Maybrook Yard was a major

rail 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 in

Maybrook, New York Maybrook is a village in Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 3,150 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie– Newburgh– Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York– ...

. It was the western gateway of its long-time owner, the

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

and its predecessors. It was here that freight cars were interchanged between railroads from the west and the New Haven, whose

Maybrook Line The Maybrook Line was a line of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad which connected with its Waterbury Branch in Derby, Connecticut, and its Maybrook Yard in Maybrook, New York, where it interchanged with other carriers. It was the mai ...

headed east over the

Poughkeepsie Bridge The Walkway over the Hudson (also known as the Poughkeepsie Bridge, Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, Poughkeepsie–Highland Railroad Bridge, and High Bridge) is a steel cantilever bridge spanning the Hudson River between Poughkeepsie, New York ...

to the railroad's main freight yard at

Cedar Hill Yard Cedar Hill Yard is a classification yard located in New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven, North Haven, Connecticut, North Haven and Hamden, Connecticut, United States. It was built by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (often known ...

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,023 ...

. The rail line through the yard was finished in 1889 by the

Hudson Connecting Railroad The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Pough ...

. The yard was soon acquired by the

Central New England Railway The Central New England Railway was a railroad from Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts, west across northern Connecticut and across the Hudson River on the Poughkeepsie Bridge to Maybrook, New York. It was part of the Poughkeep ...

, but traffic never justified more than one yard and a five-stall roundhouse. The yard was transformed after control of the

was purchased in 1904 by the New Haven who saw it as an easier way to get their heavy freight traffic across the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

than using barges in New York City. To handle the new traffic the yard was dramatically expanded in 1912 to three miles in length with six separate yards including two hump yards. A new 10-stall roundhouse with a 95-foot

turntable A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

replaced the original and was later expanded to 27 stalls. Also added was a large icing plant for refrigerator cars. At its height, the yard had 177 tracks totaling over 71 track-miles. By the 1950s the yard had shrunk to 99 tracks and around 50 track-miles. In 1960 both hump yards were converted to conventional yards with flat switching. By the mid-1960s, freight switching activity had fallen to what it was before the New Haven gained control as connecting railroads shut down or merged, allowing the remaining traffic to run-through without being switched. The Penn Central's acquisition of the New Haven in 1969 resulted in connecting traffic with the

Erie Lackawanna The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route ...

being discouraged as it competed with other Penn Central routes. After 1971 only one train in each direction (for the

) stopped, but only to change crews. Traffic through the yard ended abruptly in 1974 when the

burned and was not repaired, severing the

. By then the yard had already closed. For much of its existence six class I railroads interchanged traffic at the yard with the New Haven Railroad. In 1956 the yard saw 19 arrivals and 18 departures of which 14 were operated by the New Haven, eight by the

Lehigh and Hudson River Railway The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) was the smallest of the six railroads that were merged into Conrail in 1976. It was a bridge line running northeast–southwest across northwestern New Jersey, connecting the line to the Poughkeepsie ...

, seven by the

Erie Railroad The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in the northeastern United States, originally connecting New York City — more specifically Jersey City, New Jersey, where Erie's Pavonia Terminal, long demolished, used to stand — with Lake ...

, four by the

New York, Ontario and Western Railway The New York, Ontario and Western Railway, more commonly known as the O&W or NYO&W, was a regional railroad with origins in 1868, lasting until March 29, 1957 (the last train ran from Norwich to Middletown, NY on this date), after which it was or ...

, two by the

Lehigh and New England Railroad The Lehigh & New England Railroad was a Class I railroad located in Northeastern United States that acted as a bridge line. It was the second notable U.S. railroad to file for abandonment in its entirety, the first being the New York, Ontar ...

and two by the

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mi ...

. Today much of the former yard has been converted into a

Yellow Freight Yellow Corporation is an American transportation holding company headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas. Its subsidiaries include national less than truckload (LTL) carrier YRC Freight, regional LTL carriers New Penn, Holland and Reddaway and ...

truck facility. Rail service is still provided to customers in Maybrook by the

Middletown and New Jersey Railroad The Middletown and New Jersey Railroad is one of two railroads in the city of Middletown, New York; the other being its interchange partner, Norfolk Southern Railway. The MNJ consists of of track in southeastern New York serving Orange County ...

on tracks owned by

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

References

{{reflist Rail yards in New York (state) Orange County, New York New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Penn Central Transportation