [1:42] I already knew Southern revolutionized grain shipment by introducing the covered hopper car. 

NS got caught up in the Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR) trend and closed the hump in this yard (and Moorman Yard in Bellevue, OH) two years ago. [FreightWaves-2020] Now (Sep 2022), they are reopening both of these humps. But they will continue to not route cars out of their way to get humped. But those cars that naturally flow through this yard will be humped rather than flat switched. [FreightWaves-2022] (Just a couple of weeks ago, UP tore down their hump tower in the Proviso Yard. At least NS still had their hump yards to reactivate.)

One reason for opening the hump is "to free up yard crews to help relive crew shortages." [TheTracksidePhotographer] My first thought was that means flat switching requires more labor than hump yard switching. Then I realized that it may be the same amount of labor, but humps use different unions than train crews use.

3D Satellite

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Joseph Tuch Santucci: They are claiming “volume increases” which is amusing. The volume was always there but they tried to work around it, even forsaking customers if need be. Elmo Harrison tried to close the hump at Winnipeg and move it to a smaller yard in Edmonton plus have flat smaller switching yards in the US pre block some Canadian blocks. It failed miserably and they gave up on it in far less than a year. I did not think it even lasted six months. It wasn’t about logical handling of cars, it was about cutting jobs. That’s all PSR is about, cutting jobs. It has nothing to do with customers or timely delivery.
Ted Gregory: Completely agree with everything you're saying Tuch. Did you know that CP is down to only one hump yard for their whole entire system? Pigs Eye in St Paul. That's it everything else closed.Then csx has repeatedly tried to close humps even well b4 elmo. I remember around the time I was a TM at CSX B&OCT Barr Yd in Chicago, they tried to close Stanley Yard in Toledo. The whole entire northern half of the system tanked and trains were stacked up in outlying yards and main lines, so they had to reopen it- that happened at least twice, maybe 3 times.
Joseph Tuch Santucci: Ted Gregory CP closed the hump at Bensenville in the 90’s which created chaos and then reopened it albeit smaller as they removed twenty something tracks in order to expand intermodal capacity. . Then they closed it again under Elmo Harrison. The IC closed the north hump moving operations over to the south hump side, the closed the south hump and went with flat switching at the bottom end of the south hump. It resulted in many wrecks. Then they closed the entire south hump side, ripped it out and built the Gateway Intermodal facility. The moved the flat switching over to the north end of A Yard which was the old receiving yard for north hump. The yard descended from south to north dropping about twenty-two feet in elevation in less than a mile resulting in the crews switching uphill. Roll outs were numerous and common resulting in collisions, run through switches and personal injuries. Three guys I worked with had their careers ended by accidents in A yard as a reult of cars rolling north after being kicked south up a hill. Several others suffered serious injuries. You had to kick the card harder than normal to assure the would have enough momentum to roll uphill, into the tracks and hopefully couple into the cars already in the tracks. The FRA finally stepped in and required CN to add a third ground man to the switch assignments primarily to act as a lookout for cars rolling back. Between the IC and CN, they spent millions of dollars to prove a bad idea didn’t work.
Also under Elmo Harrison they closed the hump at Flat Rock, MI and converted it a flat switching operation and cut the amount of cars they could switch per day by about two thirds. There are no jumps left on the corner IC or GTW. There were never any on the WC but they have left the hump at Kirk Yard on the former EJ&E open and expanded it. However, there is only one way in and out of Kirk and it’s all at the west end. It is a stub ended operation so not as efficient.
Ted Gregory: When i worked at CP Tuch (I left in 2013) Bensenville was still in service- kind of a measly half hump. They sent almost all freight to the BRC- just like the other 5 class Is that come into Chicago. Wisconsin & Southern also sends a pretty big freight into Clearing every day.I worked as a contractor in 2019-20, on the west end of Kirk Yard- actually the old J Lake Front Yard. They were building a second highway overpass to make the road that leads to the Majestic Star Casino 4 lanes, in Buffigton Harbor. Being CNs only hump, Kirk was really busy.Pathetic what they railroads have become

NS had closed the hump in their Inman Yard in Atlanta in 1993 to improve that yard's support for intermodal traffic. When they closed the hump in this yard in 2020, they reinstalled the retarders in Inman and restarted the hump yard. [TrainOrders]