Chuck Hatler comments:
<<I did note that the tail track ended. You could not access the hump from
the east. You could only pull a string of cars out of the yard, up the
hump, and then start pushing back. That was a time-consuming move, but
somebody figured out that was the right move at that time for Gavin.>>
Chuck,
This is incorrect.
Paraphasing information in GNRHS Reference Sheet # 191, available from GNRHS
at GNRHS.org, and originally published in conjunction with the September
1992 issue of the GN Goat:
Incoming freights, both east and westbound arrived in the receiving yard on
the south side of the yard. After the cuts were walked for inspection, they
were pulled by the hump engines west through a track referred to as the pull
back track that ran from the west end of the receiving yard to either of the
two hump tracks, at a point quite a ways west of the hump proper. From there
the cuts were push east up and over the hump. The hold yard for grain,
lumber, etc. was on the north side of the yard and there was also a link
from those tracks to west of the hump via a throughfare track.
Additionally, there were two hump bypass tracks, one on either side of the
hump allowing cars not to be humped to be cut out of the string being worked
and moved to the bowl tracks without going over the hump. There was one
exception to this process - after processing a cut, the hump engine would go
over the hump and pull the cut(s) of cars needed weighing back over the hump
and the scales, and then hump them a second time to properly class them.
*****
The reference sheet also discusses the reasons GN built Gavin in the first
place including:
* Location - for eastbound freight, Minot is the last location on the line
before it splits and heads in two directions - east to the head of the lakes
(Duluth, Superior) and southeast (to the twin cities). Consider grain, some
of which went direct to the mills in MSP, with the rest going to Superior to
be trans-loaded to shipw/lake boats.
* Best location to sort organize empty boxes - primarily between those used
for grain on the plains and lumber farther west.
* Blocking of cars for delivery to connecting roads east of Minot.
* Real estate - available and inexpensive - remember Strauss's comments in
GN pictorial that GN was space constrained at Union Yard in Minneapolis.
Gavin was built on newly acquired land - upgrading Union would have had
further negative impact on service during any reconstruction that might have
taken place there.
* Westbound freight - traffic for Minot and beyond didn't have to be classed
by destination before leaving the Twin Cities. All the Minot and beyond
traffic could dumped in a single block to be further classed at Minot. This
helped significantly in keeping Union Yard in Minneapolis fluid and
functioning.
*****
The reference also discusses the reasons, post merger, for Gavin's decline:
* Changes in the grain trade. When Gavin was built, the dividing point
between westbound and eastbound grain shipments was around Shelby, Mt. By
the mid 80's it had moved to a point just west of Williston, ND. In
addition, was the change in the grain trade from separately billed 40' box
cars to covered hoppers in multi-car or unit grain train shipments.
* The merger resulted in the need to expand Northtown, in order to deal with
the large number of _BN_ lines that came together in the Twin Cities as a
result of the merger. The Northtown facility _did_ provide hump
classification, reducing the need for the Gavin hump, but the bigger impact
was the evolution of the business - higher and higher percentages of the
total business was in unit coal and grain trains, along with intermodal -
drastically reducing the amount of class work necessary to the point that
the hump was no longer needed and was removed.
* The death of LCL service. LCL shipments were transloaded in Minot. With
its demise, the facility was no longer needed. Again fewer cars to class at
that point.
The two authors of the reference sheet are Robert Downing, who was directly
involved in the business and logistics analysis prior to the construction,
who eventually retired as vice chairman and Chief Operating Officer of BN in
1976, and Chuck Intlekofer who retired from BN in 1980 as Director of
Engineering, Seattle Region, BN, in 1980.
While the two gentlemen who conveyed their opinions to Bill (the comments
that initiated this conversation) are entitled to those opinions, it is
pretty obvious that the GN's plan for Gavin was well conceived and the
officers and management of GN considered it a success while it operated
under the conditions it was designed to serve.
Best regards,
Steve Haas
Snoqualmie, WA
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