A place where lots of original trackage exists?

Question

I'm interested in a place in North America that still has plenty of diamonds, crossovers, and lots of freight action, and possibly even a working turntable and roundhouse. Can you help me out with a spot or perhaps a web link?

Answer 1

I don't know where you are, but Thief River Falls, MN has an operating turn table and roundhouse, along with a rather small 10 track yard, that is always busy. This belongs to the Canadian Pacific. The Northern Plains RR also uses the yard. And the Minnesota Northern RR (I work for) comes in to exchange cars twice a week. Contact me and I'll send you a calender quality aerial view if the facility that the CP gave me.

Answer 2

There are about three rail lines I know well in the Dakotas and one in Minnesota that has all of that, except not a lot of volume. There are active roundhouses in Grand Forks ND & Aberdeen SD (BNSF) and Huron SD (DME.) DME also uses a very small roundhouse in Rapid City SD. I know of only two diamonds. One is in the Sioux Falls BNSF yard, and the other is near Granite Falls MN where the BNSF crosses TC&W.Come to think of it BNSF has a large working turntable in Willmar MN that you can easily photo from the road. I've seen them use it often too. If you want to photo tons of freight, go watch the UP Bailey Yard in North Platte NE. They even have a nice observation tower you can use.


Kent in SD

Answer 3

There are operating turntables in Roseville and Dunsmuir, California, and Klamath Falls, Oregon for sure.

Out here, we never really had the total mish-mash of diamonds and slip switches and the like as was found in numbers on the railroads of the eastern US. But, I always found it very confusing when entering the yard at Oakland, California, on the east end. Long signal bridges over many tracks with these funky little dwarf signals on them controlling movement. Hard to see and hard to read on a clear day. Mix in the bay area fog, and presto!

Hated it.....

Answer 4

new jersey used to have a turntable but it was taken away in Paterson in 2001 when they rebuilt the station. do not know if there are any actual at rail sites.
maybe steamtown in Pennsylvania the museum.
lots of freight in NJ little ferry and ridgefiedl park

Answer 5

Lance,

Not sure if you have a particular area of interest but in the eastern U.S. you might want to consider Fostoria, OH which is loaded with lots of trains, crossovers, and rail lines of, today CSX and NS (it is also home to a number of historic depots and towers, one of which remains in active use).