Yard at Maspeth Avenue in Queens

Got a good look at the stone unloading spot today - it has pits on two of the yard tracks where cars can be spotted & drop their load onto a conveyor running under the tracks and out to another conveyor up to ground level in the driveway area. I'm guessing the customer for this one must be a pretty active one or they'd not bother to spend the cash building something this elaborate. I've got photos I can post sometime...

There were 2 GATX cars today, and the 4 boxes of foods... lumber at the other end.

Feral cat darted out from under the boxes and grabbed one of the pigeons for lunch... Who knew the yard had it's own eco-pecking order?

Cut of GATX cars has grown to about a half dozen. Serious lookin' customer...

No boxcars laid up there this weekend, food getting unloaded somewhere else now?

Now there's 2 cuts of matching GATX cars, each about a dozen cars on the two tracks where the aggregate conveyor belt was put in under the tracks. That's a whole lotta cars.

Still no boxcars. I'm assuming maybe them customers got moved somewhere else? Arch st. ?

Only two boxes at Arch St this morning, one at the rice track and one on the track where centerbeams are usually spotted.

Tried to see the stone operation from my plane in last night but was seated on the wrong side...

Would like to see some more pic's of the stone operation!!

Checked it out yesterday. There were about 20 cars there, all with GATX reporting marks. Some had an additional placard with the word SKY on it.

P&W just left town with 20+ GATX cars in their train, so I guess the rock is coming in from CT. (they also had a cut of the usual tilcon cars).

What power is Providence & Worcester using on these runs now? Also, with the imminent arrival of sustained cold weather, won't stone movements end until early-April?

More photos:

http://jtunnel.rrpicturearchives.net/ar ... 392&Page=2

looks like more conveyors going in to bring this stone beyond the current location.

This looks like it will be a BIG customer.

How often do the customers at the east end of the yard get served, and how many are there? Also, do NYA trains going to the yard from Fresh Pond make the run on the eastbound Lower Montauk track, or is there a crossover east of the yard from the westbound track to the eastbound track that they use? Thanks.

Photos on Nerail appear to show these cars in eastern CT: http://naphotos.nerail.org/s/?p=157824

The Tenth Legion wrote:What power is Providence & Worcester using on these runs now? Also, with the imminent arrival of sustained cold weather, won't stone movements end until early-April?

GEs Usually just two of the B40s, but this train had 3. The cabless B30s come down too, along with whatever those 3900 series engines are.

If I recall right limited amounts of aggregate came in all last winter. Maybe they'll stop for awhile if it ever gets colder. This new customer just started receiving though, so who knows what their requirements are.

Anyone know who this aggregate customer is? Ferrara Brothers? Empire?

As for Maspeth Yard's Eastern Customers (I count the folks east of Maspeth Avenue), there is the lumber yard (building materials in), The Corrugated box company(Norampac, former Star Corrugated)(paper rolls in), the former SAB C&D sidings (COFC out) and the Chinese Food distributor (food stuffs in)

There is a cross over just east of the yard, near 57th drive. It had a dual control switch stand within the gauge (one stand threw both switches) but that was observed a few years ago.

Good photos. it woulda been ages before I got mine online. were they using all that new conveyor or was it still on the ground? It looked like they had a lot of concrete blocks around for containing the rocks.

SAB hasn't been in business for at least a year, the lumber and chinese are still in business for sure though.


*edit* Not sure if there are cars bound for maspeth or not (too dark to see) but P&W just came rolling into town again. I haven't really known them to run on a thursday night before. Seemed like a long train with 3-4 engines (maybe two cabless in the middle)

Aggregate is being unloaded for Sky Materials, HQ in Calverton NY

also explains the"SKY" on the sides of some of the hoppers