Emporia: Yard Overview |
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Emporia Yard was a massive sight at one time. Of course it has undergone many changes through the years. A major rebuilding took place in 1928 which included all new engine facilities. In 1950 it had an eastbound, westbound, and local yard as well as a stockyard which was a major feeding station on the railroad. The yard had a capacity of 4986 cars with the longest track holding 444 cars. The roundhouse had 30 stalls covering 200 degrees and was one of the most modern on the system. A good crew would average sorting 800 cars per engine per shift (Rod Riley). The sheep portion of the stockyard was the first to cease and finally all stock servicing by the early 70s. The roundhouse became storage and a portion was leased out. It was gone by 1990. The Eastbound yard was removed in the 80s. To see this progression, look at some of the track plans which are linked to this page.
Most California trains ran through Emporia. Most Texas trains were yarded. Others were reblocked. "Emporia never had an ATSF ice rack. Waynoka, OK had a icing rack. The reefer trains would stop there and be re-iced before moving east. Sand Creek yard (Newton) had a smaller ice rack. When I first started in 1965, we would sometimes get express cars that had strawberries in them. We would switch them off No. 4, take the cars to Sand Creek, ice them, take them back uptown and put them on No. 8. During the late summer months, we would get EX639 trains from Wellington. These were generally cars with grapes. They were loaded, but had not been sold yet. We would ice these cars, then store them in the yard. Usually they were gone within 24 hours after icing." Gary Rich. In the middle of the yard was a scale track which operated most of the day and into the night. Most of the cars coming off of the branches that spidered Emporia had to be weighed. In the steam days, Armour had no scale track, so all of their cars had to be weighed in and out. Click here to see the entire 1977 CLIC book. |
   Eastbound
Yard |
