The Oak Point Yard is a

freight railroad Rail freight transport is the use of railways and trains to transport cargo as opposed to human passengers. A freight train, cargo train, or goods train is a group of freight cars (US) or goods wagons (International Union of Railways) hauled ...

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

located in Hunts Point,

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The yard is owned by

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

, and is a base for CSX's local deliveries in the area, including to the

Hunts Point Cooperative Market The Hunts Point Cooperative Market is a 24/7 wholesale food market located on in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. The largest food distribution center of its kind in the world, it earns annual revenues of over $2 billio ...

and for trains that interchange freight with the

New York and Atlantic Railway The New York and Atlantic Railway (NY&A) is a short line railroad on Long Island, within the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of New York. It was formed in 1997 to provide freight service over the tracks of the Long Island Rail Road, a ...

Fresh Pond Junction Fresh Pond Junction is a freight yard in the Ridgewood and Glendale neighborhoods of Queens in New York City. It is operated by the New York & Atlantic Railway, which serves Long Island using tracks owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). ...

in Queens.

CP Rail The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City Limited, known unt ...

formerly handled some freight in and out of Oak Point, but during late 2010 entered a haulage-rights agreement with CSX under which CSX handles and forwards its local traffic between Oak Point and the Albany, New York area. Stone-hauling trains belonging to the Providence & Worcester Railroad operate through Oak Point during trips between New Haven, Connecticut and the NY&A at Fresh Pond, but no P&W freight is actually handled in the yard.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

owns and operates two

electrified Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. In the context of history of technology and economic development, electrification refe ...

tracks for the

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...

Line, on the northwest side of the yard. CSX uses the

Oak Point Link The Oak Point Link, also known as the South Bronx–Oak Point Link, is a long railroad line in the Bronx, New York City, United States, along the east bank of the Harlem River. It connects the Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line (on the Spuyten ...

, a connecting track along the Harlem River, to travel between the yard and the Metro-North Hudson Line, which is its primary access route into New York, while the P&W stone trains enter via the Northeast Corridor line to the northeast. CSX and P&W trains to Fresh Pond cross the

Hell Gate Bridge The Hell Gate Bridge (originally the New York Connecting Railroad Bridge) is a railroad bridge in New York City. The bridge carries two tracks of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and one freight track between Astoria, Queens, and Port Morris, Bron ...

onto

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

. In 2009, CSX announced that four ultra-low emission GenSet

locomotives A locomotive is a rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for longer and heavier freight train ...

will operate full-time at its Oak Point Yard where they will be used to

switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type o ...

cars A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people rather than cargo. There are around one billio ...

within the yard and for road switching service. The GenSet locomotives, manufactured by

National Railway Equipment Company National Railway Equipment Company is an American railroad equipment rebuilding, leasing, and manufacturing company, headquartered in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. NREC sells new and rebuilt locomotives to railroad companies worldwide, with an emphasis ...

, reduce

nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide (dinitrogen oxide or dinitrogen monoxide), commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or factitious air, among others, is a chemical compound, an Nitrogen oxide, oxide of nitrogen with the Chemical formula, formula . At room te ...

and

particulate matter Particulate matter (PM) or particulates are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. An ''aerosol'' is a mixture of particulates and air, as opposed to the particulate matter alone, though it is sometimes defin ...

emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: ** Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...

by 80 percent and can reduce

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...

emissions by approximately 50 percent by monitoring engine idling and switching to "sleep" mode after a period of inactivity. Oak Point Yard was formerly a

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busine ...

facility, inherited from

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals, the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

, which in turn acquired the yard and associated lines in 1969 when it consummated a regulatory-induced, forced merger with the

New Haven 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 principally in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

. In its New Haven days, Oak Point Yard covered a much larger area and was also a transfer point for railroad

car float A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of Lighter (barge), lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it i ...

s that delivered railcars to waterfront terminals throughout New York Harbor.

References

External links

Photos of Oak Point Yard
- YonkersRails.com

CSX Transportation Rail freight transportation in New York City Rail yards in New York (state) Transportation buildings and structures in the Bronx New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad {{US-rail-transport-stub

See also

References

External links