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(erielack) erie lackawanna yards

Hello everyone happy new year,

With apologies to everyone who has seen this same thread on the railroad.net 
forum, I am posting the following list of EL yards to the mailing list, 
trying to fill in yards that may have been missed or important information 
that has been left out. What I am trying to do is create a list of Erie 
Lackawanna Rail yards.  Anything that could be classified as a yard such as 
a major system classification yard or a yard that stored cars for local 
businesses.  I have included the divisions as best I know them, then the 
name of the yard or location and then purpose of the yard (classification, 
etc.).  I have received some input on the purpose or need for the yard and I 
have included this after the purpose of the yard in the following list.  
Also, if you know if the yard had any extras (diesel shops, car repair, 
etc.).  Also, what is a divison point yard (i.e. Hornell)?

Marion Division:
Chicago 55th Street Yard - Piggyback operations

Hammond: (until 1969) - classification yard for Chicago before blocking in 
Marion??????

Marion, OH; Major system Classification Yard, later used to block freight 
for Chicago area railroads. Diesel shops.

Mahoning Division:
Kent Yard, until abandoned (196x?)

Mahoning Division, First SubDivision
River Bed Yard (Cleveland, Ohio) Ore Dock Yard???? - River Bed Yard at the 
NYPANO Docks was very cramped with minimal storage capacity. With the short 
tracks and no space, cars were shuttled between RiverBed and North Randall 
where the Erie had ground storage capacity and an overhead gantry.

Literary Street Yard (Cleveland, Ohio) Possibly stored cars for Standard 
Oil?   AFAIK, Literary St. was tha main freight facility for the central 
flats industrial area. LCL traffic was shuttled to the Freight House on 
Scranton Rd. Prior to the Erie moving all of its psgr trains into CUT c. 
1952, psgr traffic moved through Literary St. to the NYC (Big Four) 
interchange at DK Tower to reach the Erie Stn. which was actually located on 
the NYC. NKP transfer freights also moved through Literary St. as they ran 
over the Erie between the NKP E. 55th St. Yard and the former W&LE's 
Campbell Rd. Yard.

The E. 55th St. Yard was later re-named Von Willer Yard in honor of the 
former Erie president. E. 55th was alos the site of the enginehouse. The 
turntable was kept active in Diesel days to turn the single cab units which 
worked the Cleveland / Youngstown trains as well as the NKPBlue Birds which 
worked the Cleveland / St. Louis trains of that rr (NKP had neither 
turntable nor wye in Cleveland). After the Erie and P&LE pooled power 
between Cleveland and Pittsburgh to eliminate the engine change at 
Youngstown, we also saw the P&LE Alco cabs being turned. (I'm told that the 
turntable was also used to turn the occasional business car to insure that 
it was properly pointed.)

North Randall Yard – serviced local industries in the area and stored cars 
for River Bed Yard, see River Bed yard above: cars were shuttled between 
RiverBed and North Randall where the Erie had ground storage capacity and an 
overhead gantry.

Leavittsburg, OH - Leavittsburg was an industrial yard----Cars were set off 
to be delivered to industries. Cars pulled from industries in the North 
Warren area were classed at Leavittsburg for pick up for shipment West, 
Cleveland, Brier Hill and Meadville.

Brier Hill Youngstown, OH (classification yard?)

Ferrona Yard in Sharon, PA. Handled traffic for Shenango Valley and New 
Castle branch. Interchange with NYC Sharon branch; PRR's E&P.

Shenango Yard; Shenango [rr west of Greenville],PA. That was worked by a 
turn. Handled B&LE interchange and Greenville Steel Car and CB&I. Coke off 
B&LE for Ohio Works US Steel; solid trains of ore for Ohio Works too.

Meadville, PA (classification Yard)

Buffalo Division
Bison Yard, Buffalo, NY (classification yard)

Salamanca, NY (had a classification yard until the early 60s, became a local 
yard and engine servicing facility, crew change point)

East Binghamton - East Binghamton yard, this was the ex-DL&W yard that was 
mothballed for much of EL's 16 year existence. EL used the ex-Erie Chenango 
St yards primarily for local switching. New England interchange was handled 
mostly (I think) by D&H run-throughs that were classified elsewhere (eg, 
Bison).  EL leased Liberty Street Yard at Binghamton from the D&H when EL 
closed East Binghamton. EL used Chenango Street and Liberty Street for local 
service, for traffic to and from Utica and Syracuse, and for classifying 
some of the traffic received from the D&H.   The D&H kept Bevier Street for 
both local service and to classify interchange received from EL. The D&H had 
a policy of classifying its bridge traffic at the interchange into 
destination blocks, so once a car was put into a block at Bevier Street it 
would move in that block to Mechanicville, Rouses Point, or wherever.  When 
the D&H and EL were under common management, each RR blocked cars for the 
other to a greater extent, so some Mechanicville B&M blocks came from 
Meadville or Bison, for instance, and some trains like PB-99 and PB-100 
essentially ran through Binghamton and Mechanicville.

Hornell, NY; Division Point yard and Diesel Shops

Scranton Taylor Yard –
Port Jervis. -  It classified westbounds received at Maybrook from the New 
Haven, some eastbound traffic for Maybrook and Jersey City, and until 1955, 
eastbound coal from the Wyoming Division. The Wyoming Division coal trains 
ran with the same crew from Avoca via Lackawaxen to Port Jervis.

Croxton Yard (Major system Classification yard)



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