Linwood Yard is one of the largest classification railroad yards

Classification yard

A classification yard or marshalling yard is a railroad yard found at some freight train stations, used to separate railroad cars on to one of several tracks. First the cars are taken to a track, sometimes called a lead or a drill...

 in North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. The yard is operated by Norfolk Southern Railway

Norfolk Southern Railway

The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...

 (NS). The yard is located 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Salisbury

Salisbury, North Carolina

Salisbury is a city in Rowan County in North Carolina, a state of the United States of America. The population was 33,663 in the 2010 Census . It is the county seat of Rowan County...

 off Interstate 85

Interstate 85 in North Carolina

In the U.S. state of North Carolina, Interstate 85 scales the state for from the South Carolina border to the Virginia border. As the second-longest interstate in the state , it provides an important link between the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, Charlotte, Greensboro, Richmond, Virginia and...

 in Davidson County

Davidson County, North Carolina

-Demographics:As of the census of 2010, there were 149,331 people, 58,156 households, and 42,512 families residing in the county. The population density was 267 people per square mile . There were 62,432 housing units at an average density of 113 per square mile...

, west of Linwood

Linwood, North Carolina

Linwood is a small unincorporated community just south of Lexington in Davidson County, North Carolina, United States. The area contains operations of several important companies in Davidson County, including Keply Hardwood, Legget-Platt, PPG Industries, and Kimberly Clark...

. The yard is on the edge of the NS Charlotte District and Danville District, and the Asheville District is nearby in Salisbury.

History

Linwood Yard started operations in 1979 for the Southern Railway, before the NS merger. The project cost $49 million to build. The yard is 275 acres (1.1 km²) and 4.5 miles (7.2 km) long and consists of more than 65 miles (104.6 km) of track

Rail tracks

The track on a railway or railroad, also known as the permanent way, is the structure consisting of the rails, fasteners, sleepers and ballast , plus the underlying subgrade...

. The yard facilities include diesel locomotive

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...

 repair shops, which replaced older facilities at the nearby Spencer Shops

Southern Railway's Spencer Shops

Southern Railway's Spencer Shops were a major steam locomotive repair facility between Atlanta and Washington, D.C. in Spencer, North Carolina. The service facility was once Southern Railway's largest steam locomotive repair center...

.

Current operation

More than the 20 freight train

Freight train

A freight train or goods train is a group of freight cars or goods wagons hauled by one or more locomotives on a railway, ultimately transporting cargo between two points as part of the logistics chain...

s are handled by Linwood Yard every day. More than 1,000 employees serve the yard, and the yard reassembles more than 3,000 cars

Railroad car

A railroad car or railway vehicle , also known as a bogie in Indian English, is a vehicle on a rail transport system that is used for the carrying of cargo or passengers. Cars can be coupled together into a train and hauled by one or more locomotives...

a day.