Then and Now: Mechanicville Yard

(November 26, 1984)

There are a couple of interesting things going on in the rail yard, and despite being about 6 months out of my modeling window I still could glean useful information. The train, for instance, is five engines long and consists of three builders: EMD, EMD, Alco, GE, and I thing EMD. What is that GE engine anyway? I wonder if it was a former D&H U23-B painted in B&M blue (unlikely), or a former blue-dip D&H engine (like #2316). Was it one of the Conrail U-boats that the D&H acquired? And why is the USDOT inspection coach in the yard? Was Guilford receiving federal grant funds some project near here? Hmmmm...

(August 14, 2012)

And here is the same yard, from about the same perspective, nearly 30 years later. While the yard was at one time nearly ripped out, a new yard was reinstalled nearby as a container terminal. That being said, though, the glory years of Mechanicville Yard are long gone. Here, instead of row after row of tracks, ballast, weeds, dirt, old switch lists, and other railroad junk are instead just now fields of green. The grass grows where once hundreds of freight cars would be sorted out into new trains and engines would get serviced. But, some things still remain. Trains led by engines of mixed builders and various railroads (that don't belong in New England!) still roll through the area, and some of them still make you wonder Hmmmm.....