building there was converted into the first run-through servicing area when the FT road diesel arrived on the B&M during World War II. Both facilities had roundhouses and all the other ser- vices required for steam locomotives and, later, for diesels. There was a rail- road YMCA and a couple of small ho- tels for B&M crews near the east end of the yard and a bunkhouse in Willow Glen, across a foot bridge over the An- thony Kill creek from the D&H round- house near the west end. The D&H yard consisted of the smaller “Old Yard” and the larger “New Yard.” Interchange traffic was picked up on Wednesday and increased right through the weekend. Towards the end of the week, there were almost always two yard engines working, one in the middle pocket and one working at the south end of the yard. The B&M usually had two switchers working each shift. The top end job would go to the west end of the receiv- ing yard and shove an entire track over the hump to be switched, which could take two or three hours depending on the number of cars and cuts to be made in the switching. The lower end job switched their cripple tracks and also put the tracks together in the class yard and made the doubles to make up an eastbound train. Post-World War II saw an increase in
truck traffic with development of the Interstate Highway System. At the same time, traditional industry was moving out of New England to fight ris- ing costs. Railroad mergers and shift- ing traffic pattens were just some of the factors that contributed to the dramat- ic decrease in volume which caused the hump to close in 1974. Some switching and staging was still needed for locals and unusual situations but weeds took over in the late 1980s as tracks were re- moved. The B&M was sold to Guilford Transportation Industries in 1983, and brought under the same umbrella as the Maine Central and the Delaware & Hudson. There was some consideration to making Mechanicville the main clas- sification yard for the new system, but the idea was passed over in favor of re- building and expanding the yards at East Deerfield, Mass. With Mohawk Yard outside of Schenectady used for block swaps for trains coming off the old D&H, the yards at Mechanicville saw less and less work. By 1990, the yards had largely fallen silent. Damage from a tornado in 1998
sealed the property’s fate. Later that year the City of Mechanicville pur- chased a 26 acre section of the yard at the east end for a reported $100,000. There they built a new public works garage and intended to turn the re- maining area into an industrial park only to find out the area had been des- ignated a “brown field,” contaminated
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