Comments on: Pulling ahead to double onto their lift prior to departure, CN 376 passes an inbound train waiting at the yard control signals for permission to proceed. In the background is one of many yard towers found littering the area – any folks familiar with Mac Yard care to educate me to what we’re looking at? The winds were howling as I stood on the Highway 7 overpass for this shot and the sun was struggling to peek through in a brief break in the clouds between storms. 30 minutes later I’d capture them out on the mainline just as the 2′nd storm was about to hit.

By: ngineered4u

ngineered4u — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 15:21:23 +0000

No problem Stephen. Because of the length of trains these days it often requires 2 or 3 separate “cuts” to yard a train. The longest receiving track in Mac Yrd is about 6300 ft. Sometimes the entire train can be pulled into the yard and the pullback for the hump is used to double the train into 2 tracks. A lot or times if the hump pullback is not available or the train is too long, the crew is required to make a cut ahead of the DP unit or at a specific car number giving to them by the dual yardmaster. The cut is done either at the A building or exactly where you see the DU unit in this photo

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 02:52:54 +0000

Thank you Phil. I’ll correct the record on this one, so the inbound train had actually earlier cut off from the DPU (pictured) and pulled into the yard. That’s the second cut waiting to go in basically..

By: ngineered4u

ngineered4u — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 19:44:34 +0000

The inbound train is on York 1 and 376 is doubling up his train on York 2. The tower you are looking at is the former receiving tower. One of 7 towers that were once used in Mac Yrd. South, Recieving, North Switchtender, East, West, Dual and Local all had towers. All towers still stand, except east tower which had the tower removed.
Only the Dual is still in use and houses all yardmaster jobs plus BIT yard and the office of the Superintendent

By: Stephen C. Host

Stephen C. Host — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:53:53 +0000

Business half a km down the road. Walked in and my umbrella was useless. Too windy

By: Noe

Noe — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:53:01 +0000

Whoa! Where did you park? Haha.