For the neighborhood which is Cedar Hill Yard's namesake, see Cedar Hill (New Haven).
View of the yard and the Quinnipiac River, 1977Main sign at the yard, 2021
Cedar Hill Yard
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The location of Cedar Hill Yard in Connecticut
Cedar Hill Yard is a classification yard located in New Haven, North Haven and Hamden, Connecticut, United States. It was built by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (often known simply as The New Haven) in the early 1890s in and around New Haven's Cedar Hill neighborhood, which gave the yard its name. Electrical catenary for electric locomotives was added to the yard in 1915. To handle increasing traffic as a result of World War I, the yard was greatly expanded between 1917 and 1920 with additional construction along both sides of the Quinnipiac River. The construction project added two humps where railroad cars were sorted into trains by gravity. The yard was further modernized in the 1920s, becoming one of the busiest railroad yards in the United States, and the most important yard in the entire New Haven Railroad system.
At its peak during World War II, Cedar Hill Yard handled more than 5,000 railroad cars per day. Following the end of the war the yard's importance began to decline, as freight traffic across New England shifted to road transport, and heavy industry left the region. Much of the yard began to fall into decay following the New Haven Railroad's bankruptcy in 1961. Following the opening of the newly rebuilt Selkirk Yard near Albany, New York, in 1968, much of the traffic formerly handled at Cedar Hill Yard was directed there instead, and car float service between Cedar Hill Yard and New York City ended.
In 1969, the Penn Central Transportation Company took over the yard as part of its purchase of the New Haven Railroad. The yard's new owner promptly removed the electrical catenary and shut down one of the yard's two humps to save money. The next year, Penn Central went bankrupt, and the yard continued to deteriorate from deferred maintenance. Under Penn Central, the yard's importance further declined when the Poughkeepsie Bridge, the yard's key link to the rest of the United States, was damaged by a fire in 1974 and not replaced. Conrail, a new freight railroad formed by the United States government to reverse the fortunes of Penn Central and other bankrupt Northeastern United States railroads, took over operations in 1976. The yard's new owner initially made some improvements, but in 1980 decided to close the yard's remaining hump and move more operations to the yard in Selkirk. Cedar Hill Yard continued to be used to classify freight trains, but was turned into a flat yard, with trains built up and broken down by switcher locomotives.
Cedar Hill Yard was operated by Conrail until 1999, when CSX Transportation purchased Conrail's New England operations. In the first decade of the 2000s, CSX expanded the yard's operations by constructing a bulk cargo transfer facility, where bulk commodities are transferred between trains and trucks. CSX was joined in the yard by other railroads, including Amtrak, which uses part of the yard as a base for maintenance of way operations on the Northeast Corridor. Two other freight railroads also operate freight trains to and from the yard in the 2020s, including the Providence and Worcester Railroad and Connecticut Southern Railroad. Cedar Hill Yard remains the largest classification yard in Connecticut as of 2022 despite its diminished size. Proposals exist to rebuild portions of the yard, potentially in concert with the construction of the proposed Cross-Harbor Rail Tunnel in New York City or the resumption of car float service across Long Island Sound.
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...
yards in West Springfield, Massachusetts and North Haven, Connecticut (CedarHillYard). It also connects with the Providence and Worcester Railroad and Central...
The yard lost its claim to being the largest railroad yard in New England to CedarHillYard in 1920. In spite of the 1906 expansion, the yard was still...
freight yard at CedarHillYard in New Haven, Connecticut. The rail line through the yard was finished in 1889 by the Hudson Connecting Railroad. The yard was...
Haven: P&W leases track space at CedarHillYard from its owners, CSX and Amtrak. Local freight trains based at CedarHill operate to Middletown, Connecticut...
the L&HR. Cars were transferred between the two lines. The NYNH&H's CedarHillYard was in New Haven, Connecticut. Through trains continued on to Providence...
Investment was also made in railroad tracks and yards: an example of this was the major expansion of CedarHillYard between 1917 and 1920 – before nationalization...
from Plainville to Southington, Connecticut; and from North Haven to CedarHillYard via CSX trackage rights As a result of CSX's purchase of Pan Am Railways...
(TOFC) train, with difficulty, in one direction between CedarHillYard in New Haven and Oak Point Yard in The Bronx. Assigned to this train in the other direction...
CHFP train from CedarHillYard in New Haven, Connecticut, on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings, and runs the cars back to CedarHill empty on their...
rights on the New Haven Line, allowing it to operate stone trains from CedarHillYard in New Haven to a connection with the New York and Atlantic Railway...
Kingdom CedarHillYard, Connecticut Locomotive 2576 over ash pit at the roundhouse and coaling station at the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad yards, Chicago...
electrification, freight trains from Bay Ridge could travel as far east as CedarHillYard in New Haven, Connecticut, without stopping. The freight route was...
trackage rights, along with several branches. Hauls freight between CedarHillYard and West Springfield, Massachusetts, for CSX. Genesee & Wyoming CSX...
Plainfield and Worcester. P&W also operates a train between Plainfield and CedarHillYard in New Haven, Connecticut. Facilities at Plainfield include a locomotive...
storage in Bear, Delaware. Two sets went to Adams Yard and one went to New Haven, Connecticut's CedarHillYard. They are currently used for employee training...
Providence and Worcester runs three trains per week carrying gravel from CedarHillYard in New Haven, CT, to Fresh Pond. The New York Connecting Railroad was...
Railroad closed Readville Shops in 1958, with its functions moved to CedarHillYard in New Haven, Connecticut. The railroad intended to create an industrial...
provided in and north of Middletown by a Conrail train based out of CedarHillYard near New Haven, Connecticut. In the 1980s, Conrail began to spin off...
The Cedars of God (Arabic: أرز الربّ Arz ar-Rabb "Cedars of the Lord"), located in the Kadisha Valley of Bsharre, Lebanon, are one of the last vestiges...
1970, Penn Central ran a daily train between CedarHillYard in New Haven, Connecticut, and Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Virginia, by way of the Lehigh...
Miss Rebels Franklin grew up in CedarHill, Texas and attended CedarHill High School. caught 23 passes for 687 yards and nine touchdowns. Franklin committed...
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