West Side Yard from Harding St.

NG503022

West Side Yard from Harding St.

Facilities

One of the persistent headaches which plagues the NYC and other roads with big-city terminals is the grade-crossing situation - the battle between the motorist, supported more or less consistently by public authority, and the train crews, supported in about the same manner by railroad officialdom. The problem is aggravated whenever the crossing is located at a point where continual switching must be performed, and further if the street in question is a main artery. Elimination, the only cure, is extremely expensive, whereas the cost of maintaining the status quo, barring an occasional accident, stems from bad publicity and is therefore largely impossible to assess. Indianapolis contributes its share to the NYC's headache, as witness this example, in which South Harding Street is tied up by the Westside yard job (a regular occurrence, since the ladder track begins just east of the crossing). Westside is a 17-track facility whose main functions are to handle cars for industries in the vicinity and cars interchanged with the Belt at BX. Since the number of these is considerable in both cases, Westside, though a small yard, is a very busy one. To identify the location, the nearest signal is the westward home at BX (the tower is about 150 yards behind the camera), and directly behind the bracket post in the distance is IJ tower, whose eastward home signal is on the bridge.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor

2-1/4x3-1/4 neg

Aug-56

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Yard

453

Indianapolis, IN

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