Rail News – CSX slates Cumberland Yard infrastructure work. For Railroad Career Professionals

CSX yesterday announced an infrastructure-improvement project for its rail yard in Cumberland, Maryland.

The project is designed to reconfigure the yard to improve safety and productivity so that it can more efficiently manage increased traffic destined for the Midwest, CSX officials said in a press release.

“The Cumberland yard is critical to the CSX freight transportation network, connecting the Northeast Corridor and Midwestern territories,” said Mike Cory, CSX executive vice president and chief operating officer. “The work taking place at Cumberland will increase capacity, allowing railcars that previously couldn’t move through that yard to do so.”

Over the next few months, CSX will remove the hump and the hump tower from the yard, and place additional tracks optimized for flat switching. Those changes will enable CSX teams to assemble trains on two automated tracks while simultaneously moving other cars — all designed to reduce car handlings, double their production capacity and ensure faster and more reliable delivery of customer goods, CSX officials said.

The infrastructure work at Cumberland is slated to be completed in the fourth quarter. Additionally, CSX officials expect to undertake similar infrastructure enhancements at the Class I’s Willard, Ohio, and Hamlet, North Carolina yards.