What is a SIT Yard

Was reading an article in webtrain.org and they mentioned the SIT yard in at Spring (Lloyd Yard) TX. What exactly is a SIT yard?

I am not sure about that particular facility but SIT usually means "Storage In Transit". This is holding a customer's cars until they are ready to accept delivery.

Aside from a few tracks, where the locals do their switching, and the autoracks are stored, Spring yard has a HUGE covered hopper, plastic pellet storage/transfer facility. This is what you are refering to. If you were in the area, the bridge that goes to "old historic Spring' crosses right over the yard, next to the yard office. Look east, and you will see a sea of covered hoppers. A place I spent many a night, picking up/setting out, on my way to Hearne.........

SIT yard in Spring (Lloyd Yard) TX

As mentioned, this is a huge, "Storage in Transit" yard located north of Houston.. Countless number of rail cars are stored there, it's actually quite impressive to see...

SIT are railroad yards where railroads rent out there cars to store product. The railroad cars are loaded and unloaded by truck. The avantage is that warehouse space can be added just by renting more cars or vice versa not renting cars

There are hundreds of types of plastic pellets, which are the foundation of all plastic goods. These types are made in rotation, for instance, Type A is made for 15 days, then type B for 10 days, etc. This usually is repeated about four times a year. Plastic pellets are ALWAYS loaded into a hopper car when produced, so the manufacturers must have places to store the loaded cars until a customer actually orders a load. Lloyd yard on UP and Teague yard on BNSF are among the larger SIT yards.

In many cases, the carload is actually sold while the car is en-route to the SIT, causing the railroads to double-handle.

Always loaded into hoppers, except for when they are loaded into large bags, stacked on pallets, and shipped in boxcars..................

True, Golden, you do see pellets moving in ISO's and sacks. However, ALL pellets are FIRST loaded into railcars, because the manufacturing plants are only set up to top load at high volumes, and because the standard batch size is around 200,000 pounds.

The product can then be trans-loaded into highway trailers, or sucked out and bagged or boxed.

A plastics plant must shut down if empty cars aren't available, because there's nowhere else to put the plastic; plant managers get very nerveous about their in-bound inventory of empties.