Northup Avenue Yard

It was significantly expanded by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between 1918 and 1921 and made into a hump yard.

Conrail superseded Penn Central in 1976 and sold off the yard to the Providence and Worcester Railroad in 1982.

In the early 1980s, Amtrak established facilities at the yard to support its maintenance of way operations along the Northeast Corridor.

The general design of the yard was influenced by the long and narrow parcel of land the New Haven owned in Providence and Pawtucket, with 900 feet (270 m) of width available as opposed to 2 miles (3.2 km) of length.

The original alignment of these tracks passed through the central portion of what was to be Northup Avenue Yard.

Were it not built, the New Haven would instead have expanded six existing yards in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.

[8][9] Upon the opening of the retarders and other improvements for service, Providence newspaper The Evening Tribune described Northup Avenue Yard as "the finest in the New Haven system".

[15] Amtrak built a spray wash building at this site in 2006 to clean maintenance of way and work vehicles.

A rail yard is seen from a bridge. A group of tracks contain various rail maintenance equipment, such as a catenary maintenance vehicle and a train of hoppers loaded with track ballast.
Amtrak equipment at Northup Avenue Yard
A view of a rail yard adjacent to mainline tracks. A steam locomotive pulls a passenger train on the main line heading towards the photographer, while in the yard tracks another locomotive is seen switching cars. Several other yard tracks are occupied with freight cars. Telltales are visible in the foreground above the tracks.
Trains at Northup Avenue Yard circa 1913
A map of a railroad yard. The yard is arranged in a north to south orientation, with main line tracks travelling through the yard, and includes receiving, classification, and departure yards. A hump is located near the center of the yard.
A map of Northup Avenue Yard, as built in 1920. "M.V." is the Moshassuck Valley Railroad
The yard's hump in 1948
An aerial view of a rail yard, in which a number of freight train cars are visible, predominantly boxcars. A road bridge crosses over the rail yard and connects to a highway in the background.
Northup Avenue Yard, circa 1970
Some of Amtrak's facilities are visible on the left, along with MBTA's layover facility on the right.