Arlington Yard is a

freight yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

located on the

North Shore Branch The North Shore Branch is a partially abandoned branch of the Staten Island Railway in New York City, which operated along Staten Island's North Shore, Staten Island, North Shore from St. George, Staten Island, Saint George to Port Ivory, Staten ...

right of way A right of way (also right-of-way) is a specific route that people, animals, vehicles, watercraft, or utility lines travel, or the legal status that gives them the right to do so. Rights-of-way in the physical sense include controlled-access h ...

of the

Staten Island Railway The Staten Island Railway (SIR) is a rapid transit, railroad line in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Staten Island. It is owned by the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority (SIRTOA), a subsidiary of the Metropol ...

Staten Island, New York Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

, United States. It lies west of the former Arlington station, east of Western Avenue, and north of the

Staten Island Expressway Interstate 278 (I-278) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway in New Jersey and New York in the United States. The road runs from US Route 1/9 (US 1/9) in Linden, New Jersey, northeast to the Bruckner Interchange in the New York C ...

in the

Port Ivory Port Ivory is a coastal area in the northwestern corner of Staten Island, New York City, New York, United States. It is located on Newark Bay near the entrances the Kill van Kull in the east and Arthur Kill in the west. It is bordered by Arl ...

neighborhood. The yard leads into the Travis Branch of the railway, the Howland Hook Container Terminal, and the Arthur Kill Lift Bridge to

Elizabeth, New Jersey Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Chemical Coast The Chemical Coast is a section of Union and Middlesex counties in New Jersey located along the shores of the Arthur Kill, across from Staten Island, New York. The name is taken from the Conrail Chemical Coast Line, an important component in th ...

and is part of the

ExpressRail ExpressRail is a network of on- or near-dock rail yards supporting intermodal freight transport at the major container terminals of the Port of New York and New Jersey. The development of dockside trackage and rail yards for transloading has bee ...

network. The 2007 opening of the

Staten Island Transfer Station The Fresh Kills Landfill was a landfill covering in the borough (New York City), borough of Staten Island in New York City, United States. The name comes from the landfill's location along the banks of the Fresh Kills estuary in western Staten ...

and the

facility, along with the reopening of the Arthur Kill bridge, has reactivated the yard. The use of the Howland Hook Container Terminal to transfer containerized municipal waste from barges to trains, servicing roughly half of New York City's barged trash volume, has added to the rail traffic handled by the yard. (The facility that handles the other half is located directly across Arthur Kill.)

History

The yard opened in 1886. The name of the neighborhood Arlington was coined after the

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

(B&O) purchased a farm at Old Place, on Staten Island's northwestern corner, which would become the Arlington freight yard. The B&O renamed the area Arlington. Following the completion of the

Arthur Kill Bridge The Arthur Kill Bridge was a railroad bridge connecting Staten Island, New York to New Jersey's Chemical Coast by crossing the Arthur Kill. It existed from 1888 until 1959, when it was replaced by the current Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge, bu ...

in 1889, the yard was the first stop for freight trains coming from New Jersey. Arlington Yards was the hub of Staten Island's freight industry for most of the 20th century. The engine house at Arlington was a small, two stall, cinder-block building. There was a tank car to fuel locomotives in the yard. Materials used to perform minor repairs to freight cars could be found inside the building. At one point the yard had a capacity for 3,000 train cars.

References

External links

Photo of Arlington YardArlington Yard Track Map
Rail freight transportation in New York City Staten Island Railway Rail yards in New York (state) 1886 establishments in New York (state) {{StatenIsland-stub

History

See also

References

External links