Need help from experienced rail men.

[plato1]

I am writer who is working on a book about a small town that revolves around a railroad / rail yard.
Would Conway Yard fit that bill?
What do they do there?
I called the town secretary and she said it was a hub. How does that differ from any other yards?
In my story, the yard is a low-grade line. I would like it to be low grade line.
Do any of you expert members know any other yards that fit better than Conway?
Do the men that work at a rail yard just call it the “yard”?
The yard could be closed now but must start at around 1900 or close. I think the story will be in the 1950-60 era.
I would appreciate any help and would look to be asking more questions. I would give a special thanks in the book which will be available of Kindle in Oct.
In addition, any inside Lingo or stories would be cool.
Thank you.

[Andyt293]

I think you would better served to look at Sayre, Pennsylvania.

[plato1]

I will thank you.

[glennk419]

Reading or Saucon (Hellertown) yards would also fit the bill if you happen to come across anything related to those. While Reading yard is still open, it is a mere shadow of what it once was and Saucon is virtually gone, having been tied to Bethlehem Steel before its' demise. Both were beehives of activity during the period that you are writing about.

[Aa3rt]

Another good example in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania would be Renovo in Clinton County. Renovo, Latin for "I repair", was built in the 1860's as the main shop for the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad that was built through the then wilderness of northwestern Pennsylvania to reach the port city of Erie.

[plato1]

Thank you both. I will look into all those yards. It is important to me to give a real depiction of how it was to be a part of the railroad at that time. The sad demise of some yards ans so forth. Would either of you be willing to field some streamline questions directly through email?
I want to know about the type of jobs, how dirty it was, how hard it was. What happen to guy if he got hurt? Pension? That kind of stuff.
I thought it would be cool if I could show the rise and fall of a rail yard. Low grade rail yard because in my experience I think it harder to work cool.
I am wondering if I could combine all the yards into a fictional yard. I am pondering that idea. I really want to use the name Black Diamond. HAHHAHAHA
I guess i would settle for black snake. HAHAHAHA
If you men could let me know on helping me that would be great.

[glennk419]

I did not work directly for the railroads but am more of a historian / railfan. In my career, I did have the opportunity to work WITH the railroads, specifically late Reading and Conrail.
Your thought of "Black Diamonds" would fit in perfectly with any of the coal roads including the Reading and Lehigh Valley. There is another forum on this board that deals specifically with the Anthracite railroads where you would also do well to pose your questions. Here's the link: http://railroad.net/forums/viewforum.php?f=79.
BTW, another mostly defunct yard on the Reading which primarily handled the export of coal was Port Richmond in Philadelphia. It even had a YMCA attached which would put up the crews on their layovers, I'm sure there's a ton of stories out there about that alone.

[plato1]

Thanks a lot Glen. I think i am going to create a fictional town and combine a myriad of stories. I need to know facts about the workers at the yards as far as jobs. They all can't be engineers. Could it be plausible that a man could drive the black diamond for say 30 years? Would it be two men? Are they home each night?

[Aa3rt]

plato1-If you're really interested in researching this topic, the book Set Up Running by John W. Orr is an excellent book about the life of a Pennsylvania Railroad engineer who spent his entire career working within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The book provides a lot of insight as to how engineers (and crews) worked during the last century.
I actually wrote a review of this book in another forum here at Railroad.Net http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 22&t=80798 that includes a link to finding the book itself at Amazon.com. Once I started this book I couldn't put it down. You'll find that a lot of the other reviewers also had nothing but praise for Mr. Orr's work.

This may be a good starting point as there are aspects of railway employment discussed in Mr. Orr's work that I'd never read about in any of the many other railway volumes in my library.

[plato1]

Thank you so much. I will read this book.