Enola Hump 1993

It's been nearly 2 decades since Conrail closed the original Westbound Hump at Enola Yard near Harrisburg, PA This video was taken in the final days of hump operation and illustrates the attention and skill required from the retarder operators who sometimes had to work two different sets of retarders using both hands at the same time, while also making sure the cars didn't run into each other and also giving them the right speed to reach the coupling point. Also shown are the venerable U23C's which were purchased by PC for this duty and were living on borrowed time at the time of the video. NS has reopened this hump but it is all computerized.

[@lehighvalley23]

Definitely a neat video... Its amazing seeing how much Enola has changed over the years...

[@johnverser1050]

The BEST 18 minutes of my day, A Great filf thank you John Verser

[@fmnut]

I reviewed the raw video. The single car that was stopped was headed for a different track than the cut that came after it. The single car was going too fast for the track it was lined for and the retarder operator over retarded it (I think accidentally) and it came to a stop. If he had let the following cars couple to it, they would have gone down the wrong track with it. So he let them hit really hard so they didn't couple, knocked the single car out at approximately the right speed, then held the trailing cut until the single car rolled clear of the switch and then lined it for the cut of cars and released them. Unfortunately I edited this a bit too hard to keep the clips short and cut out a bit of the action.

[@Narainseshadri1947]

Oh Boy what a job! Calls for immense concentration. Must be quite fatiguing

[@oddjobz9858]

Lost art of a skilled tower operator

[@diggergrandad2654]

What a tremendous amount of freight got classified there. I was up there in the late 60's

[@TouchoftheBrushModelWeathering]

Excellent video- I haven't made it to Enola yet but ever since I moved to Nashville I am able to witness hump action in person every day now- very cool to war h but not like especially with my favorite railroad Conrail- excellent vid keep it up!

[@jschmid]

This was just an awesome incredibly action-packed video, there's always something going on.

[@curraheewolf]

I can't even imagine what hearing they lost doing that. Going to bed and trying to fall asleep and then SQUEEEEEEEEAL!!!!!! Going thru their heads day and night. Wow!

[@charlesstevenson5141]

Ear plugs and ear muffs are both required within a certain distance of the retarders.

[@blakemcnamara9105]

There are people who live in apartments directly adjacent to elevated tracks in New York and Chicago and they sleep fine.

[@mattzinicola7460]

Thanks so much for sharing. I lived less than a mile away from this. Believe it or not, I used to fall asleep to those screeches every night (from age 2 to 18)... The U23C's used to make a very distinct sound when pulling cars up. You captured that in your video as well!

[@KatoOnTheTrack1]

You had a great childhood then…

[@davebolyard6808]

Hi I enjoyed this video thanks for posting Dave in Oregon

[@TestTubeBabySpy]

honestly when i saw enola hump, i had something completely different in mind, but this is cool too, 90s were cool because the railroads were bringing in the new but still had a lot of old equipment.

[@RustBeltRailroad]

AMAZING footage! Thanks for sharing this!

[@sd90mac8]

SPECTACULAR FOOTAGE, JUS AMAZING!!! MORE PLEASE ✌️👍!!!

[@chrisbarr1359]

In 1956 the Enola Yard was the largest freight yard in the world!

[@mom_im_losing_it]

Hopped out of this yard many of times.

[@stevenmichael2845]

5:14 BOOM!

[@777fuzzypeach]

+Steven Michael Claim invited...

[@25mfd]

and the pin STILL didn't drop lol

[@TheIronweed-vx5lg]

They are starting to regret shutting it down. NS is running out of space there.

[@Little-Oshawott-2010]

What the hell is that thing with two axles from 2:24-2:40?

[@Little-Oshawott-2010]

Sorry for the swearing.

[@fmnut]

It's an EMD Blomberg truck with a battery pack on top. Equipped with remote control and used as a shop switcher at Enola Diesel.

[@ButThatsShacksTrain]

Thats the yard "bug"

[@eltoro6688]

Never have seen a car get stopped in the retarder like that lite hopper.

