Yard capacity

does anybody know what the capacity of Metro North's yards are? The number of tracks in Wassaic and Bridgeport I can count on one hand, but New Haven and Croton yards appear to be never-ending. Stamford and Poughkeepsie are the two yards which amaze me - because they look relatively small, and I can't believe that the sheer number of trains coming out of those yards in the morning can be held there, especially if you consider that New Canaan's fleet is kept in Stamford as well.

checkthedoorlight wrote:does anybody know what the capacity of Metro North's yards are? The number of tracks in Wassaic and Bridgeport I can count on one hand, but New Haven and Croton yards appear to be never-ending. Stamford and Poughkeepsie are the two yards which amaze me - because they look relatively small, and I can't believe that the sheer number of trains coming out of those yards in the morning can be held there, especially if you consider that New Canaan's fleet is kept in Stamford as well.

Well, when I bumped from Waterbury to Stamford in 1958, I too was
quite surprised at the number of trains and cars that laid up there at
night. Probably even more today as there is no more freight cars to stay
out of the way of and a lot more passenger trains today than in 1958.
Soon after I landed in Stamford, the equipment that formerly laid up at
Port Chester and New Rochelle was brough up to Stamford and that made
it so crowded that after 1:00 AM, several sets of old green muts were
moved out to track four, main line, east of the tower so that track six in
the yard could continue to be used for switching. The cars sat on track
four all night and left from track four in the morning.
Any passenger trains that had to stop between Stamford and South
Norwalk in the middle of the night had to do their work off track two.
I don't know that much about Poughkeepsie but the few storage tracks
there are quite long and will hold several trains each. Suspect that the
crews there in the morning have to walk a bit to get their equipment.
Noel Weaver

Interesting. And this was in a time when Stamford didn't have a platform at track 2. The last time I was on the late train was in 2001, and I wasn't really paying attention to the train situation in Stamford.

I've counted 10 tracks in Stamford yard proper, and there are also a couple layup tracks on both sides of the main tracks. Looking at the schedule, there are 5 trains that come out of New Canaan in the morning which most likely deadhead up there from Stamford, and between 5AM and 9:17AM there are 14 trains leaving Stamford, and three coming in, meaning that Stamford needs at least 19 train sets for morning rush. Interestingly, after 1333 leaves Stamford a couple minutes before 8:10, there aren't any more NY-bound 13xx's until 9:42.

I'd be really interested to see what Stamford looks like between 2-5AM. Of course, between the darkness, not having a way to get back home for 3 hours, and falling pretty high on the suspicion radar for checking out trains at that hour, it ain't gonna happen.

Back in January, I was on Hope Street along the New Canaan branch working a car accident with my fire department one morning, about 5:30 a train passed us going towards New Canaan. Literally 10 minutes later, the bells were ringing again and I was very surprised to see another train going the same way, something I'd never seen because I dont frequent Hope Street at 5 AM, lol. I guess at least one of these was a deadhead, but it did make me think about how much activity has to go on to get all the trains ready for the morning rush, and checkthedoorlight your right the Stamford Yard is probably an interesting place to be.

As for the yard, I remember when I was younger and all the work was being done there, is that when the repair facility was added, or was that always there but just smaller? And does anyone remember what year that was and what else they did there, it was a substantial amount of work if I remember correctly.

ok, 18 trains. My train (1504) got to Stamford early today, and WAY across the station from us on track 5 was where 1304 came in (it must've done a mad dash through the switches west of stamford unless it platforms on the NY-bound platforms in Greenwich), and then left at 6:45 for the New Canaan line. Looking at the schedule, there's more than enough time for 1304 to deadhead to New Canaan and then return as 1723.

So that's at least one train that isn't provided by Stamford yard in the morning.