Eastern Railroad Discussion > Inman vs. Macon Hump Yards

What is the capacity of the Norfolk Southern’s hump yards at Macon vs. Inman?  Which can process more cars on a given day?  Which yard is more efficient?  Which has more storage capacity for classified outgoing and incoming trains waiting to be humped?  NS closed the hump at Macon last fall, was the that the wrong hump to close?  Could NS consider re-opening Macon to process carload traffic and turn Inman largely into a intermodal facility?  How long does it take to run by rail between both yards on average day?  How many large scale yards does NS own in the Atlanta area outside of Macon and Inman?

Until the hump at Brosnan was closed last November, Inman had not served as a manifest class yard in many years. After the Brosnan hump closed, NS quietly installed retarders at Inman and began classifying manifest over the hump. This additional work has been concurrent to the intermodal work that has taken place at Inman for many years.

If they can’t make Inman more fluid, it would not surprise me to see the hump at Brosnan reopened eventually. Recollect a few years ago they removed the retarders up at DeButts in Chattanooga only to reverse the decision and reinstall retarders a year or two later.

Other large NS class yards in the South are located at Birmingham (Norris) and Chattanooga (DeButts).

Posted from iPhone



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/21 18:00 by Juniata.

Northern Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What is the capacity of the Norfolk Southern’s
> hump yards at Macon vs. Inman?  Which can process
> more cars on a given day?  Which yard is more
> efficient?  Which has more storage capacity for
> classified outgoing and incoming trains waiting to
> be humped?  NS closed the hump at Macon last
> fall, was the that the wrong hump to close? 
> Could NS consider re-opening Macon to process
> carload traffic and turn Inman largely into a
> intermodal facility?  How long does it take to
> run by rail between both yards on average day? 
> How many large scale yards does NS own in the
> Atlanta area outside of Macon and Inman?

The Southern Railway built 7 hump yards during its existence.  Upon completion in 1957, Atlanta's Inman Yard was the largest hump yard that Southern built and it remained the biggest throughout the inception of NS.  At its largest, Inman had 16 receiving tracks, a 65-track classification bowl, 16 departure tracks, the intermodal terminal, and a 20-track intermodal classification yard.  It also had a few auxiliary facilities such as a locomotive service area, a local yard, and a rail-welding plant.

During NS' intermodal revolution of the early 90's, it was decided that Inman Yard wouldn't be a focal point for classifying manifest traffic and that its workload would be moved to surrounding yards (NS had 4 other hump yards within a 200 mile radius of Inman).  The hump was closed in 1993 and the bowl was then used to reblock intermodal traffic.  The 20-track intermodal yard was taken out and the intermodal ramp was expanded.  8 of the 16 receiving tracks were removed to make more room for trailer and container parking.  The rest of the yard remains intact and in use today.  Inman became the "Delta Airlines" for NS' (pre-Conrail) intermodal network; nearly everything ran through there. 

Macon's Brosnan Yard was completed in 1967.  It had 8 receiving tracks, a 50-track classification bowl, and 9 departure tracks.  It also had a locomotive and car service area and a 10-track local yard.  Although its hump was closed in 2020, it still remains an important classification point for regional traffic, although now flat-switched.

Currently, Brosnan Yard classifies far more manifest traffic than Inman.  However, within the past few months, Inman has been taking on more manifest block-swapping duties.

As for other yards in the Atlanta area, Chamblee Yard and East Point's Industry Yard are the busiest.  Chamblee handles the lion's share of local manifest traffic for the Atlanta area, especially along the Washington-Atlanta Main.  Industry Yard handles mostly autorack traffic as well as local traffic for the south side of Atlanta.  Whitaker Yard in Austell is all intermodal.  In Macon, nearly everything is out of Brosnan Yard.  The adjacent West Yard is used as an industry support yard.

Andrew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/21 18:53 by florida581.

Thanks florida581 for a great report. That was a good bit of information you gave us.
Robert

Indeed, it is the timely exchange of information such as this that makes TO such a wonderful and necessary resource for railroad aficionados and historians alike.

Have any of you who keep an eye on the Central of Georgia Atlanta-Macon line (via Griffin) heard anything further about the possibility of NS (re)installing Centralized Traffic Control between East Point and Macon?

Thanks for any information.

Juniata Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Until the hump at Brosnan was closed last
> November, Inman had not served as a manifest class
> yard in many years. After the Brosnan hump closed,
> NS quietly installed retarders at Inman and began
> classifying manifest over the hump. This
> additional work has been concurrent to the
> intermodal work that has taken place at Inman for
> many years.
>
> If they can’t make Inman more fluid, it would
> not surprise me to see the hump at Brosnan
> reopened eventually. Recollect a few years ago
> they removed the retarders up at DeButts in
> Chattanooga only to reverse the decision and
> reinstall retarders a year or two later.
>
> Other large NS class yards in the South are
> located at Birmingham (Norris) and Chattanooga
> (DeButts).
>
> Posted from iPhone

Wow!  Just when you would think that railroad management could not get any more stupid, they blow ones' shorts off with something even dumber!  I guess it only goes to show that any resemblance of decent management was years ago whey NS tried to make their intermodal networks more fluid and reliable by making Inman an intermodal yard and moving the carload classification to neighboring hump yards.  Now the clowns running the show reverse this decision, and spend a bunch of money re-installing retarders, in a glorious attempt to make Inman a huge cluster f..k of a facility, which will likely impact their intermodal service badly.  Some great leadership coming out of that new glass palace of an HQ that they also spent tons of money on!

wyeth Wrote:

> Wow!  Just when you would think that railroad
> management could not get any more stupid, they
> blow ones' shorts off with something even
> dumber! 

You hit the nail on the head with that comment. With the rumors I’m seeing about future downgrades coming to the former Central of Georgia line from Columbus, GA to Birmingham, AL, I have lost hope for any intelligence coming out of Atlanta head quarters. These managers are so short sided it’s sad. They only know how to run off business and ruin the physical plant, rather grow the actual railroad.