At Least 95 Tracks Run Through This Rail Yard at the Michigan State Line
It can be a momently and passing frustration in your day if you happen to get stuck by a train while you're traveling. But what would you think if you encountered a mess of 95 train tracks? That's the situation in a rail yard just south of the Michigan State line in Elkhart, Indiana.
The image was shared to the History and Memories of Michiana Facebook group who were amazed to see the railyard from a satelite view.
There are certainly trainyards like this in Michigan and a notorious spot in the Delray neighborhood of Detroit. Multiple train lines pass through Delray Junction and can cause a car to get stuck between trains on a small stretch of Dearborn Street.
At the Elkhart site, it's non-stop activity of trains coupling and uncoupling, rerouting and moving through at all times of the day. A neighbor says:
I've heard as many as 6 trains leaving the yard one right after another and all laying on the horns at 2or3 in the morning. I guess they are mad they have to work at that time so they blow the effe out of the horns.
There's a highway that passes over the railyard - via an underpass. It's Indiana State Road 19. There are 19 sets tracks at that crossing, so it's beyond understandable that the crossings be bypassed by a bridge. The traffic there would be at a standstill throughout the day waiting on trains given the constant train traffic.
Techincially, the rail yard is Norfolk Southern's Elkhart Terminal and is the 2nd largest railyard in the Norfolk Southern system. Get really in depth wth this video:
This is not the only railroad oddity near the Michigan state line. Just south of the state in Hickville, Ohio is an optical illusion railroad crossing where a driver may be fooled with a railroad crossing overhead and at grade - you've got to see it to understand it.
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Gallery Credit: Sarah Jones