Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1910-07-14
PROGRESS AT
THE NEW YARDS

Railroad men throughout this sec
tion are watching with keen expect
ancy the steady development of the
81, 600, 600 Pennsylvania railroad opera
tion at Northumberland, for they know
that when completed it will be the
most modern and thoroughly equipped
of all the mammoth classification yards
in the world.
This yard will drain these four div
isions, converging at Sunbury: The
Susquehanna division of the Northern
Central, the WilliamspoIt division of
the Erie division, the Sunbury division
of the Erie division, and the Shamok-
in division of the Northern Central
An idea of the magnitude can be
grasped by recollecting that about A.,
900 freight cars can be daily handled
at Sunbury, and the Northumberland
traffic will be several times that
amount.
Just year ago contractors began
their toll of leveling farms, cutting
down hills and filling valleys at this
strategic railroad point, situated at
the confluence of the North and West
branches of the Susquehanna river,
right opposite Sunbury. The yard will
cover 700 acres and contain eighty
miles of tracks. There will be ten dis
tinct yards with capacity of $500
cars used for the reception, .classifica-
tion and departure of traffic.
Further equipment of the-completed
yard will include a fifty-two stall
roundhouse, coaling station with
capacity for elevating $50 tons of coal
an hour car repair shops, sand dryer,
freight transfer shed 30 by 600 feet,
storage room for 1870 cabins and pow
er plant for furnishing the electricity
and air for illumination and power.
The steam power apparatus of the
coaling station has storage capacity
of a thousand tons 1t elevates at the
minimum cost of two cents a ton, and
the usual cost is eight and half cents
for the same work. A hundred locomo-
tives will use over five hundred tons
of coal, and, as it is planned to coal
that many locomotives daily at North
umberland, that six and a half cents
saving on each loaded ton will yearly
net over 81, 100 which is mere baga-
telle in railroad operation but never
! theless it serves to illustate the success
that has here been achieved in cutting
down expenses.
The large roundhouse will be 396
feet in diameter and contain seven
drop wheel pits, and it will be furnish
ed with several new time and labor
saving devices. Another feature for
economic operation is the assurance of
an always ample supply of good water
obtainable from the West Branch of
the Susquehanna river, just at the
western boundary of the yard, where
an efficient pumping station is being
built.
This large composite yard will in
clude an eastern and western receiv-
ing yard, and eastern and western
classification yard and an eastern and
western departure yard All cars will
be "shuff1ed" by gravity and thereby
solid trains will be made up without
the costly locomotive shifting. TIE
hump" from which the cars will be
sent coasting to their respective clas-
e1, 80
feet.
When train arrives at either of the
two receiving yards, the road engines
will be cut off and the train will be
taken in tow by a yard shifter with
its crew of cutters and riders, and the
string will be pushed over the hump.
Each car will be identified as to its
destination, and when cut loose will
by gravity traverse the incline. An
operator in the yard tower, learning
the destination of the car from its
mark, can, by merely pressing an elec-
trio button, set in motion machinery
which will turn switches and send the
car to the desired location.
Even now 1900 strangers have flock
ed to Northumberland to work on the
operation. OF course, the most of them
are foreign laborers, but within two
years railroad officials give it out that
there will be more than 5000 men
steadily employed in the operation of
the yard,