The Winnipeg Yards are probably no longer the world's largest, but at 191 acres there aren't many that are bigger.

The growth of downtown Winnipeg late in the 19th century quickly put an end to any thoughts of expansion CP Rail may have had, but the volume of traffic that moves through it has continued to climb.

Under Control:  Al Leite, a car retarder operator, operates an electronic switching control panel at Winnipeg Yard's north hump. Some 1,500 cars are humped at the yard each day.

"Right now we're humping about 1,500 cars on the average day," said General Yardmaster Bob Geoffrey. "As for cars going through, the terminal is close to 2,100 or 2,200 cars a day on average. That's including the main line grain cars and cars that are marshalled."

The Winnipeg Yard is unique in that there are two separate hump operations. The North Hump classifies trains arriving from the East and South and the South Hump handles trains from the West and North. All traffic originating in Vancouver for Toronto and Montreal as well as that traffic moving in the reverse direction must funnel through Winnipeg.

In addition, Winnipeg is the hub of eight sub-divisions.

The westbound fast freight trains are often completely disassembled and re-marshalled at Winnipeg, with an eye to blocking groups of cars so they can be set off at various destinations across the West.

There is plenty for Mr. Geoffrey and his supervisory staff to do in the Winnipeg Yard with its two auxiliary industrial areas, South Side, and St. Boniface, which serve various industrial areas including Transcona and the rail yard.

Ensuring All is Right:  Greg Repa uncouples a car being marshalled at the north hump at Winnipeg.

NO IDLE MOMENTS

With fifty to sixty yard assignments depending on volume of traffic, these supervisors do not have many idle moments.

"While there is a requirement for increased capacity in the main yard, you are restricted by the area in which the yard is located. So you depend on the people that are working for you to find new ways to do things," said Mr. Geoffrey. "The challenge of finding ways to make further improvements always remains."

"I like to think we have made some improvements in efficiency here in the last few years," said Mr. Geoffrey, "We have made some changes to increase run-through capacity. Also, with the use of more crossovers we are increasing our flexibility."

Efficiency and capacity on the humps have also been by the new higher horsepower hump engines now assigned to Winnipeg.

This CP Rail News article is copyright 1983 by the Canadian Pacific Railway and is reprinted here with their permission. All photographs, logos, and trademarks are the property of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company.