Cars roll off the hump into the bowl, a fan of dozens of parallel tracks that each collect cars for one outbound block or destination. The tracks sit well below the crest, so cars roll in on gravity alone, slowed by retarders on the way. Trim jobs then pull the finished tracks out of the bowl and couple them into outbound trains in the departure yard.
Bowl's plugged, half the tracks are full, so the hump's going to sit until the trim jobs pull some of it.
Also heard as
- class tracks
- classification bowl
Related terms
Hump yard
A classification yard where cars are pushed over a small hill and roll by gravity into sorting tracks.
Block
A group of cars bound for the same destination, kept together so they can be handled as one unit.
Pull the pin
To uncouple cars by lifting the coupler's pin with the cut lever; also, to retire from the railroad.
Goat
A yard switch engine, the locomotive that spends its life sorting cars around a terminal.