[@derail14]

lots of guys developed hearing problem from all that squealing noise.

[@scdevon]

It seems like they should use flange greasers in a yard like that to keep the wear and noise down.

[@veilenedream5825]

i found this video while searching my own name on youtube but i'm also a railfan. hey nice!

[@rdgk1se3019]

That tower guy......is he just operating the retarders?.....or is he also throwing track switches?

[@fmnut]

He's just working the retarders. The switches were controlled from the main hump tower. He has a copy of the cut list, and the speaker in the background is announcing what track the next cut is lined for. Based on how full that track is, it's his job to judge how much speed the cut needs to roll to a safe coupling without falling short or hitting too hard. Computers do this job today.

[@derail14]

as a rule the switches operate in the automatic mode while the cars are being humped but the retarder operator will throw the switched manual when the trimmer engine has to move about to other tracks.

[@stanwilson7566]

I like this video

[@dylanruppert4547]

wuts tht thing at 2:38?

[@SteamCrane]

Battery powered locomotive, enough power to move a dead loco slowly. Collinwood had one too.

[@maxm2317]

5:14 KABOOM!

[@tommyrail67]

nice.

[@grandcrappy]

Before it got to be the fukin "ruleroad".

[@carlosphillips8447]

I saw a 3cut bad boy

[@dwayneday1587]

Design an lay out of the yardleyville pa hump yard a 2.5 million yard for Conrail consolidated route shipping

[@fmnut]

HUH??? Where is Yardleyville PA?

[@dwayneday1587]

@@fmnut next to New York on the boarder of pa an new york

[@baronbehning4021]

Hardly any graffiti yet. Even the older cars look good compared to the vandalized cars of today.

[@tiffanypheasant3085]

sons a bitches

[@mom_im_losing_it]

It’s art not vandalism.

[@user-bg6kq8ke8u]

in Russia it is the same

[@billstill1794]

I and a friend actually rode the hump in an open boxcar there back in the early 70's one night! There was quite a bump when the cars hit/attached to the other waiting cars.

[@CRQ5508]

Great video for sure. It's nice to see videos of the U23Cs again. Supposedly a few still run down in Mexico or South America, though I'm not sure where.

[@moparmadman2544]

Love the chug of those U-Boats!

[@tropicalties3806]

It Is my understanding Conrail was trying to shut down Enola in the 90s. But NS gave it a rebirth after the split? In this video it looks like the yard is dead.

[@RC67010]

Like how this shows the tower operator and all he has to do to make this work.

[@chuckysmith9960]

Wow I really like this video, I really do miss Conrail wish they was still around, I'm tried of seeing black engines ns needs to go

[@johnverser1050]

This is a great film, Back when I was a kid, A friend and I would watch them HUMP cars at the Chrysler Plant in Fenton,Mo. They had guys that would ride the cars for a short and then slow the cars down with the brakes buy letting the air out.

[@SteamCrane]

They were probably kicking the cars, the engine gets the cut rolling, and the switchman pulls the pin, then the engine slows down or stops the rest of the cut. ALCOs were best at this, since they had instant throttle response, and the generator loaded up fast.

[@Patrick-pl8wv]

That was so cool thank you.

[@royscreen61]

Great work,thanks for sharing

[@nicolesmith7963]

=

[@b17bass59]

My father was a dispatcher there, I remember that yard very well.

[@jonadams5547]

NS did not do this yard any services

[@MetroVick]

Great bit of video fmnut

[@kaibrown6204]

6904 up rehaul an paint

[@eugeeropel5572]

Excellent, Excellent video, especially the multiple hopper cars at 5:10 going through the retarder. Question, is this hump yard still in operation to this day and this area is in the vicinity of Harrisburg, right. Thank you for sharing.

[@fmnut]

Yes and yes. Enola is on the west side of the river across from and a bit north of Harrisburg. The hump system you see here was dismantled and later replaced by NS.

[@littlewazz]

how does the brake work?, how are the cars classified?, by destination?, weight, type?

[@fmnut]

It squeezes the wheels from both sides.