bostontrainguy wrote: ↑Sat Jun 26, 2021 10:37 am
Is that "yard" even necessary anymore? Can't they remove the yard limit there or is it more involved than that?
There's more to it than that. "Yard Limits" allows a crew to use the area, throw switches, switch cars, and make all sorts of moves back and forth without needing to ask the dispatcher for permission for each move. There's a customer along the line (in the Millbrook St area) that gets switched by the yard crew as part of the work they're doing in the yard; having the area within yard limits also allows a crew to use any track they need to when moving things around without needing to worry about someone coming along at high speed and hitting them. Quoting from GCOR 8th edition:
"Within yard limits, trains or engines are authorized to use the main track not protecting against other trains
or engines. Engines must give way as soon as possible to trains as they approach. Engines must keep
posted as to the arrival of passenger trains and must not delay them.
All movements entering or moving within yard limits must be made at restricted speed unless operating
under a block signal indication that is more favorable than Approach."
P&W uses those yard limits (from Barber all the way to Worcester on the Gardner Branch; from Worcester to Greenwood on the main line, and from Worcester to Sword on the Norwich Branch) to save a lot of time and aggravation for the dispatcher. They're not going to get rid of them or shrink them.